Salesforce Portals and Salesforce Communities

Salesforce Portals and Communities help external users (customers and partners) to access relevant Salesforce data, collaborate, and engage with business processes securely. Using these portals, they can connect with the correct information and the right people at the right moments. They also provide insights on updates and development. However, communities in Salesforce have replaced Salesforce portals. 

Types of Portals in Salesforce

Salesforce Portals are a thing of the past. They are not available for new organizations. When they were available, there were different types of portals in Salesforce for organizations like:

1. Customer Portal Salesforce: It allows customers to manage their cases, view solutions and community-contributed content (questions, answers, ideas), and access data within custom objects.
2. Partner Portal Salesforce: The critical difference between the customer portal and the partner portal is that partner users can access leads and opportunities. It allows your organization and its partners to collaborate on your organization’s sales pipeline. Partners can also manage cases, view solutions/knowledge, contribute to communities (questions, answers, ideas), and access data within custom objects.
3. Self-Service Portal Salesforce: It allows customers to manage cases and view solutions or Salesforce knowledge.

Communities in Salesforce

Salesforce Communities replace these portals. Portals enabled external users (partners, customers, etc.) to access Salesforce. In contrast, Communities are aimed at connecting the right people, whether internal users, partners, or customers within Salesforce.

The structure of the features is similar, but there are several differences as well:

1. External users (partners/customers) can communicate via Chatter in Communities. Portals do not support Chatter.
2. The standard Communities user interface is very close to that of a regular internal Salesforce user. The out-of-the-box portal user interface looks dated.
3. The licensing model for each is similar; however, Communities in Salesforce may have a slightly higher fee.

NOTE: In 2021, the Communities were rebranded as Experience Cloud Salesforce, while maintaining the same functions across all official documentation. Communities has been rebranded as Experience Cloud. 

There are various examples of Communities and portals, like:

A company can showcase its products on portals or create customer communities for different customer types, such as VIP or wholesale customers, with varying levels of access and functionality. They can also integrate it with multiple support channels, such as email and chat, within communities for a seamless customer experience.

A company can create a community where its existing customers can leave reviews, ask questions, and connect with other customers.