Maximize Salesforce ROI: How to Use Platform Licenses for Cost Savings

Salesforce is expensive. That’s no surprise. But what is surprising is how rarely organizations evaluate their license strategy. Many users are assigned licenses with far more features than they actually need, leading to organizations paying more than necessary.

The reason? Salesforce doesn’t yet provide a native license utilization tool. Salesforce owners haven’t been equipped with the information they need to make informed license decisions.

In this article, we’ll show you how switching users from Enterprise licenses to Salesforce Platform licenses can significantly reduce your costs without sacrificing functionality. We’ll also introduce Era, a newly released AppExchange product, to identify which users are eligible.

While the concepts and tools in this blog apply to a variety of license decisions, to demonstrate the potential, we’ll focus on the opportunity presented by moving a user from Enterprise to Platform licenses. 

A Quick Look at the Numbers

Let’s say you’re managing a Salesforce org with 100 users. If 25% of the users in this org are currently on Enterprise licenses at $165/user/month, those user licenses cost $49,500/year ($165 x 25 users x 12 Months). Moving those 25 users to Platform licenses at $25/User/Month reduces the cost of those users to $7,500/yr ($25 x 25 users x 12 Months).

That’s a savings of $42,000, or about 20%, by simply changing the License Type Assigned to a handful of users.

What Is a Platform License?

So what exactly are you giving up? Platform licenses give users access to the same Salesforce core infrastructure, with a few specific exclusions. This means that if a user isn’t utilizing one of the excluded features, that user can be switched from Enterprise (or Unlimited) to Platform without any impact on their experience.

Even better, orgs can have a mix of Platform, Enterprise, and Unlimited Licensed users. You can switch some of your users to Platform while keeping those who need access to excluded features on their current licenses.

Who Is Eligible?

Let’s talk about eligibility. The first major exclusion to consider is that Platform users don’t have any CRUD access to Leads, Opportunities, Cases, and Campaigns. Accessing these Standard Objects requires a non-Platform license. This means you can rest easy knowing that licenses for users who need these features are already allocated appropriately.

Beyond that, the remaining exclusions are generally less widely relevant. Features like Entitlements, Orders, and Price Books are not available to Platform users. However, core features like Activities, Custom Objects, Reports, and Dashboards are, and they work the exact same way for a Platform User as they do for Enterprise users.

To be clear, this article isn’t intended to provide a comprehensive license comparison; carefully reviewing Salesforce’s documentation is essential before making any decisions. 

However, you can begin to draw a circle around the short list of features that are not available to Platform users and ask, “Does this user need what’s inside the circle?”. If not, they may be a candidate for a Platform license.

A New License Utilization Tool

Now that we’ve established a framework for evaluating license eligibility, the next challenge is identifying the right users to transition. This starts with gaining a comprehensive understanding of what Objects users are accessing. 

That’s where Era comes in. I’m so excited to announce the launch of Era, our new AppExchange app. It solves this exact problem – among others – by capturing every user’s access to every record and tracking how long they spend on each of those records. 

Built natively on Salesforce, Era runs entirely in the background (no User training required!), on any object, and won’t push you past your data storage limits. In addition to license auditing, Era helps customers identify process bottlenecks, analyze employee performance, and gain new insights into how Salesforce is actually being used.

Interested in seeing it in action? I’d love to show you how this works. Click here to access my Calendly and schedule a time.

Steps to Switch a User to a Platform License

Once you’ve identified eligible users, making the switch is straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Purchase Salesforce Platform licenses.
2. If users are currently using a Standard App, create a Custom App for them to use instead.
3. Create a Profile with License = Salesforce Platform.
4. If users need to use a Console App:
   • Purchase the “Lightning Console” permission set license ($25/user/month)
   • Create a custom Permission Set with:
     • License = Lightning Console
     • System Permissions → “Lightning Console User” permission enabled
5. Update user licenses to Salesforce Platform and assign the new Profile (yes, you can edit the existing user!).
6. Assign the Lightning Console Permission Set if needed.

Switching is straightforward — and immediately starts saving you money.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for a simple, high-impact way to reduce Salesforce costs, evaluating and optimizing your license strategy is a smart first step. 

Using Era, you can quickly and easily identify which users should switch to Salesforce Platform licenses, saving thousands of dollars each year without disrupting your operations. 

Schedule your Era demo today!

FAQs about Salesforce Platform Licenses 

What is a Salesforce Platform license? 

A Salesforce Platform license gives Users access to core Salesforce infrastructure, custom apps, and custom objects, but excludes some standard objects like Leads, Opportunities, Cases, and Campaigns. 

How much does a Salesforce Platform license cost? 

Salesforce Platform licenses retail price is $25/user/month, significantly less than Enterprise licenses, which are listed for $165/user/month. 

What is the difference between Salesforce Enterprise and Salesforce Platform license? 

The Salesforce Enterprise license offers full CRM functionality, including Leads, Opportunities, Cases, and Campaigns. The Salesforce Platform license offers access to Accounts, Contacts, custom apps, reports, etc. 

Can you mix Salesforce Platform and Enterprise licenses? 

Yes! Organizations can mix different license types, assigning Platform licenses to Users who don’t need full CRM features while keeping Enterprise licenses for those who do.