Salesforce renamed Communities to Experience Cloud. Four license types, two pricing models, and a login math that catches the careless. The buyer side guide for 2026 renewals.
Salesforce renamed Communities to Experience Cloud in 2021. The licensing model continued with four customer license types and two partner license types. The buyer side trap sits in the login math. Login licenses charge per login event. Member licenses charge per active user.
The four customer license types are Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, External Apps, and Channel Account. Each carries a login model and a member model. The choice between login and member often delivers ten to thirty percent savings against the default proposal.
Read this alongside the Salesforce licensing guide, the Salesforce knowledge hub, the Salesforce advisory practice, and the Vendor Shield subscription.
Salesforce sells four customer license types under Experience Cloud. Each carries different feature inclusions, sharing rule access, and data object access.
| License type | Best fit | Sharing rules | Case data access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Community | Self service portal, public knowledge | Limited | Read only on own cases |
| Customer Community Plus | B2B partner portal, role based access | Full | Full case access |
| External Apps | Custom application, non CRM use case | Full | Custom object focus |
| Channel Account | Reseller and distribution channel | Channel hierarchy | Account hierarchy |
Salesforce sells each license type in two pricing models. The login model charges per login event. The member model charges per active named user. The break point sits around three logins per user per month.
| License type | Login price | Member price | Break even logins per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Community | $5 per login | $2 per member | 0.4 logins (member always cheaper) |
| Customer Community Plus | $15 per login | $15 per member | 1.0 login |
| External Apps | $25 per login | $25 per member | 1.0 login |
| Channel Account | $35 per login | $35 per member | 1.0 login |
The default Salesforce proposal usually quotes the member model on every license type. The buyer side response is to model the actual login pattern per use case. Self service portals and annual renewal portals usually move to the login model and save ten to thirty percent against the default member quote.
Salesforce list pricing on Experience Cloud licenses ranges from $2 per member per month on Customer Community to $35 per member per month on Channel Account. Discount bands stack with annual spend.
| Annual Experience Cloud spend | Typical discount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Under $100K | 10 to 15 percent | Standard tier |
| $100K to $500K | 20 to 30 percent | Mid market band |
| $500K to $2M | 30 to 40 percent | Strategic accounts |
| Over $2M | 40 to 50 percent | Anchor in MSA negotiation |
The buyer side audit usually finds five common over license patterns on Experience Cloud estates. Each represents a five to fifteen percent saving on the renewal.
The buyer side has seven specific levers on a Salesforce Experience Cloud renewal. Each maps to one cost line or one risk line.
| Lever | Cost line | Typical saving | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Login to member conversion | License model | 10 to 30 percent | Medium |
| Member to login conversion | License model | 10 to 30 percent | Medium |
| Tier downgrade Plus to Community | License type | 50 to 70 percent | High |
| Inactive user strip | License count | 5 to 15 percent | Low |
| Cap the annual escalator | Annual increase | 2 to 4 percent per year | Low |
| True down clause | License count flex | Variable | Medium |
| Multi year tier discount stacking | Discount band | 3 to 6 percent | Low |
The Salesforce Community license catalog rewards the customer that audits its own usage. The login model versus member model split often delivers a quarter of the renewal saving on its own. The buyer side response is the annual usage audit before every renewal.
The eight step checklist is the buyer side starting position on every Salesforce Experience Cloud renewal.
Salesforce renamed Communities to Experience Cloud in 2021. The licensing model continued unchanged. The four customer license types and two partner license types are the same. The login model and member model pricing structure is also the same. The new platform features such as Lightning Web Runtime sit on top.
The login model is cheaper when a user logs in fewer than the break even logins per month. On Customer Community Plus, External Apps, and Channel Account the break even sits at one login per month. On Customer Community the member model is always cheaper at two dollars per member per month against five dollars per login.
Customer Community Plus adds full sharing rules, roles, and case create permissions. Customer Community offers self service portal features and read only case access. Plus costs around three times the Customer Community price per member per month. The choice depends on whether role based sharing is needed.
Yes. Salesforce allows the customer to mix login and member licenses on the same Experience Cloud site. The buyer side response is to model the actual login pattern per user group and apply the cheaper model to each group. Self service users go on login. Daily portal users go on member.
Salesforce true ups Community licenses at the contract anniversary, not monthly or quarterly. The customer can flex up during the term and is true upped at renewal. Login licenses are also true upped at the anniversary based on actual login throughput in the term.
Redress runs the Salesforce Experience Cloud engagement inside the Vendor Shield subscription, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment. The work covers the login pattern audit, the license type rightsizing, the discount stack rebuild, and the renewal lever pursuit. Always buyer side, never Salesforce paid.
Redress runs the engagement inside the Vendor Shield subscription, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment. Every engagement is led by a former Salesforce commercial executive on the buyer side.
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A buyer side reference on Salesforce renewal in 2026. The Sales Cloud and Service Cloud rightsizing math, the Experience Cloud login model choice, the Data Cloud commit posture, and the renewal lever set.
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Open the Paper →The Salesforce Community license catalog rewards the customer that audits its own usage. The login model versus member model split often delivers a quarter of the renewal saving on its own. The buyer side response is the annual usage audit before every renewal.
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