June 23, 2023

Salesforce Professional Edition vs. Enterprise – What’s the Difference?

In Salesforce
By Mikael Petersson
Discover the difference between Salesforce Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition, including a comprehensive feature comparison, insights into their suitability for businesses, and key budget considerations, to help you choose the ideal CRM solution.
What is Professional Salesforce Edition?
The Salesforce Professional Edition is a complete CRM solution catering to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) needs. It provides a comprehensive suite of features that enables businesses to manage and track customer interactions effectively. It's an excellent option for companies seeking a powerful yet straightforward CRM tool that requires minimal customization.
What is Enterprise Salesforce Edition?
The Salesforce Enterprise Edition, on the other hand, is a more robust and customizable CRM solution suitable for larger businesses with complex requirements. It offers advanced features like workflow automation, improved reporting functionality, and the ability to integrate with other enterprise-level applications.
Some Salesforce Features Found in Both Editions

Both the Salesforce Professional and Enterprise plans offer access to Salesforce's comprehensive CRM solution. With either plan, you can enjoy the following features:

  1. Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, and Case Management: Effectively manage and organize your customer data, interactions, and sales processes.
  2. Email Integration with Gmail or Outlook: Seamlessly connect your email account to Salesforce, enabling you to track and manage communications within the CRM platform.
  3. Salesforce Mobile App: Access Salesforce on the go using the mobile app, allowing you to stay connected and productive from anywhere.
  4. Lead Registration and Rules-based Lead Scoring: Capture and track leads, and utilize automated rules to assign scores based on predefined criteria, prioritizing your sales efforts.
  5. Forecasting Mobile App: Utilize the mobile app to forecast sales, helping you plan and make informed decisions about future opportunities.
  6. Contracts, Sales Orders, Quotes, Products, and Price Books: Streamline your sales processes by creating and managing contracts, orders, quotes, and product catalogs within Salesforce.
  7. Unlimited Custom Applications: Tailor Salesforce to your unique business needs by building and deploying custom applications.
  8. Lightning Sync: Sync contacts and calendar events between Salesforce and Microsoft Exchange-connected devices using Lightning Sync, ensuring your data is always up to date.
  9. Collaborative Forecasting: Gain a comprehensive view of your sales pipeline and overall business performance by leveraging collaborative forecasting features.
  10. Developer Sandbox: Create and test applications in a dedicated environment called the Developer Sandbox, allowing you to experiment and innovate without impacting your live Salesforce setup.

Both the Professional and Enterprise plans offer rich features to support your CRM needs, empowering you to enhance sales processes, streamline operations, and improve customer interactions.

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Salesforce Features Found only in Enterprise Edition

The Salesforce Enterprise Edition sets itself apart with several advanced features not found in the Professional Edition:

  1. Workflow and Approval Automation: In the Salesforce Enterprise edition, you can automate workflows and approvals, simplifying repetitive business processes. You can create unlimited flows and process builders to maintain data integrity and properly manage records. However, the Professional edition limits you to five processes and five flows per organization, with no workflow or approval automation access.
  2. Enhanced Reporting Functionality: The Enterprise Edition provides more robust reporting tools than the Professional Edition. The Enterprise plan offers advanced reporting features like cross filters, joined reports, bucketing, and history tracking. These features are crucial for analyzing business data effectively. Unfortunately, these capabilities are not available in the Professional edition.
  3. Testing Capabilities: With the Enterprise Edition, users can access sandbox environments. These environments serve as dedicated spaces for testing and experimenting with changes, new features, or customizations before implementing them in the live Salesforce environment. Testing in a sandbox environment reduces the risk of disruptions or errors in the production environment. In the Professional edition, there are no partial or full sandboxes for testing. However, the Enterprise edition includes one partial sandbox and offers the option to purchase a full sandbox for comprehensive testing.
  4. Roles, Profiles, Permissions, and Record Types: The Enterprise Edition offers enhanced control over user access and permissions. Users can define specific roles, profiles, and record types to determine who can view, edit, or delete certain data. The Professional plan allows two profiles, two roles, and three record types per organization for managing user permissions, data access, and customization. In contrast, the Enterprise plan provides unlimited profiles, roles, permissions, and record types, offering greater flexibility and control.
  5. Integrations and Web Services API: The Enterprise Edition provides seamless integration capabilities with other enterprise-level applications. Salesforce enables integration with other systems through APIs. The Enterprise plan includes this functionality, while the Professional plan requires an additional $25 per user, per month to access it. Jotform seamlessly integrates with both plans, allowing you to sync leads captured from Jotform's forms directly into Salesforce, accelerating your lead capture and sales processes.

The Salesforce Enterprise Edition provides advanced features like workflow automation, enhanced reporting, testing capabilities, refined user access controls, and seamless integrations. These features help businesses improve workflows, gain insights from data, reduce risks through testing, enhance data security, and integrate efficiently with other enterprise systems.

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Costing Difference: Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition

While both editions offer robust features, the Enterprise Edition comes at a higher cost due to its advanced capabilities and customization potential. On the other hand, the Professional Edition, although less feature-rich, is more affordable and may suffice for SMBs with straightforward CRM needs.

Professional Edition: 

Preferred by: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Professional Edition Cost: $75 USD Per User, Per Month

The Professional Edition is tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises that require comprehensive CRM functionality to manage their business operations effectively. With the Professional Edition, businesses can easily handle their entire sales cycle using Salesforce's robust features and tools.

Enterprise Edition:

Preferred by: Large and Complex Businesses

Enterprise Edition Cost: $150 USD Per User, Per Month

Apart from the features available in the Professional Edition, the Enterprise Edition caters specifically to large businesses, offering advanced tools for automating complex business processes through workflow and approvals. It provides robust customization and management capabilities, making it suitable for large-scale deployments. Additionally, the Enterprise Edition includes access to Salesforce APIs, enabling seamless integration with back-office systems for streamlined operations.

Types of Business Suitable for Professional Edition Vs. Enterprise Edition
As a rule of thumb, the Professional Edition is more suited to SMBs due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. Meanwhile, larger and more complex businesses may find more value in the Enterprise Edition, given its advanced features and a high degree of customization.
Key Factors to consider when choosing between Professional and Enterprise Licenses

When deciding between Salesforce Professional and Enterprise Editions, several factors need to be considered:

  • Business Size and Complexity: Larger organizations with more complex needs may benefit from the advanced features offered by the Enterprise Edition.
  • Features and Functionality: Review the specific features your business requires. The Enterprise Edition might be more suitable if advanced functionality like workflow automation or sophisticated reporting is required.
  • Data and User Limits: Consider the number of users and the data your organization needs to handle. Enterprise Edition generally offers more flexibility in these aspects.
  • Customization and Configuration: The Enterprise Edition’s robust customization options might be a better fit if your business requires high customization.
  • Collaboration and Integration: The Enterprise Edition's superior integration capabilities could be crucial if your business relies on various applications that must work together seamlessly.
  • Reporting and Analytics: If your business requires complex data analysis, consider the enhanced reporting capabilities of the Enterprise Edition.
  • Budget and ROI: Consider the costs of each edition against the potential return on investment. While Enterprise is more expensive, it might provide greater ROI for some businesses.
  • Scalability and Growth: For businesses anticipating rapid growth or increased complexity, the scalable nature of the Enterprise Edition may offer long-term benefits.
  • Support and Resources: Consider the level of support and resources your organization requires. The Enterprise Edition typically offers more comprehensive support.
  • Industry-Specific Requirements: Some industries may have specific needs that are better met by one edition over the other. Evaluate the requirements unique to your industry when making a decision.
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Salesforce Professional Edition vs. Enterprise Edition

When selecting between Salesforce Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition, it's important to consider the needs and goals of your business. Let's compare the differences between PE (Professional Edition) and EE (Enterprise Edition) of Salesforce:

Professional Salesforce Edition:
  • Access to 5 Process Builder processes.
  • No access to APEX development.
  • No access to API.
  • No access to partial Sandbox for testing.
  • Maximum of 2 Custom Profiles.
  • Maximum of 10 Permission Sets.
  • Maximum of 3 Record Types per object.
Enterprise Salesforce Edition:
  • Full access to Advanced Workflow Automation.
  • Web-API add-on available (only for API).
  • Access to 1 Partial Sandbox for testing.
  • Maximum of 1,500 Custom Profiles.
  • Maximum of 10,000 Permission Sets.

The Professional Edition has limitations on processes, APEX development, API access, and testing capabilities. It also restricts the number of custom profiles, permission sets, and record types. On the other hand, the Enterprise Edition provides advanced workflow automation, API access with the web-API add-on, a partial sandbox for testing, and higher limits on custom profiles and permission sets.

Selecting the right Salesforce edition depends on your business's requirements, complexity, budget, and growth plans. Evaluating these factors will help you determine whether the Professional Edition or the more advanced features of the Enterprise Edition are the best fit for your business.

How eClouds Experts Can Help?

When choosing between Salesforce Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition, you must evaluate your business needs, consider the required features and customization options, and factor in your budget and long-term growth plans.

At eClouds, we understand that every business is unique. Our team of experts is ready to help you analyze your specific needs and guide you in choosing the most suitable Salesforce Edition. Whether you need a simple CRM solution or a complex, integrated system, eClouds is here to make your Salesforce journey seamless.

With over 16 years of experience and a team of certified professionals, ecloudstrans.wpenginepowered.com has a proven track record in Salesforce implementation. The glowing reviews and high customer satisfaction ratings testify to our dedicated, professional services.

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Mikael Petersson

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