Salesforce Identity
Capability scores
Methodology →- Authentication
- 4.5
- SSO & Federation
- 4.0
- Authorization
- 3.5
- Lifecycle & Provisioning
- 3.5
- MFA & Passwordless
- 4.0
- Governance & Audit
- 3.5
- Developer Experience
- 3.5
- Deployment Flexibility
- 3.0
- Pricing Transparency
- 3.5
- Support & Ecosystem
- 3.5
Scored 0–5 against a published rubric. Independent analysis, no vendor sponsorship.
Overview
Salesforce Identity is the identity layer of the Salesforce platform, providing SSO, customer, and partner identity tied to CRM data and Experience Cloud portals. It is an enterprise CIAM offering only in the sense that it extends identity to the customers and partners who interact with Salesforce-built experiences. It is not a standalone, portable CIAM platform, and its value lives almost entirely inside the Salesforce ecosystem.
What it is good at
Native integration is the whole point. For organizations already running Salesforce, identity for customer and partner communities ties directly to CRM records, profiles, and portal experiences with no separate integration project. It handles SSO, social login, and MFA for those portals, inherits Salesforce's enterprise trust and compliance posture, and lets one vendor own both the data and the access to it. Administration sits within familiar Salesforce tooling.
Where it falls short
Value is concentrated inside Salesforce. It is not designed to be a general-purpose identity provider for apps outside the platform, and portability is poor if you ever want to move. Developer experience and deployment flexibility are oriented around the Salesforce model rather than open, code-first workflows, and B2C scale and modern flow design lag behind dedicated CIAM specialists. For non-Salesforce shops it makes little sense.
Pricing
Bundled and add-on licensing within Salesforce, quote-based and tied to your broader contract. Model the true cost of platform lock-in with the TCO calculator.
Best for, and who should look elsewhere
Choose it if you are a Salesforce customer extending identity to customers and partners through Experience Cloud. Look elsewhere if you are not a Salesforce shop or want a portable, standalone platform. Consider Auth0 for a general-purpose CIAM, WorkOS for B2B enterprise readiness, and SAP Customer Data Cloud for another suite-bound option.
Bottom line
A natural identity layer for Salesforce customers, and not a reason to choose it as your general-purpose CIAM.
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All CIAM Platform →By SWI Community Team · Last evaluated 2026-06-19
Independent, community-driven analysis. No vendor sponsorship. Compiled from public research and community input and verified on a best-effort basis, so details may be incomplete or out of date. Scores are opinions, not advice. Trademarks belong to their owners; mention does not imply affiliation or endorsement. See the full disclaimer, or send corrections to community@startwithidentity.com.