Learning Objectives
- Describe some of the major feature differences between Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic.
- Describe some of the features that aren’t supported by Lightning Experience, and know where to get more details.
- Use best practices and the Lightning Experience Migration Assistant to help you determine when it’s the right time to switch your company to Lightning Experience.
Does My Org Qualify for Lightning Experience?
Let’s look at the supported editions and user licenses to see if you can enable and use Lightning Experience.
| Supported Editions | Unsupported Editions |
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| Supported Licenses | Unsupported Licenses |
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Important
To learn about browser options and limitations for Lightning Experience, see Supported Browsers for Lightning Experience in the Salesforce Help.
If your org still uses Internet Explorer 11, be aware that we’re in the process of retiring support for this browser. There are significant performance issues when running Lightning Experience in IE11. Even if you opt into the extended support option for IE11, we recommend migrating your users to an alternate modern browser like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge as soon as possible.
Understanding Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic
Lightning Experience is a modern user interface that helps your sales reps sell faster and your service reps support customers more productively. Lightning Experience includes many new features and entirely redesigned pages, but not every Salesforce feature is supported in Lightning Experience. So the Salesforce experience you’ve known to date—called Salesforce Classic—is still available for you, and the users you enable for Lightning Experience can switch between the two at will.
As your company’s trusted advisor for Salesforce, you need to help your company decide when to enable Lightning Experience. So, we’ve got to start getting you educated on Lightning Experience features versus Salesforce Classic.
Comparing Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic
Understanding what you get in the new interface is a big part of the decision to switch to Lightning Experience. Here are some highlights of how Lightning Experience compares to what you’re used to in Salesforce Classic, including features that are available in the new interface only.
Note
This isn’t a comprehensive list of supported and unsupported features. For a more detailed list, see the Salesforce Help.
Salesforce Data
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Sales objects: Accounts, Campaigns, Contacts, Contracts, Leads, Opportunities, Orders, Person Accounts, Price Books, Products, Quotes |  |
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| Calendar, Events, Tasks | |
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| Service objects: Assets, basic Cases, Lightning Knowledge, Work Orders | |
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| Custom objects | |
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| Chatter feeds, groups, and people | |
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| Salesforce Files | |
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| Other Sales and Service objects | |
Home
An intelligent page filled with insights, a slick performance chart, and a helpful assistant feature, highlighting what’s most important each day.
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Performance chart | |
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| Assistant | |
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| News | |
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| Key deals | |
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| Tasks | |
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| Events1 | |
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| Calendar1 | |
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| Feed and publisher | |
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| Items to approve | |
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| Customizable dashboards | |
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| Customizable home page components | |
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1 In Lightning Experience, Home displays only events remaining on a user's calendar today. Users can access all their events from the Calendar tab in the navigation bar.
Accounts and Contacts
Sales and service reps get a layout designed to help them find the information they need, fast.
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| News | |
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| Path | |
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| Activity timeline | |
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| Contacts to Multiple Accounts | |
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| Account Logos | |
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| Automated Account Fields | |
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| Notes | |
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| “Reference” page layout | |
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| Related lists | |
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| Integrated email and templates | |
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| Twitter highlights | |
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| Person accounts | |
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| Account teams | |
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| Account hierarchy | |
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| Contact hierarchy | |
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| Find and merge duplicate accounts and contacts | |
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| Matching and duplicate rules for business accounts, person accounts, and contacts | |
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Opportunities and Leads
Sales reps in Lightning Experience find a turbo-charged workspace for managing opportunities and leads. View related information in the Quick View. Create tasks and events, log calls, and send emails, and track all those activities in the Activity Timeline.
Opportunities
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace page layout | |
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| Activity timeline | |
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| Path | |
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| Notes | |
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| Visual view of opportunities (Kanban) | |
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| Integrated email and templates | |
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| Opportunity teams | |
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| Opportunity splits | |
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| Similar opportunities | |
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| Big deal alerts | |
Leads
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace page layout | |
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| Activity timeline | |
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| Path | |
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| News | |
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| Notes | |
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| Change lead owner to a queue | |
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| Integrated email and templates | |
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| Lead conversion customization via the API | |
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| Find and merge duplicate leads | |
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| Matching and duplicate rules for leads | |
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Kanban View
Sales reps can use the Kanban view, a visualization tool for opportunities, to review deals organized by each stage in the pipeline. With drag-and-drop functionality, sales reps can move deals from one stage to another, and get personalized alerts on key deals in flight. Kanban is also available on opportunities, leads, and other objects.
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Charts | |
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| Drag and drop | |
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| Intelligent Alerts | |
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| Type-ahead list view search | |
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| Sharing settings1 | |
1 Only list views marked as “Visible only to me” or “Visible to all users” are supported. Sharing with certain groups of users isn’t supported.
Data.com
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Prospect for accounts (Only available with a Data.com Prospector license) | |
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Prospect for contacts (Only available with a Data.com Prospector license)NoteIn Lightning Experience, you can search for and add contact data only if the contact is related to an existing account. |
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| Prospect for companies in the same company hierarchy (Only available with a Data.com Prospector license) | |
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| Prospecting Insights (Only available with a Data.com Prospector license) | |
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| View fields updated by Data.com Clean | |
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| “Stare and Compare” using Data Integration | |
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| Manually update a record using Data Integration | |
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| Clean button | |
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| Prospect for companies, contacts, and leads using the Data.com tab (Only available with a Data.com Prospector license) | |
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| View data integration rule settings and status (As of the Spring ’17 release, Clean rules are known as data integration rules.) | |
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| Add Data.com contacts as leads (Only available with a Data.com Prospector license) | |
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| See match rates for data integration rules (As of the Spring ’17 release, Clean rules are known as data integration rules.) | |
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| Set up Clean settings, jobs, and preferences | |
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| View Clean metrics and analytics | |
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| Export Data.com records to comma-separated values (CSV) files. (Only available with a Data.com Prospector license) | |
Collaborative Forecasts
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Forecasting on opportunity Amount field, opportunity splits, overlay splits, custom opportunity fields, and product families | |
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| Revenue and quantity forecasts | |
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| Manager and owner adjustments | |
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| Cumulative forecast rollups | |
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| Support for multiple currencies | |
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| Quotas | |
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| Forecast hierarchy | |
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| Choose the product families to forecast on and the order they appear in (from Setup, if product family forecasts is selected) | |
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| Forecasts grid organized first by period, product family, and then user to show product family forecast totals | |
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| Forecasts grid expansion remains the same during each session | |
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| Adjust your own product family forecasts | |
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| Opportunity split details in the opportunities list | |
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| Adjustable column width | |
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| Quota attainment information | |
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| Jump to the forecasts of users you have access to view | |
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| Forecasts setup | |
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Campaigns
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign member status charts | |
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| Import campaign members | |
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| Add individual campaign members | |
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| Campaign member status updates via import | |
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| Clone campaign members | |
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| Add and manage campaign members from a list view | |
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Salesforce Einstein
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics | ||
| Einstein Discovery | |
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| Chatter | ||
| Einstein Recommendations | |
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| Community | ||
| Einstein Related Articles | |
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| Einstein Feed Search | |
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| Development | ||
| Einstein Language | |
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| Einstein Vision | |
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| Sales | ||
| Einstein Activity Capture | |
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| Einstein Lead Scoring | |
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| Einstein Opportunity Scoring | |
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| Einstein Forecasting | |
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| Einstein Opportunity Insights | |
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| Einstein Account Insights | |
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| Einstein Automated Contacts | |
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Customer Service
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Case Milestones | |
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| Object Milestones | |
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| Service Contracts | |
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| Service Setup Flows for Email-to-Case, Communities, Knowledge, and Facebook and Twitter | |
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| Assets | |
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| Case Assignment Rules | |
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| Console1 | |
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| Entitlements2 | |
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| Field Service Lightning | |
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| Knowledge3 | |
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| Open CTI | |
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| Products | |
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| Snap-ins for Web4 | |
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| Social Customer Service | |
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| Case Comments | |
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| Feed Filters in Case Feed | |
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| Live Agent | |
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| Macros | |
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| Omni-Channel | |
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| Quick Text | |
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| Solutions | |
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| SOS | |
1 The Service Console in Lightning Experience doesn’t yet have full parity with the Service Console in Salesforce Classic. Learn more.
2 There are some limitations using Entitlements in Lightning Experience. Learn more.
3 Lightning Knowledge is recommended for orgs that are new to Knowledge, or for existing orgs that can easily consolidate to one article type, have few data categories, and use single-language mode. Learn more.
4 Setting up Snap-ins Chat is available in Lightning Experience only. However, the snap-in itself can go anywhere on your website.
Reports
Sales and service reps who use reports find an improved user interface, including the ability to easily create filters and add enhanced charts. And Salesforce admins find features on the dashboard editor, including flexible layouts and spanning columns. However, some report features aren’t yet available in Lightning Experience, including feeds and scheduled reports.
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Enhanced report charts | |
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| Hide totals and subgroups from report view | |
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| Interactive filters when viewing reports | |
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| Report Builder | |
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| Bucket fields | |
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| Custom summary formulas | |
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| Matrix, Summary, Tabular report formats | |
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| Role hierarchy filters | |
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| Create report folders1 | |
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| Joined reports | |
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| Pie charts | |
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| Schedule report refreshes2 | |
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| Follow reports | |
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| Report notifications | |
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| Export reports | |
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1 You can’t set up folder sharing in Lightning Experience; however, folders that were created in Salesforce Classic inherit all assigned permissions when viewed in Lightning Experience.
Dashboards
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Display more than 3 columns | |
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| Dashboard Builder | |
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| View filtered dashboards | |
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| View dynamic dashboards | |
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| Schedule dashboard refreshes1 | |
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| Post dashboard components to feeds | |
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| Follow dashboards | |
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| Visualforce components | |
1 Users can’t schedule dashboards in Lightning Experience, but dashboards scheduled in Salesforce Classic run as expected in Lightning Experience.
List Views
List Views have gotten an upgrade in Lightning Experience, including some super new stuff like the ability to create a quick chart from a list view or add filters with an improved, easy-to-use interface.
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Charts | |
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| Create filters on the fly | |
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| Search for a list view on the fly | |
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| View records visually (Kanban) | |
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| Create and edit lists | |
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| Sortable columns | |
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| Resizable columns | |
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| Sharing Settings1 | |
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| Filter logic | |
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| Inline editing | |
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1 In Lightning Experience, sharing list views marked as “Visible only to me” or “Visible to all users” is supported. Sharing with certain groups of users isn’t supported.
Other Features and Products
| Feature | Lightning Experience | Salesforce Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Custom org brand images and colors | |
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| Custom branding of Salesforce apps | |
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| Personalized Navigation Bar | |
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| Favorites | |
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| Activities-related composer windows | |
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| Create and edit records | |
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| Inline editing record detail fields | |
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| Inline editing in lists | |
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| Customizable Forecasting | |
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| Enterprise Territory Management | |
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| Original Territory Management1 | |
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| Salesforce Communities2 | |
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| Partner Portals | |
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| Work.com | |
2 Switch to Salesforce Classic for creating or disabling community users, logging in as a community user, and using delegated administration.
Other Features That Aren’t Supported
Note
This isn’t a comprehensive list of supported and unsupported features. For a more detailed list, see the Salesforce Help.
Custom JavaScript Buttons
Custom buttons that use a JavaScript content source aren’t supported in Lightning Experience. Check out Lightning Alternatives to JavaScript Buttons in Trailhead for a great list of Lightning-friendly solutions for your JavaScript button use cases.
AppExchange Apps with Custom Objects, Visualforce Pages, and More
Many apps from the AppExchange feature customizations, including custom objects, custom buttons, Visualforce pages, and more. Salesforce partners are testing their apps in Lightning Experience and applying for Lightning Ready certification. Apps that are Lightning Ready work in Lightning Experience and offer a more consistent experience with other Lightning Pages. If an app is supported in Lightning Experience, a Lightning Ready sash appears on its AppExchange listing. If an app isn’t supported in Lightning Experience, use it in Salesforce Classic instead.
Note
Your org can use apps without Lightning Ready certification in Lightning Experience, but some features might not be available or work as expected. These apps can also appear visually inconsistent with Lightning Experience because they use Salesforce Classic styling. For the best experience, use Salesforce Classic for apps that aren’t certified as Lightning Ready.
What About Apex and Visualforce?
When we talk about customizing Salesforce “programmatically,” we’re talking about using code to add new features. Most of the time, like when you’re using the API or writing Apex triggers, there isn’t an actual user interface to the feature. Guess what? All of that stuff just works whether you’re in Salesforce Classic or Lightning Experience. Woohoo!
Other features do have a user interface. In that case, we’re mostly talking about Visualforce. Your existing Visualforce pages work in Lightning Experience, many without needing any revisions. Because things have moved around in the new interface, you’ll want to complete some chores to make sure your Visualforce pages work the way you expect.
There are some other considerations for Visualforce pages and apps, and we recommend that you review those. We created an entire Trailhead module just for Visualforce developers, and an entire trail for developing Lightning Experience apps. If you’re using Visualforce or other programmatic customizations in your organization, check out those trails as part of your Lightning Experience evaluation process.
Evaluate Your Org with the Lightning Experience Readiness Check
To evaluate whether some of the key features and customizations you’ve implemented in Salesforce Classic are ready for Lightning Experience, kick off the Lightning Experience Readiness Check. That way, you can learn which are ready now for Lightning Experience and which may need your attention before you switch over all your users.
You’ll get a personalized Readiness Report, with an assessment of the features and customizations evaluated by the Readiness Check and recommendations on your next steps. Plus you’ll be eligible for a free consultation with a Lightning expert to go over the details in your report. The Readiness Check emails the report to you and also saves it to Salesforce Files.
Curious what exactly is covered in the report? Check out What Does the Lightning Experience Readiness Check Evaluate? in the Salesforce Help.
Run the Readiness Check from the Lightning Experience Migration Assistant. From Setup in Salesforce Classic, click Get Started in the Migration Assistant tile (1). On the Check Readiness tab in the Migration Assistant (2), click Check Readiness (3).
We’ve also put together an enablement pack with sample documents and templates, including a gap analysis checklist. You can use this checklist to expand your evaluation to features and customizations that aren’t covered by the Readiness Check.
Best Use Cases for Lightning Experience
If you’ve gone through the list of supported features and you’ve done an evaluation of how ready your org’s features and customizations are for Lightning Experience, then you’re probably starting to get a sense of when you’ll want to enable the new Salesforce interface. But if you’re still not sure, here’s one last comparison chart.
| Lightning Experience might be right for some or all of your org if: | Salesforce Classic might be right for you if: |
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Preview Your Org in Lightning Experience
It’s all well and good to talk about use cases and supported and unsupported features. But wouldn’t it be great if you could see your Salesforce org in Lightning Experience without having to enable the new interface? Even if you don’t have a sandbox org? Well, the great news is you can, using the Lightning Experience Migration Assistant. The Migration Assistant’s Preview feature lets you explore your production org in Lightning Experience, so you can see exactly how your real data and your current customizations work in the new interface. And helpful hint, the Preview is a great way to review the state of features and customizations that aren’t evaluated by the Lightning Experience Readiness Check.
The Preview feature isn’t a locked-down, read-only tour. You can change data, settings, permissions—you name it. But remember that you’re working with your live org. If you do make changes, they’re for real and visible to your users back in Salesforce Classic.
To get started, from Setup in Salesforce Classic, click Get Started in the Lightning Experience Migration Assistant tile at the top of the menu. On the Preview tab in the Migration Assistant, click Preview to dive in.
