User Licenses
A user license determines the baseline of features that the user can access. Every user must have exactly one user license, which will assign permissions to access data through a profile and possibly one or more permission sets.
Standard User License Types
Salesforce – This is mainly for users who need full access to standard CRM and AppExchange apps.Knowledge Only User – This license is useful for users, who only need access to the Salesforce Knowledge app.Identity Only – It provides extra licenses for employees to access identity services, such as single sign-on (SSO).External Identity – It gives access to Salesforce Customer Identity, which allows customers and partners to self-register, log in, update their profile, and securely access web and mobile apps with a single identity.

WDC Only User – Those who don’t have a Salesforce license and need access to WDC use WDC Only User licenses.

Lightning Platform User License Types
Salesforce Platform –  Users who require access to custom apps but not to the standard CRM functionality.

Lightning Platform – One App – Users who need access to one custom app but not to standard CRM functionality

Force.com – App Subscription – Access to a Lightning Platform Light App or Lightning Platform Enterprise App. However, CRM functionality is not available.

Company Community user – This  is an internal user license for users to access custom tabs, Salesforce Files, Chatter (people, groups, feeds), and an Experience Cloud site.

Developer user – It provide access to development tools and environments and allow users to build customizations or applications. One Developer sandbox, one scratch org, and access to the Dev Hub are there in Developer user license.
Chatter User License Types
All standard Salesforce licenses include free Chatter access for all users in your organization. Salesforce also offers Chatter-specific licenses: Chatter External, Chatter Free, and Chatter Only (also known as Chatter Plus).

Chatter External – It allows your clients access to chatter groups at no additional cost.

Chatter Free –  Users can access standard Chatter items such as people, profiles, groups, and files, but they can’t access any Salesforce objects or data.

Lightning Platform Starter – Users in Experience Cloud sites who require access to Chatter and a wide variety of Salesforce objects.

Chatter Only – It is available exclusively to existing Chatter Plus customers who don’t have Salesforce licenses but need access to Chatter and additional Salesforce objects.
Experience Cloud User License Types
Experience Cloud was previously called as Community Cloud. It is a platform that allows businesses to engage with their customers.

There are 5 different licenses that give the users varying access to Accounts, Contacts, Cases, Knowledge, Opportunities, Leads, Custom Objects, Send Emails, Sharing Sets, Advanced Sharing Rules, and Reports & Dashboards

External App –  It allows for 100 custom objects but has other access limitations

Customer Community – It allows for 10 custom objects but adds cases access

Customer Community Plus – It gives access to most of the features and read-only access to the reports & dashboards

Partner Community – Access to sales data such as partner relationship management.

Channel Account – It gives access to all of the features
Channel Account Licenses
The Channel Account license is available for Experience Cloud sites and has the same permission and feature access as the Partner Community license. These licenses are priced per partner account, rather than login or member-based licenses. Partners have the ability to open up access to users.
Lightning Platform Starter and Lightning Platform Plus
These both contain a Salesforce Platform license and a Company Communities Permission Set License. This includes some Salesforce Standard Objects, such as Accounts, Assets, Contacts, Cases, Opportunities, and Leads. It also includes Custom Objects and features such as Send Email, Sharing Sets, and Advanced Sharing Rules. Click to learn more about Lightning Web Component
Database.com User Licenses
This user license is for users who need access to Database.com.
Service Cloud Portal User Licenses
This license gives contacts unlimited logins to your Service Cloud Portal in order to access customer support information.
Sites and Site.com User Licenses
Sites and Site.com users have access through Guest User or Site.com Only user licenses.
Authenticated Website User Licenses
Authenticated Website licenses are mainly for Salesforce Sites and it give your customers to unlimited logins to access the customer support information.
Customer Portal User Licenses
Users who have Customer Portal sites will use the Customer Portal Manager Standard licenses. These licenses enables contacts to log in to their Customer Portal and manage customer support.
Customer Portal—Enterprise Administration User Licenses
The Customer Portal—Enterprise Administration is for users who have a Customer Portal Manager Custom license. This license provides contacts with unlimited access to Salesforce Customer Portal for managing customer support.
Partner Portal User Licenses
Partner Portal users have the Gold Partner user license. They can only access Salesforce using the partner portal.

Summary

Each Salesforce license provides access to different features. As there are many options, it’s worth spending some time understanding how Salesforce helps to your organization. We hope you found the information on Salesforce licenses useful.

Thank you for dedicating your time to peruse our blog. We hold utmost confidence in the value that our ideas and processes bring. Should your company be in need of Salesforce-related services, we are delighted to extend our expertise to you. Erudite Works is widely acknowledged as a leading salesforce consulting firms. Our consultants have aided businesses, both small and large, by comprehending their unique business requirements, providing technical and process consulting, tailoring modules to their specific needs, and executing CRM implementations for the purpose of enhancing integration in a modernized manner. Contact Us to learn more about our services and company.