Chatter User Licenses

All standard Salesforce licenses allow free Chatter access for everyone in your organization. Salesforce also offers Chatter-specific licenses: Chatter External, Chatter Free, and Chatter Only (also known as Chatter Plus). The Chatter Only license is available for purchase only by existing Chatter Plus customers. For new customers, the Employee Apps Starter license is a step up from Chatter Only, giving your users access to a more robust set of features.

Available in: Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience

Chatter External and Chatter Free licenses are available in: Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, Contact Manager, and Developer Editions Chatter Only (also known as Chatter Plus) licenses are available in: Professional, Enterprise Unlimited, and Performance Editions Employee Apps Starter licenses are available in: Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developereditions

Chatter External

This license is for users who are outside of your company’s email domain. These external users, also called customers, can be invited to Chatter groups that allow customers. Customers can access information and interact with users only in the groups they’re invited to. They have no access to Chatter objects or data.

Chatter Free

The Chatter Free license is for users who don’t have Salesforce licenses but must have access to Chatter. These users can access standard Chatter items such as people, profiles, groups, and files, but they can’t access any Salesforce objects or data. Chatter Free users can also be Chatter moderators.

Chatter Free users don’t see tabs like other Salesforce users. Chatter Free users access feeds, people, groups, and files using the App Launcher in Lightning Experience. In Salesforce Classic, users access these features from links in the page sidebar.

Salesforce administrators can upgrade a Chatter Free license to a standard Salesforce or Employee Apps Starter license at any time. You can’t convert a standard Salesforce, Employee Apps Starter, or Chatter Only license to a Chatter Free license.

Chatter Only (Chatter Plus)

The Chatter Only license is also known as the Chatter Plus license. It’s available only to existing Chatter Plus customers. The Chatter Plus license is for users who don’t have Salesforce licenses but must have access to Chatter and some additional Salesforce objects. Chatter Plus users can be Chatter moderators and have access to standard Chatter people, profiles, groups, and files pages. They can also

• View Salesforce accounts and contacts
• Use Salesforce CRM Content, Ideas, and Answers
• Access dashboards and reports
• Use and approve workflows
• Use the calendar to create and track activities
• View and modify up to 10 custom objects
• Add records to groups

If you’re an existing Chatter Plus customer, you can buy more Chatter Plus licenses, or you can upgrade to Employee Apps Starter.

By default, the tabs for standard Salesforce objects are hidden from Chatter Plus users. Expose these tabs if you want to make them available to Chatter Plus users. For more information on Chatter Plus users, see Chatter Plus Frequently Asked Questions

Employee Apps Starter (for Partner and Customer Communities)

The Employee Apps Starter license is for users in communities who must have access to Chatter and a wide variety of Salesforce objects. Employee Apps Starter users can be Chatter moderators and have access to standard Chatter people, profiles, groups, and files pages. They can also interact with

• Accounts
• Assets
• Cases
• Contacts
• Dashboards (read only)
• Documents
• External Objects (Salesforce Connect)
• Events and Calendars
• Ideas
• List Views
• Notes and Attachments
• Reports
• Tasks
• Work Orders
• Work Order Line Items

Besides working with these objects, Employee Apps Starter users have access to these Salesforce features, capabilities, and custom objects

• 20-MB data storage per user license, and 2-GB file storage per user license
• 1000 API calls per day per member for Enterprise Edition orgs and 5000 API calls per day per member for Unlimited Edition orgs
• Direct Messages
• 10 custom objects per license (custom objects in managed packages don’t count towards this limit)
• Knowledge (read only)
• Roles and Advanced Sharing
• Salesforce1 Mobile App
• Send Email
• Thanks Badges
• Tokens
• Workflow Approvals

Note

For a detailed look at the benefits associated with an Employee Apps Starter license, see Communities User Licenses.

Chatter License Overview

This table shows the list of features that are available for Chatter External, Chatter Free, Chatter Only, and Employee Apps Starter licenses.

Feature	Chatter External (Access limited to items and people in the groups customers are invited to)	Chatter Free	Chatter Only (a.k.a. Chatter Plus)	Employee Apps Starter
Chatter Desktop client
Use the Salesforce1 mobile app (Downloadable apps require the “API Enabled” profile permission)	Downloadable app users can’t access Groups or People list views.
Feeds
File sharing
Files Connect
Groups
Invitations to join groups	Only customers who are also group managers can invite Chatter users from groups they have access to or people outside Chatter.
Profiles
Topics and hash tags
Private messages				(Direct Messages)
Global search	Search results include only those items that customers have access to via groups.
Custom objects			Up to 10 custom objects
Accounts and contacts			Read only
Calendar and events
Content library
Ideas and answers
Reports and dashboards				(access to dashboards is read-only)
Tasks and activities
Using and approving workflows