Force.com was Salesforce’s Platform as a Service (PaaS) — the development platform that lets you build custom applications on top of Salesforce’s infrastructure without managing servers, databases, or runtime. Around 2018, Salesforce rebranded Force.com to Lightning Platform, and that’s the current name. The capabilities are the same: declarative customization (objects, fields, flows), programmatic customization (Apex, Lightning Web Components, SOQL), metadata-driven deployment, and a database underneath shared with the rest of Salesforce.
What you get on the platform
- Custom objects and fields — your own data model alongside the standard CRM model.
- Apex — Salesforce’s Java-like server-side language for triggers, classes, batch jobs, REST endpoints.
- Lightning Web Components (LWC) and Aura Components — UI framework for building custom pages and apps.
- Flow Builder — declarative automation, replacing older Workflow Rules and Process Builder.
- SOQL / SOSL — query languages for the Salesforce database.
- REST and SOAP APIs — automatically exposed for every custom object.
- Reports and dashboards on your custom data.
- Workflow, approval processes, role hierarchy, sharing model — the same security and automation layers as the standard apps.
Force.com licenses
Salesforce sells Platform licenses (sometimes called Lightning Platform Starter / Plus, formerly Force.com Employee Apps License) that grant access to custom objects and a limited subset of standard ones — usually Account, Contact, and a few others. These licenses are cheaper than full Salesforce licenses because they don’t include the CRM objects (Lead, Opportunity, Case, Solution, etc.).
This is the typical pattern for an org that uses Salesforce to build a non-CRM internal app: HR onboarding, asset management, project tracking. Platform licenses keep cost down while still using the Salesforce stack.
Force.com vs Salesforce.com
A common interview follow-up. The short version:
- Salesforce.com = the SaaS applications (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud) — finished business apps.
- Force.com / Lightning Platform = the PaaS layer underneath — where you build custom apps using the same infrastructure.
You’ll get a separate question on this distinction; the two share data, security, and storage but target different audiences.
Quick interview answer
“Force.com is Salesforce’s PaaS — the platform layer that lets you build custom apps on Salesforce infrastructure with Apex, LWC, custom objects, flows, and the same security model. It was rebranded Lightning Platform around 2018. Sales Cloud and Service Cloud are SaaS apps that run on the Lightning Platform underneath.”
Verified against: Salesforce Help — Lightning Platform and Trailhead — Salesforce Platform Basics. Last reviewed 2026-05-17.