A member-based community license bills a fixed monthly cost per assigned user, with unlimited logins per month. A login-based license bills per login event, billed monthly against a pool of logins purchased upfront. Member-based is predictable and scales with user count; login-based is variable and scales with login frequency. Choose based on how often each external user is expected to log in.
Side-by-side
| Dimension | Member-based | Login-based |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per assigned user, per month | Per login event |
| Logins included | Unlimited | A purchased pool per month |
| Cost predictability | High | Variable |
| Best for | Daily-use users (active partners, frequent customers) | Infrequent users (quarterly logins, occasional self-service) |
| Risk | Paying for inactive users | Bill spikes if usage exceeds the pool |
How to choose
Calculate: how many distinct users will log in this month, and how many times each on average?
- High user count, low frequency (e.g., 50,000 customers logging in maybe once a quarter to check a bill) → login-based wins by a huge margin.
- Low to moderate user count, high frequency (e.g., 200 channel partners using the portal daily) → member-based wins; per-login cost would balloon.
- Mixed — split the audience across both license types. Frequent partners get member-based seats; occasional customers get login-based.
Worked example
A SaaS company has 10,000 customers. Each logs in ~2 times per month on average to view invoices.
- Member-based at $5/user/month: 10,000 × $5 = $50,000/month.
- Login-based at $1/login: 10,000 × 2 × $1 = $20,000/month.
Login-based saves 60% in this scenario. Now flip it — same 10,000 customers but each logs in 20 times per month:
- Member-based: still $50,000.
- Login-based: 10,000 × 20 × $1 = $200,000.
Member-based is 75% cheaper at high frequency.
(Numbers above are illustrative — Salesforce’s actual list pricing changes and is negotiated.)
Per-login mechanics
For login-based, Salesforce typically counts a login event as a single authentication action that creates a session. Refresh-token reissue and SSO redirection have specific rules — check the current licensing guide to confirm.
A common edge case: if a user is bounced from the community and signs in again three times in an hour, that’s three login events. Session expiration and re-login add up.
Quick interview answer
“Member-based licenses charge a fixed cost per assigned user per month, with unlimited logins — predictable, good for daily-use audiences like channel partners. Login-based charges per login event from a purchased monthly pool — variable, good for infrequent audiences like quarterly self-service customers. Choose by estimating average logins per user per month and running the math on each.”
Verified against: Salesforce Help — Communities User Licenses. Last reviewed 2026-05-17.