Salesforce Classic Vs Lightning: Major Differences to Look at Before Opting for Migration

“Transformation is the key to success” — While Salesforce Classic has been an industry favorite CRM for years, it no longer supports new features and updates. Because of Classic’s limited features and scalability, businesses prefer to migrate from Classic and other CRMs to the all-new Lightning Experience.

But this does not mean that Salesforce Classic is less useful or obsolete. If you are a Classic user, you can keep leveraging its extensive capabilities for better business management. In this blog, we will discuss the main differences between the two platforms to help you decide if you need Salesforce Lightning Migration at the moment or not.

Introduction to Salesforce Classic and Lightning

Classic remained the de-facto UI of Salesforce for many years. However, due to its low-resolution graphical elements, lack of updates, text-centricity, and space management issues, it has become somewhat outdated. While it still retains great automation, analytics, and reporting capabilities, new users have a tough time navigating through Salesforce Classic.

Lightning, on the other hand, is a next-gen reimagined user interface with better speed and additional features that make it easier to navigate or engage users. Apart from improved reporting, automation, and customization capabilities, Lightning also offers rapid app development using Lightning App Builder and integration of AppExchange applications with little to no difficulty.

4 Key Differences Between Salesforce Classic and Lightning

• User Interface and Experience

The user interface is the biggest criterion when it comes to choosing between Classic and Lightning. Salesforce Lightning contains drag-drop functionality that makes dashboard creation and custom app development much easier compared to Classic where developers have to customize Visualforce code now and then. However, this does not mean, you won’t need Visualforce developers. Only their need shall be reduced as many of these customizations can be carried out by your in-house or remote Salesforce administrator.

• Security Capabilities

When you choose Salesforce Lightning, you get access to enhanced security features that are not available in Classic. For instance, Lighting offers you LockerService functionality which prevents Lightning components from interacting with one another, safeguarding the platform from malicious data access or breach attempts. Permissions also work differently in Salesforce Lightning as the platform does not allow users to switch assurance levels from standard to high during sessions. For that, users have to log out and sign in again with authentication at a higher level. So, while both platforms have decent security standards, Lighting has a better data safeguarding mechanism.

• Decision Making via Analytics

Besides a strong UI and security framework, Salesforce Lightning also offers Einstein Wave Analytics — a feature missing in Salesforce Classic. Einstein gathers data from the Salesforce database and updates reports on an automated basis. You also get timely recommendations from Einstein which can be helpful in proactive decision making related to campaigns. With the Einstein Analytics feature, users can create graphs, charts, and lists and view their dashboard(s) for data-driven decision-making. If your team is dependent on campaigns, quick decisions, and is customer-centric, we would suggest a migration to Lightning.

• Customization Capability

Customization in Salesforce Classic is difficult as the changes have to be done directly in Visualforce code. However, in Lightning, you can customize code, retain app logic, build custom layouts, and dashboards without disrupting workflow. If you are a Classic CRM user and want to bridge the gap in your processes with extensive customization, Salesforce Lightning Migration can offer you the desired customization capability.

Ready to Embrace Lightning Platform?

While both Classic and Lightning offer great operations management capabilities, Salesforce Classic has certain limitations, especially in areas of UI, scalability, customization, and updates. Considering Salesforce's recent move of enabling Lightning Experience as the default UI for all users and offering little to no updates on Classic, it’s high time businesses prepare to bridge their CRM gaps by migrating to Salesforce Lightning. By embracing Lightning, you can overcome issues related to speed, navigation, analytics, customization, data silos, and security and make optimum use of your Salesforce licenses.