Platform Comparison
StoreConnect vs Experience Cloud
Which platform is right for you?
Both run on Salesforce. Experience Cloud is built for portals and communities. StoreConnect delivers portals, commerce, content, and Point of Sale — without per-user licensing. Here’s how the two compare.
- ✓ No Per-Shopper Licenses
- ✓ Commerce & POS Built In
- ✓ Full Agentforce Toolkit
What does StoreConnect do?
StoreConnect is a complete commerce platform built on Salesforce. It enables businesses to run their website, customer portal, eCommerce store, Point of Sale, and customer data from a single source of truth — inside Salesforce.
What does Experience Cloud do?
Salesforce Experience Cloud is a platform for building branded sites, portals, and communities for customers, partners, and employees — connected to your Salesforce CRM data and licensed per user or per login.
Key takeaways
StoreConnect is the right choice if you want to:
- Serve a large or growing audience without adding a license cost for every customer who logs in.
- Run a customer portal and a store together on clean Salesforce Accounts and Contacts.
- Sell online and in store with commerce and Point of Sale included, not licensed separately.
- Use standard web skills — HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Liquid — instead of specialist component development.
- Build an Agentic Foundation with Markdown pages, llms.txt, and the Agentforce Toolkit built in.
Experience Cloud could be a good fit if you:
- Need a service-led help center built around Cases, Knowledge, and community forums.
- Manage an indirect sales channel with partner deal registration and lead distribution.
- Require sophisticated sharing rules or deep internal workflow integration across external users.
- Have a small or infrequent portal audience where per-login licensing stays predictable.
Customer Portals & Self-Service Sites
| Capability | StoreConnect | Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Authenticated customer portals | ✓ Built in — customers log in, view orders, and manage account details | ✓ Core strength — customer, partner, and employee portals |
| User management | ✓ Uses standard Accounts and Contacts — no extra portal user records | ⚠ Each portal member requires a Salesforce community user record and license |
| Edit Salesforce records from the portal | ✓ Customers can edit custom records and fields; changes write back to Salesforce | ✓ Supported through Experience Builder components and sharing settings |
| Content authoring | ✓ Built-in CMS with Markdown support — non-technical teams publish directly | Experience Builder and Salesforce CMS |
| Development skills | ✓ Standard HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Liquid | ⚠ Custom work typically requires Aura or Lightning Web Components expertise |
| AI & LLM readiness | ✓ Native Markdown pages and built-in llms.txt generation | ⚠ Component-based pages; AI readability depends on configuration |
| Member-only content & pricing | ✓ Memberships control page access, pricing, and promotions | ✓ Audience targeting and sharing rules |
| Case management, Knowledge & forums | Pairs with Service Cloud for case workflows | ✓ Native Cases, Knowledge, and community forums |
We moved our own support site, support.storeconnect.com, off Experience Cloud and rebuilt it on StoreConnect — keeping the same Salesforce data and secure access with a simpler architecture. The portal now runs on clean Accounts and Contacts with built-in sync to Salesforce, our content team publishes in plain Markdown, and every page is structured for Agentforce and LLMs. Experience Cloud remains an excellent choice for complex enterprise portals that need sophisticated sharing rules or deep internal workflow integration. For standard customer-facing portals and support sites, StoreConnect is a simpler, purpose-built alternative. Read how we did it.
Licensing & Pricing Model
| Metric | StoreConnect | Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ✓ One platform license — no per-shopper or per-portal-user charges | ⚠ Per login or per member, for each license type |
| Cost as your audience grows | ✓ Doesn’t scale with the number of registered customers | ⚠ Rises with every added member or login |
| License tiers | ✓ One license covers website, portal, commerce, CMS, and POS | Separate license types — Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner, and External Apps |
| Salesforce edition | ✓ Supports ProSuite / Professional Edition and above | ⚠ Requires Enterprise Edition or higher |
| Commerce functionality | ✓ Included | ⚠ Requires separate Salesforce Commerce licenses |
| Market tier fit | ✓ Emerging, mid-market, and enterprise plans | Mid-market and enterprise Salesforce orgs |
| Implementation skills | ✓ Standard web development skills | ⚠ Experience Builder, plus LWC and Apex for custom LWR sites |
Experience Cloud is licensed per user or per login, so costs grow with your audience — and commerce requires additional licensing on top. StoreConnect is one platform license with no per-shopper charges, so a portal with a thousand customers and a store with a hundred thousand run on the same model. See StoreConnect pricing for plan details.
Experience Cloud licensing based on Salesforce’s published pricing and licensing documentation at time of publication. Contact Salesforce for current pricing.
Salesforce Compatibility & Data Architecture
| Feature | StoreConnect | Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Runs natively on Salesforce | ✓ Built on Salesforce | ✓ Salesforce product |
| Commerce data model | ✓ Products, orders, stock, and payments stored in Salesforce objects | Surfaces CRM data; commerce objects come with Salesforce Commerce |
| Experience Cloud licenses | ✓ Works without Experience Cloud licenses | Required for authenticated site members |
| Storefront sync | ✓ Built-in sync between Salesforce and the storefront | ✓ Reads Salesforce data directly |
| Salesforce CPQ compatibility | ✓ Compatible out of the box | Supported with configuration |
| Single sign-on | ✓ Supports Experience Cloud login as SSO, plus Google, Microsoft Entra ID, and SAML providers | ✓ Salesforce Identity and SSO options |
Both platforms live inside Salesforce, so this isn’t an either-or. StoreConnect can use Experience Cloud as a single sign-on provider, letting existing portal members shop without a second login. The difference is what each adds: StoreConnect brings a full commerce data model and storefront without per-member licensing.
Use Cases & Commerce Models
| Capability | StoreConnect | Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| B2B / B2C / B2B2C / D2C storefronts | ✓ Supported natively across all structures | ⚠ Requires Salesforce Commerce licensing |
| Multi-region datasets | ✓ Single dataset for multi-currency and multi-language | Multi-language sites supported |
| Payment routing | ✓ Unique payment providers per zone | Depends on the commerce products added |
| Content workflows | ✓ Built-in CMS with approval workflows | ✓ Salesforce CMS and Experience Builder |
| Customer self-service & case management | Pairs with Service Cloud | ✓ Core strength |
| Partner relationship management | B2B account pricing and pay-on-account | ✓ Core strength — deal registration, lead distribution, and channel programs |
Experience Cloud excels at service and partner portals. StoreConnect is built to sell — B2B, B2C, and cross-border from a single dataset. Paired with the Agentforce Toolkit, your storefront gains intelligence that supports customers across every region.
AI & Agentforce Capabilities
| Capability | StoreConnect | Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Agentforce on your site | ✓ Agentforce Toolkit for storefront agents | ✓ Agentforce agents can be deployed in sites |
| Agent commerce actions | ✓ Agents return purchasable products and direct-to-cart links | Depends on the commerce products added |
| MCP endpoint | ✓ Per-store MCP endpoint with a staged review workflow | Via Salesforce platform APIs |
| llms.txt & Markdown pages | ✓ Built in | ⚠ Not a standard site feature; requires custom setup |
| AI-ready commerce data | ✓ Orders, products, and stock in structured Salesforce objects | CRM data available to agents |
Both platforms support Agentforce. StoreConnect goes further for commerce: agents can recommend products and send shoppers straight to the cart, and every page is published in Markdown with an llms.txt file so AI can read your content cleanly.
Point of Sale & Omnichannel Operations
| Omnichannel Feature | StoreConnect | Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Point of Sale | ✓ Included, using the same images and data as online | Not offered — Experience Cloud is a site and portal platform |
| Unified inventory | ✓ One stock record across online and in-store | Not applicable |
| Cross-channel vouchers | ✓ Same voucher code online and in person | Not applicable |
| In-store sales in Salesforce | ✓ POS sales recorded on Salesforce accounts with built-in sync | Not applicable |
StoreConnect’s unified data model means in-store and online sales land on the same Salesforce customer record — giving AI agents and service teams the complete picture. Experience Cloud doesn’t include Point of Sale, so in-person selling requires a separate system.
Fundraising, Nonprofit & Education
| Feature | StoreConnect | Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Online donations | ✓ Native — pay-what-you-want and preset giving | Delivered through other Salesforce products or AppExchange apps |
| Recurring giving | ✓ Integrated into standard checkout | Delivered through other Salesforce products or AppExchange apps |
| Nonprofit Cloud & NPSP compatibility | ✓ Native compatibility | ✓ Runs in the same Salesforce org |
| Volunteer, grantee & student portals | ✓ Member portals with gated content | ✓ Well established for nonprofit and education portals |
Experience Cloud is a proven choice for volunteer and grantee portals. StoreConnect adds what a portal alone doesn’t: donations, recurring giving, event tickets, and merchandise — all in the same checkout and the same Salesforce database, with no per-supporter license cost.
Data Security & Compliance
| Feature | StoreConnect | Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Platform foundation | ✓ Built on Salesforce | ✓ Salesforce platform infrastructure |
| Certifications | ✓ SOC 2 Type I, SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, PCI DSS 4.0.1, HIPAA, and GDPR | ✓ Covered by Salesforce’s platform trust and compliance programs |
| Data residency | ✓ Data resides in your own Salesforce org — you own and control it | ✓ Data resides in your Salesforce org |
| Payment card compliance | ✓ PCI DSS 4.0.1 compliant checkout | Depends on the commerce and payment products added |
| Data isolation | ✓ Flagship plans include dedicated web and database servers | Salesforce multi-tenant platform |
Both platforms keep your data inside Salesforce. StoreConnect holds its own independent certifications — including PCI DSS 4.0.1 for checkout — so you can take payments with confidence. For more information see the StoreConnect Trust Center.
Which is the right choice for you?
When StoreConnect is the right choice
StoreConnect is purpose-built for Salesforce environments. It’s the right fit if:
- You sell products, services, subscriptions, or donations
- You want a customer portal and a store on one platform
- Your customer audience is large or growing, and per-user licensing doesn’t scale for you
- You need Point of Sale alongside your website
- You’re on Salesforce ProSuite or Professional Edition
- Your web team works in standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
When Experience Cloud may be the right choice
Experience Cloud is a proven Salesforce portal platform. It could be a good fit if:
- You mainly need a self-service help center built on Cases and Knowledge
- You run a partner or reseller channel with deal registration
- You need community forums for customer discussion
- You require sophisticated sharing rules across external users
- Your portal audience is small or logs in infrequently
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