Salesforce Platform builds applications on Salesforce objects with Flow, App Builder and Agentforce, reaches lakes through Data 360's zero-copy integrations, and is priced per user with published Starter and Plus tiers.
Every Salesforce Platform cell carries its source number; the sources are listed at the foot of the page.
| Question | Salesforce Platform | Lima SmartApps |
|---|---|---|
| Where the app's rows live | In Salesforce standard and custom objects (Platform Starter 10 custom objects, Plus 110); Data 360 offers 'Zero Copy Integration — connect directly to live data in Snowflake, Databricks, Google Cloud, and more without complex ETL or data duplication' [2][3]. | App screens read rows in place in the system that owns them (SAP, Oracle, Snowflake, Databricks, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday) through data handlers; the platform keeps definitions, instances and the log, and makes zero copies of source rows to build an app. |
| Reaching SAP and Oracle | Through MuleSoft and the 200+ Data 360 connectors; SAP and Oracle are unnamed on the Data 360 page [2]. | SAP S/4HANA and ECC through released read interfaces, change capture where allowed, BAPIs and IDocs for writes, inside SAP's published guidance (Notes 3255746, 382318, 2971304); Oracle Fusion through REST resources and BICC, EBS through JDBC and open interfaces. |
| Snowflake and Databricks | Zero Copy named for both, Databricks via Delta Sharing [2]. | Native connectors to Snowflake, Databricks and Microsoft Fabric; the Backbone lands history in a conformed model; decisions recorded beside it with MERGE. |
| Approvals and case work | Flow approvals and the approval wizard; case management in Service Cloud [1][4]. | Approval flows with levels, an alternate per level, delegation, series or parallel paths, a time limit per level and an escalation user; assignments; multi-party signatures; all on one engine. |
| Audit record | Field history tracking and platform event logs [1]. | Append-only, hash-chained log per instance: person, step, values, decision, notifications, write-back acknowledgement, app version; auditor self-service screen. |
| AI-assisted building | Agentforce Vibes: 'simply describe what you need, and Agentforce builds, tests, and deploys the code', 'up to 95% faster'; Vibes IDE in the free Developer Edition with Claude Sonnet 4.5 as default (Apr 2026); AIforce at Dreamforce 2026: interfaces composed 'simply by describing them' [5][6][7]. | Drafts of levels, lanes, screens and criteria from a plain description; screens generated from rules and hierarchies; drafts pass the same validator, preview and gate; structure crosses to an external model, rows stay. |
| Pricing unit | Per user: Platform Starter 25 per user per month billed annually; Platform Plus 100; login-based credits available [3]. | Platform capacity tiers (32C to 128C); apps, screens, instances and users included; the price is written before the work starts; pricing principles published. |
| Trial | 30-day trial, card-free; free Developer Edition [3][6]. | A guided first-app session on your live data (about 30 minutes); the showcase estate for demonstrations; a self-service trial tier is a decision pending (see review notes). |
| Analyst placements 2025–26 | Gartner MQ Enterprise LCAP, Jul 2025: Leader (first Leader year, from Challenger) [8]. Forrester Wave Low-Code Platforms for Professional Developers Q2 2025: Strong Performer [9]. Forrester Wave DPA Q3 2025: Leader [10]. | Analyst evaluation is the purpose of this page set; placements to date: none. |
Choose Salesforce Platform when the process lives around the customer, the account and the opportunity are the main objects, and the organisation already runs Sales or Service Cloud; the Data 360 zero-copy reach into Snowflake and Databricks and the Trailhead community make it the natural choice for customer-facing applications [2][8].
Lima SmartApps suit the processes that span the CRM and the ERP: a quote discount that needs the margin from SAP, a credit limit that needs the exposure from Oracle, a complaint that needs the delivery and the invoice. Each screen reads its rows in place, the decision is written back to the system that owns it, and one audit record holds the whole path; the price is platform capacity with apps included.
The app catalogue shows forty app types with, for each, the objects read in place in SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion, Snowflake and Databricks and the interface used for the write-back.
Facts change; re-check the sources at each review and re-date the page.
Every Salesforce Platform statement is quoted or paraphrased from Salesforce Platform's own pages or from dated analyst material, with a source number. The 'when to choose them' section is written to be true.
Yes. Many companies run several application platforms. SmartApps read and write the systems of record, so an app built elsewhere and an app built in Lima can act on the same SAP order through the same released interfaces.
Checked on September 16, 2026. Analyst placements, prices and release facts are the items most likely to change.
Bring one process. In the first session we register the data handlers on your systems and run the first screen in place, so the comparison is made on your data.
