Native vs Non-native Salesforce App: Which One is Better?

Native Salesforce Apps

Native Salesforce apps are those apps that are developed on the Force.com development platform without any external server or code. In other words, it means that the data occurs in the Salesforce app from a customer’s Salesforce instance and not from any third-party app integration. As there is no data coming from, or sent to any other third-party app, the native app will provide real-time experience and better performance. If you want to integrate your data from one native Salesforce app to another, it will make it easier to further enrich the experience. Moreover, the risk of a data breach is also minimum. Native Salesforce apps are more secure as the Appexchange addresses security concerns by running solutions through an exhaustive security review. With AppExchange, companies use apps with more confidence as they know that the apps support the highest level of security.

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Non-native Salesforce Apps

Non-native Salesforce apps are those apps that live outside of the Salesforce platform. They come with a few challenges, one of them being that the data is not entirely secure. The reason is that the data in the non-native apps are transferred to a third-party app server, which is not secure like Salesforce. The said servers also create complexity by introducing multiple data processors. In some cases, users are required to pay more to Salesforce consultants to integrate the data as they need to create APIs. This means that all your customers’ data and transaction information will be shared with third-parties. The data is then plugged into Salesforce in order to be shared. A non-native Salesforce app generally takes longer to implement in a real scenario because it has to coordinate with the Salesforce admin to address the architecture and security. For financial services, healthcare, insurance, and other sensitive industries where the security of data is the first priority, non- native applications usually fail to provide such a level of security.

The gray zone

There are examples on AppExchange when an app says that it is native but it doesn’t mean that it purely is. Sometimes, an app that is only partially built on the Force.com platform is marked as native on AppExchange. Hence, you can’t rely on an app to be a better one than the others solely because it is marked “native”.

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What is better?

After getting to know about both types of Salesforce apps, native Salesforce apps seem more favorable. A 100% native Salesforce application is generally a simpler solution than a non-native Salesforce application because there is no need for additional user log-ins. When a user logs into the Salesforce platform, they get to access the features of the all installed native applications. It also means that the adoption rates and training of a user become easier because your team will only need to learn one Salesforce interface. Furthermore, native Salesforce apps keep your data safe and do not require any custom language coding.

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