Salesforce is a CRM solution that businesses utilize to simplify data gathering, input, storage and reporting. The platform is widely used for making workflow processes easier and fuss-free.
Salesforce comes in several paid editions. There’s the Professional, Contact Manager, Enterprise, Group and Unlimited editions. Each of these editions are packed with basic and advanced tools for the organization.
But Salesforce also provides a free Developer account that is used to develop apps and build codes. This post will explain what Developer edition can do, and outline easy steps on opening a free Salesforce Developer Account.
What is the Developer Edition?
Developer Edition is Salesforce’s free account that lets users create new applications through the Force.com platform. That being said, Developer Edition is a good platform for building new applications, run various codes, and test or experiment on new codes for various app functions.
The Developer Edition is recommended for people wanting to learn the ropes on actual Salesforce work. This program is also designed for developers who doesn’t have a sandbox so they can create apps without affecting existing customer data.
Licenses and Limitations
The Salesforce Developer Edition grants users the following licenses and permissions:
- Two licenses for the Salesforce CRM platform
- Two licenses for Salesforce mobile platform
- Five licenses for the Salesforce partners
- Three licenses for the Salesforce platform
- Ten licenses for customer portals
- API enabled permission granted by default
Likewise, here are some limitations on the free Developer Account:
- File storage space of up to 20MB only
- Data storage space of up to 5MB only
- Only 5000 API requests enabled every 24 hours
- Force.com apps have 500MB per day limit
- A service request time limited to only 10 minutes per force.com application
Opening a Salesforce Developer Account
A user can open his own free account in under ten minutes. Here are the steps to get started on Developer Edition:
- Go to http://www.developer.force.com.
- Click on the little green Sign Up button on the right side of the page. The user will then be taken to the sign up page.
- Fill up all the details. Please note that the username must be in email format.
- Hit the blue Sign Me Up button.
- Open up the email address used to sign up. Users must see a notification email from Salesforce. Click on the link inside the email to setup a password for the Developer account.
Once done, users may now login and access their account. Upon logging in, they will be taken to the Salesforce Developer Edition environment and org.