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Database.com was Salesforce’s named cloud database and application platform, launched as a standalone service in 2010. Today, the term mainly survives in legacy Salesforce editions, licenses, legal documents, and older technical material. It is not best understood as a conventional database service that a new customer can buy and administer like PostgreSQL. Salesforce says Database.com editions are no longer sold, although existing organizations can continue to be used; new Salesforce architecture is generally discussed in terms of Salesforce Platform, Lightning Platform, and their APIs.
What Database.com was—and what it means now
Salesforce introduced Database.com as a managed, multitenant cloud service for storing application data and building applications on top of it. Its pitch was that developers could use Salesforce’s underlying platform without running database hardware or software themselves. Salesforce announced the service in December 2010 and made it generally available in September 2011.
The name now has several related but distinct meanings. Salesforce documentation describes Database.com editions as no longer sold while allowing existing organizations to continue. The name also remains in some license, legal, and technical references. Salesforce’s current help material describes the associated data, security, and API capabilities as part of the Salesforce or Lightning Platform, rather than presenting Database.com as a normal, separately purchased database product. Salesforce’s overview of other editions explains the legacy-edition status.
In practical terms, when you encounter “Database.com,” first identify whether the reference is to the historical service, an org edition or license, a hostname, or a legal definition. Those are connected by Salesforce’s platform history, but they are not interchangeable.
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Why Salesforce launched it
In 2010, Salesforce positioned Database.com as a way to make the database and application capabilities behind Salesforce available to applications beyond Salesforce CRM. The service was aimed at cloud, mobile, and social software, including applications written in languages such as Java, C#, Ruby, and PHP. Salesforce described it as an open, API-accessible foundation rather than a database that required customers to manage their own infrastructure. The launch announcement outlined that strategy; Salesforce announced general availability in 2011 in its platform update.
The product was also a positioning exercise. Salesforce already provided the underlying capabilities to its customers; Database.com gave the data-and-platform layer a distinct name and marketed it as a backend for other applications. The boundary between “database” and “platform” was therefore less clean than the name might suggest.
Was Database.com really a database?
Yes, in the sense that it provided managed data storage and querying. But it did not work like a customer-managed relational database instance. Its central concepts were Salesforce objects, fields, metadata, permissions, and platform APIs. The product’s value came from combining stored data with identity, sharing, and application behavior.
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| Conventional database model | Database.com and Salesforce platform model |
|---|---|
| Customers commonly manage schemas, indexes, extensions, and database configuration. | Customers work with objects, fields, metadata, permissions, and Salesforce platform configuration. |
| SQL is commonly the primary interface. | Salesforce uses platform interfaces and languages including SOQL, SOSL, Apex, REST, SOAP, and Bulk API. |
| Application logic is often implemented outside the database. | Data, security, metadata, and automation are integrated into the Salesforce platform. |
| Often used as a general-purpose application backend. | Tightly connected to Salesforce’s multitenant application and security model. |
That distinction matters if you find old material calling Database.com simply “Salesforce’s database.” It is a useful shorthand, but it can give the wrong impression: Database.com was not a typical SQL server with a database console and unrestricted database-level administration.
What the platform offered
The original proposition was broader than storage. Salesforce’s launch material described a managed platform with APIs, access controls, automation, and operational services. Capabilities included:
- Data modeling: custom objects and metadata for describing application data.
- Access control: user and role-based security, sharing rules, and row-level access controls.
- Application interfaces: REST and SOAP APIs, with Salesforce query and development tools.
- Automation: triggers and business logic integrated with the platform.
- Identity and social features: authentication and structures such as feeds, profiles, groups, comments, and likes.
- Managed operations: Salesforce described automatic scaling, upgrades, backups, and disaster recovery as part of its cloud approach.
The precise capabilities depended on the org and edition. For example, Salesforce’s Apex trigger documentation says standard objects including Campaigns, Cases, and Emails are not available in Database.com. That is a reminder to verify a feature against the relevant edition rather than assume that every Salesforce platform capability applies. Salesforce’s trigger documentation gives this edition-specific limitation.
How Database.com relates to Salesforce and Lightning Platform
A useful historical shorthand is: Salesforce CRM was the application, Force.com and later Lightning Platform described application-building capabilities, and Database.com named the data-and-platform layer Salesforce sought to expose more explicitly. In actual use, those boundaries overlapped: Salesforce customers were already working with objects, security, and APIs inside their Salesforce organizations.
Salesforce’s current help page says customers use Database.com capabilities when they create custom objects, manage security, or import data through the Lightning Platform and Salesforce APIs. Read that as continuity of capabilities and terminology, not proof that every underlying technical component is formally branded Database.com today. For new design work, use the current Salesforce product and API names relevant to the use case.
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Database.com Edition is a legacy Salesforce organization edition, not a choice of database engine. Salesforce says it is no longer sold, existing organizations can continue to be used, and Lightning Experience is unavailable in Database.com Edition orgs. Salesforce also directs users to its general documentation rather than a separate Database.com documentation set. Edition-specific features and limits still matter, so check the org’s own entitlements and Salesforce’s applicable edition guidance. Salesforce’s edition overview covers these points.
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Legacy Database.com user licenses
Salesforce documentation lists three Database.com license types: Admin, User, and Light User. The Admin license is described for administration and changes to schemas or metadata; User is for access to stored data; Light User is for limited data access and group membership. The cited license guide places them in Salesforce Classic and Database.com Edition contexts and lists three default Database.com Admin and three Database.com User licenses for Database.com Edition, with other allocations depending on edition. These are legacy documentation details, not evidence that new licenses can be ordered; confirm availability and entitlements in your own org and contract. Salesforce’s license guide lists the types and allocations.
What happened to the standalone product?
The evidence supports a gradual consolidation of the product story, not a single blanket shutdown date for everything called Database.com. Salesforce launched it in 2010, made it generally available in 2011, and later centered its practical platform story on broader Salesforce products, editions, and APIs. Today, Salesforce says Database.com editions are no longer sold but existing orgs may continue to be used. The name also appears in legal and technical material, including Salesforce’s notices and license information dated June 19, 2026.
Historical launch pricing should not be mistaken for a current offer. Salesforce’s 2010 announcement proposed three users, up to 100,000 records, and up to 50,000 monthly transactions at no charge, with additional record or transaction capacity and enterprise services priced separately; the announcement said pricing and general-availability timing were subject to change. Its 2011 general-availability announcement described a free starting allocation of 100,000 records, 50,000 monthly transactions, and three enterprise users. These are historical figures, not current Database.com pricing or a purchase recommendation.
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Salesforce is retiring login.database.com on June 20, 2026, and directs customers to use login.salesforce.com instead. Salesforce says authentication flows remain the same. The change concerns this authentication hostname; it does not by itself establish that every occurrence of database.com is a login URL or that an org has been shut down. See Salesforce’s retirement notice.
- Search source code, CI/CD configuration, SSO settings, connected apps, scripts, bookmarks, and integration documentation for
login.database.com. - Replace the authentication hostname with
login.salesforce.comwhere applicable. Inspect the surrounding URL and flow before changing any otherdatabase.comreference. - Check callback URLs and allowlists, then test OAuth, SSO, API login, and refresh-token flows in a nonproduction environment.
- After testing, update production configuration and verify the affected integrations and automations.
Database.com is not Data.com
Database.com was Salesforce’s cloud database and platform branding and is also a legacy edition term. Data.com was a separate Salesforce business-data and contact-enrichment product family; Salesforce lists it separately as retired. Similar names do not indicate the same product. Salesforce’s retirement list distinguishes Data.com.
What to do if you encounter Database.com
If you maintain an existing org
- Treat it as a legacy Salesforce org and inventory integrations, API versions, licenses, custom objects, Apex, authentication, and data-export processes.
- Check feature availability against the org’s edition and actual entitlements; do not assume a historical feature is available in that organization.
- Plan modernization or migration around operational dependencies, particularly old hostnames, API versions, and legacy license assumptions.
If you are choosing a platform for a new application
Do not approach the decision as whether to buy Database.com. Start with the workload. Salesforce Platform is the conceptual modern route when the application benefits from Salesforce identity, CRM data, objects, sharing, declarative administration, automation, and platform APIs. Its trade-offs include Salesforce-specific data models and query languages, edition and license constraints, platform consumption limits, and vendor lock-in.
For an independent application that needs direct database administration or a more general-purpose backend, evaluate managed relational or document databases or an application platform suited to code-first deployment. Those options do not automatically replace Salesforce’s integrated CRM, sharing, metadata, and application model. Salesforce Data Cloud addresses data unification and activation, not the same transactional application-platform role. The right commercial option depends on required features, users, storage, API use, and workload; consult current product details rather than relying on Database.com-era pricing.
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