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Salesforce Lightning vs. Classic: What You Need to Know in 2026

Lightning is Salesforce’s current interface, but Classic remains available in some eligible orgs. Compare features, confirm access, and assess workflows before switching.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read
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Salesforce Lightning Experience is the platform’s current interface, but Salesforce Classic has not disappeared for every organization. Whether you can still use Classic depends on your Salesforce edition, user permissions, and administrator settings. Before switching a team, test its actual workflows—especially service, reporting, integrations, and Knowledge—because Lightning and Classic do not have complete feature parity.

What’s the difference between Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience?

Lightning Experience is Salesforce’s current-generation interface, and Salesforce directs new innovation there. Classic remains accessible in some eligible organizations, but Salesforce says it is taking a back seat to newer technologies. The practical difference is more than appearance: the interfaces have different features, behaviors, and integration requirements.

Salesforce’s feature comparison highlights capabilities in both interfaces, but Salesforce describes the tables as a highlights list rather than a complete inventory. Use it as a starting point, then verify the exact features and edition your organization relies on.

Decision area Lightning Experience Salesforce Classic What to check
Product direction Salesforce’s current interface; new innovation is directed here. Still available in some circumstances, but no longer the forward-looking interface. Whether your edition and administrator settings allow Classic.
Sales and productivity Includes capabilities such as Activity Timeline, Path, Kanban opportunity views, and enhanced dashboard and list-view tools. Retains certain Classic-only capabilities, including Sidebar Search and Advanced Search. Whether the sales and reporting tasks your teams perform work as needed.
Service and console Lightning Service Console and Lightning Knowledge have their own behaviors and limitations. Some service and console features differ or are unavailable in Lightning. Macros, chat and Omni-Channel routing, console shortcuts, Knowledge, and related integrations.
Development and integrations Uses Lightning-specific interfaces and APIs. Some existing customizations still depend on Classic-specific interfaces. Visualforce, custom JavaScript, Open CTI, and other integrations.
Migration work May require configuration changes, redesign, training, or data-model migration. Existing customizations may continue to depend on Classic. Workflows and dependencies that need remediation, with particular attention to Knowledge and integrations.

Salesforce describes the specific service, reporting, dashboard, files, console, and integration differences in its Lightning Experience feature-gap documentation and Classic-versus-Lightning comparison. Availability can depend on edition, configuration, and the feature in question.

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What features aren’t available in Lightning Experience?

There is no single answer that applies to every organization: Salesforce documents differences across service workflows, reports and dashboards, files, consoles, and integrations. Some Classic features do not have an equivalent in Lightning, while other tasks are supported but work differently. Salesforce’s comparison is not exhaustive, so confirm each requirement against the current documentation for your edition.

Service, console, and Knowledge

Check the details of Knowledge, chat and Omni-Channel setup, entitlement information, macros, and console capabilities. A service team may depend on a particular behavior rather than just the availability of a similarly named Lightning feature. Test representative cases, routing, shortcuts, and agent workflows before changing the interface.

Reporting, dashboards, files, and everyday work

Lightning offers newer options such as Activity Timeline, Kanban opportunity views, and enhanced dashboard and list-view tools; Classic retains features such as Sidebar Search and Advanced Search. Compare the actual reports, dashboard presentations, file handling, and sales tasks your users need instead of assuming that a feature name guarantees identical behavior.

Custom development and integrations

Inventory Visualforce pages, custom JavaScript, and integrations before planning a cutover. Open CTI has separate APIs for Classic and Lightning, and Salesforce says they behave differently. Custom JavaScript cannot simply exchange one API for the other without accounting for those differences.

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For organizations with substantial custom integrations or service workflows, an implementation or migration consultant may be useful for assessing gaps and planning remediation. The right scope depends on the organization’s own configuration; no particular provider is established here.

Can I switch back to Classic?

Sometimes. Salesforce documents a switch between interfaces for users with permission in an eligible organization, but not everyone will see the option. Administrators can disable the switcher for users, and Salesforce Starter and Starter Pro Suite are Lightning-only. Salesforce also documents additional edition and upgrade-history restrictions, so check the organization’s circumstances rather than assuming Classic access is available.

  1. In Lightning Experience, open the profile or avatar menu and choose Switch to Salesforce Classic, if the option is available.
  2. In Classic, use the name or profile menu, or the top navigation where shown, and choose Switch to Lightning Experience.

Salesforce says running Classic and Lightning simultaneously in separate browser tabs or windows is unsupported and can cause unexpected behavior. For current eligibility and switching details, see Salesforce’s switching between Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic guidance.

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What should an organization check before moving users to Lightning?

Treat a move as a workflow and configuration assessment, not simply a user-interface toggle. Salesforce’s transition guidance calls Lightning its current generation and directs new innovation there, but feature gaps and custom dependencies can make the work organization-specific.

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  1. Confirm access and scope. Check the organization’s edition, administrator settings, user permissions, and any upgrade-related restrictions. Decide which users and teams need to move and whether any need Classic access.
  2. Map critical workflows. List the sales, service, reporting, console, and file tasks users must complete. Test the actual sequence, including exceptions and handoffs.
  3. Inventory customizations and integrations. Identify Visualforce, custom JavaScript, Open CTI, and other dependencies. Verify the Lightning-specific behavior or remediation required for each.
  4. Assess Knowledge separately. If the organization uses Classic Knowledge, plan for the data-model migration rather than treating it as a cosmetic interface change.
  5. Train users and verify outcomes. Prepare users for changed workflows and validate that the features they rely on work in the target configuration before widening access.

What changed for Classic Knowledge and migration tools?

Classic Knowledge required a data migration

Salesforce said every organization using Classic Knowledge had to run the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool before June 1, 2025. This was not just a change in how articles look: Salesforce says article types become record types and the files model changes. Organizations that used Classic Knowledge should confirm their migration status and current Knowledge configuration in Salesforce’s Lightning Knowledge migration guidance.

Older transition tools are no longer current options

Salesforce retired the Lightning Experience Transition Assistant, Configuration Converter, and Readiness Check on January 10, 2025, for organizations on Spring ’25 and later. Older instructions that recommend those tools should not be treated as current guidance. Salesforce reported that 98.1% of all Salesforce organizations had adopted Lightning Experience in 2025; Salesforce cited that adoption figure when explaining the retirement of its Lightning Adoption apps. This is Salesforce’s reported figure, not an independently verified measurement. See Salesforce’s notice on the retired Lightning Adoption apps.

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