[SalesForce] What’s the difference between portal and newly introduced salesforce community

After introduction with salesforce community, I am unable to clear how community is different from portal functionality. I already read here but this don't have answers of question like:

  • What is new things being provided by community?
  • What are restriction we have if we use community?
  • Advantage of community over portal.
  • Is it capable of provide Email functionalities as same we have in other organization types?
  • Role of chatter in communities etc.
  • Is their difference between portal user and community user?

I already know that community is dedicated feature for portal functionality, but is it have some new functionality or only a portal part is separated?

Please provide some summary, links or answers you have.

Best Answer

Communities launched in Summer'13.

Before : Partner and Customer Portals

Now : Communities with Partner and Customer Licenses

Before : Limited customisation

Now : Pixel perfect customisation, including customisation of login pages. Use of Site.Com as well as VF Pages for Customisation. Also some ability to customise email with branding.

Before : No Chatter

Now : Chatter with controls to limit people to groups, limit posts to just internal audience and / or external.

Customers who have Portal Licenses can either swap for Community Licenses, or use their existing licenses to use Communities. Also customers who already have Portal can continue to use them, I don't believe an EOL has been announced yet.

Internal Users can switch between communities, similarly to how we can switch between applications. Communities also support SSO.

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