Salesforce is a multi-faceted CRM platform with different tools, features, components, add-ons, and applications dedicated for specific purposes. This often gets new users confused between different components available within the platform.

One such common confusion arises between a Salesforce object and big object. Beginners often tend to use the two terms interchangeably and are unaware of the differences between the two entities. Let us dive a little deep into Salesforce objects and big objects to understand the key differences between the two.

What Are Salesforce Objects?

Salesforce objects are nothing but specific database tables that contain information about a particular aspect of your customer database. For example, the Salesforce object of Leads contains information about the leads generated and managed by your team. The object of Accounts contains information about different businesses catered to by your team.

There are two major types of Salesforce objects within a Salesforce org – standard objects and custom objects.

Standard Objects

These are the Salesforce objects that are pre-installed into the database since the platform is implemented by your Salesforce developer. These objects include Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Reports, Opportunities, Cases, and many more.

Custom Objects

These are the Salesforce objects that can be created by a user based on their specific requirements. Custom objects are not readily provided by Salesforce since implementation. These objects form a crucial part of creating any Salesforce application and provide a set structure for sharing valuable data.

What Are Big Objects?

On the other hand, big objects are the objects that store and manage massive amounts of data stored within your Salesforce org. Salesforce users can archive all necessary data from different Salesforce objects and bring in huge datasets from external systems onto big objects to get a 360-degree view of their customers.

Clients and external systems access data contained in these big objects by making use of a standard set of APIs. With the help of a big object, you can obtain a consistent performance by your CRM platform irrespective of the number of records stored within your database.

Just like Salesforce objects, there are two major types of big objects in Salesforce – standard big objects and custom big objects.

Standard Big Objects

These are the big objects defined and added by Salesforce and included in all major Salesforce offerings. These big objects are available to users out of the box and cannot be customized according to their needs. For example, the object of the Field History Archive has the capacity to store a large number of datasets as a part of the Field Audit Trail product.

Custom Big Objects

Similar to custom Salesforce objects, custom bog objects are the objects that can be created by Salesforce users for storing valuable information that is unique to their organization. Essentially, the functionality of a custom big object is an extension of the functionality provided by the Lightning Platform.

When Do Users Use Big Objects?

Salesforce users make use of big objects in the following scenarios:

Obtaining A Complete Customer View

Big objects allow users to obtain a 360-degree view of their customers and the personalized buying journeys made by them. For this, users can include valuable information from loyalty programs, clicks, feeds, billing and provision data, and many more sources.

Auditing And Tracking Processes

Big objects allow users to audit and track the long-term view of their Salesforce org and the processes carried out by their team members on a unified platform.

Access To Historical Data

Finally, Salesforce users can make use of big objects for easy access to historical data which can be analyzed for optimizing the processes carried out by the team.