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We are building a ReactNative Mobile App using Salesforce SDK for IOS operating system.

It pulls and pushes data into salesforce. Salesforce also makes callouts to other systems to get data which is sent back to the mobile App.

Currently the React native App is authenticated using SSO with Identity Provider and then authorized using OAuth token with salesforce which is used in all rest calls from Mobile App to Salesforce.

We are currently using Lightning Platform Starter License for mobile App.

Question:

  1. If we are just using salesforce to push/pull data from the mobile App and no functionality of Salesforce cloud is used except for storing data/making callouts is it worth to invest in per user Lightning platform starter license?
  2. Instead of per user license can we get rid of salesforce license and use like a single service account or single user for data push/pull from salesforce. will this cause any kind of licensing compliance issues with salesforce?

I checked the documentation of mobile implementation guide and it doesn't seem to provide any guidance on what are the key factors that needs to be considered for licensing for native mobile apps

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First, the Master Subscription Agreement for Salesforce prohibits sharing user licenses across users. You should not try to circumvent this, even for pure API users.

Second, there are technical limits at play that will prevent this from scaling well. For example, a user is limited to 5 OAuth tokens per app. This means that even if it were not against the MSA, no more than 5 users could share a single license before kicking someone else off.

Third, if you're storing data at all, keep in mind that this arrangement means you can't audit whoever made a change to a record, as the CreatedBy and LastModifiedBy fields are tied to a user account.

Fourth, even if you start sharing session tokens, you'd start running in to other limits, like concurrent query cursors, concurrent requests, etc. Salesforce is not designed to be used by multiple physical users per user account.

All that said, you might be able to get away with a more efficient license. Salesforce has several different "high volume" licenses that are far more cost effective than the quoted $25/month/user costs. To find out if there's a more appropriate license for your use case, contact your Account Executive.

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  • Thanks @sfdcfox,I completely understand the service account part what if we use like a public site and send rest services to salesforce and find custom ways for authentication inside that?
    – RedDevil
    Commented Apr 1, 2019 at 9:22
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    @RedDevil again, specifically against the MSA (see the Sites Subscription Agreement, too). For that case, you might look in to the High Volume licenses, which offers a large number of site licenses at what I presume is a fairly reasonable price. Contacting your AE is still your best choice.
    – sfdcfox ♦
    Commented Apr 1, 2019 at 13:15
  • Thanks @sfdcfox. we will review this in detail.For some reason i am not getting notification from SFSE when you answered my question as well as commented.
    – RedDevil
    Commented Apr 1, 2019 at 15:45

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