External Client Apps and Connected Apps

There are two options to connect your Salesforce data with third-party applications. Both connected apps and external client apps are frameworks to integrate data. External client apps are the next generation of connected apps. They’re fully metadata-compliant and include structural improvements to maintain separate user roles and allow second-generation managed packaging.

We recommend that you use external client apps in all situations and migrate existing local connected apps to local external client apps. However, some features are only available through connected apps. See the Comparison of Connected Apps and External Client Apps Features.

• Comparison of Connected Apps and External Client Apps Features
  Connected apps offer a framework to provide external applications with your Salesforce data. However, there are aspects of the framework that make it impossible to define separate user roles and difficult to package connected apps. External client apps were designed to be as useful at connecting external applications with your data as connected apps while addressing these shortcomings.
• Connected App to External Client App Migration
  Create a local external client app based on one of your existing local connected apps. As the next generation of connected apps, external client apps provide many of the features of connected apps while offering increased security.
• External Client Apps
  External client apps are packageable frameworks to enable a third-party application to integrate with Salesforce using APIs and security protocols. External client apps provide single sign-on (SSO) and use SAML and OAuth protocols to authorize third-party applications. Third-party applications that are integrated with Salesforce can run on the customer success platform as well as other platforms, devices, or SaaS subscriptions.
• Connected Apps
  A connected app is a framework that enables an third-party application to integrate with Salesforce by using APIs and standard protocols, such as SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect. Connected apps use these protocols to authenticate, authorize, and provide single sign-on (SSO) for third-party applications. The third-party applications that are integrated with Salesforce can run on the customer success platform, other platforms, other devices, or even SaaS subscriptions. For example, when you log in to your Salesforce mobile app and see your data from your Salesforce org, you’re using a connected app.