Salesforce Administrator vs. Salesforce Developer
Salesforce Administrator
A Salesforce Administrator manages the Salesforce platform using mostly clicks instead of code.
They help users, automate business processes, maintain data quality, and configure the CRM.
Responsibilities
- User Management
- Reports & Dashboards
- Flows
- Security
- Permission Sets
- Automation
- Validation Rules
- Data Import/Export
Technical Skills
- Flow Builder
- Data Loader
- Security Model
- Reports
- Dashboards
- Object Management
Recommended Certifications
- Administrator
- Advanced Administrator
- Platform App Builder
- Business Analyst
- AI Associate
- AI Specialist
Salesforce Developer
A Salesforce Developer builds custom applications and extends Salesforce using programming languages.
Responsibilities
- Apex Programming
- Lightning Web Components (LWC)
- Visualforce
- API Integrations
- Custom REST Services
- SOQL
- Unit Testing
Programming Languages
- Apex
- JavaScript
- HTML
- CSS
- SQL/SOQL
Recommended Certifications
- Platform Developer I
- Platform Developer II
- JavaScript Developer I
- Data Architect
- Integration Architect
- AI Specialist
Comparison Table
| Salesforce Administrator | Salesforce Developer |
|---|---|
| Mostly No-Code | Code-Heavy |
| Flow Builder | Apex |
| Reports | Lightning Web Components |
| Security | APIs |
| Automation | Custom Development |
| Business Processes | Application Development |






