Apache Answer vs Salesforce Experience Cloud
Apache Answer
answer.apache.orgSalesforce Experience Cloud
salesforce.comSide by side
| Figure | Apache Answer | Salesforce Experience Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $2/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 11 |
| Spec score · Customer Community Software | 9.1 (#1) | 8.3 (#10) |
| Founded | 2022 | 1999 |
| Public API | Apache Answer generates Swagger API documentation and exposes it from an instance at /swagger/index.html when enabled. | Salesforce publishes an Experience Cloud Connect REST API reference at version 67.0 with Experience Cloud site resources and an OpenAPI specification download. |
| Purpose | Apache Answer is a Q&A platform for building communities between users and teams, including community forums, help centers, and knowledge management platforms. | Experience Cloud creates branded digital experiences such as portals, help forums, support communities, and sites for customers, partners, and employees. |
| Support | Support is offered through community discussions, documentation, issues, mailing lists, and Discord, with no guarantee of an instant Discord response. | The Standard Success Plan is included in all licenses and provides self-guided resources, knowledge articles, documentation, Trailhead, and the Trailblazer Community. |
| What it does | Apache Answer is software for running community forums, help centers, or knowledge-management Q&A sites. | Experience Cloud creates digital experiences for customers, partners, and employees, including branded portals, forums, and websites connected to business data. |
Plans
Salesforce Experience Cloud
- Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud (login)$2 a month
- Login Edition for Learners and Alumni$3.75 a month
- Employee Portal — Login$4 a month
- Login Edition for Partners$5 a month
- Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud$5 a month
- Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud (member or employee)$5 a month
- Employee Portal — Named User$8 a month
- Member Edition for Learners and Alumni$8.75 a month
- Member Edition for Partners$12.50 a month
- CRM Analytics for Community (Experience Cloud)$25 a month
In their own words
Apache Answer
Apache Answer is a free, open-source Q&A platform for community forums, help centers, and knowledge management. Members can ask and answer questions, comment, vote, and earn reputation and badges. Tags, advanced search filters, and live suggestions help organize discussions and find relevant questions. Administrators can manage admin, moderator, and user roles, add users in bulk, and inspect edits in revision history. Themes and layouts can be customized, and plugins can add capabilities such as Google or generic OAuth2 login, Slack notifications, Redis caching, Algolia or Elasticsearch search, and S3 storage. Deployment options include Docker Compose, Docker, binaries, and aaPanel. The project lists binaries for Darwin ARM64, Linux AMD64 and ARM64, and Windows AMD64, and supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. Documentation describes controls for registration, login methods, allowed email domains, and member access to content. Apache Answer is licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0. Its security guarantee covers official repository plugins only, not third-party plugins.
Salesforce Experience Cloud
Salesforce Experience Cloud creates branded digital experiences for customers, partners, and employees, including account portals, partner sites, help centers, support communities, and custom sites. Organizations can build with no-code tools and templates, low-code tools, or programmatic development. Sites use Salesforce org data and can connect with Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, and Industries applications. Salesforce describes adding Agentforce agents to automate workflows, answer questions, and guide visitors. The platform is available through web, Android, iOS, and APIs. Mobile Publisher can turn Aura and LWR sites into branded Google Play and Apple App Store apps, requiring its own license. Experience Builder sites do not run in the Salesforce mobile app, but work in supported mobile browsers or branded apps. Security options include authentication, encryption, clickjack protection, Content Security Policy, and Lightning Locker. Listed plans include prices from $2.00 per month, with annual billing terms; other editions and terms vary.