MTDT vs Change Sets

When it comes to Salesforce deployment, teams often start with native tools like Change Sets. However, as your development processes scale, the need for a more powerful, automated solution becomes clear. That’s where MTDT comes in — a platform designed to simplify and streamline Salesforce deployments.

In this article, we compare MTDT and Change Sets to help teams understand the key differences and decide which tool best fits their workflow.

Overview

Change Sets	MTDT
Salesforce Change Sets are a basic, built-in deployment method. You manually select components in one org (usually a sandbox) and push them to another (like production).	MTDT is an automated deployment platform developed specifically for Salesforce teams who want faster, more reliable releases. MTDT helps visualize, validate, and deploy changes with ease — no command-line tools or manual tracking required.

Set up and Ease of Use

Feature	Change Set	MTDT
Setup	Built into Salesforce.	Lightweight setup. No installations required.
UI	Basic, list-based	Modern, intuitive UI with metadata comparison tools
Learning	Low, but becomes complex with scale	Very low, even for non-developers. Highly efficient after setup

Deployment Workflow

Change Sets	MTDT
Manual creation of Outbound Change Set Add components one-by-one Upload to target org Validate and deploy	Compare orgs or branches visually See all differences Select what to deploy Run validations Deploy in one click
✅ Good for: Small teams Low-frequency releases	✅ Good for: Teams using GitHub/version control CI/CD practices Several development teams
🚫 Limitations: No rollback Hard to track changes	🚫 Limitations: Paid tool (pricing based on user/feature level)

Metadata Coverage & Comparison

Feature	Change Set	MTDT
Metadata Types	Limited (some types not supported)	Comprehensive coverage
Metadata Comparison	Not supported	Full side-by-side diffing
Metadata Backup	Not supported	Backup by one click

Automation & CI/CD

Change Sets	MTDT
No automation support	Full support for CI/CD pipelines, GitHub workflows, scheduled jobs

Final Thoughts

Use Case	Recommendations
Solo admin/small team with occasional updates	✅ MTDT / ✅ Change Sets
Large team/several development teams, multiple sandboxes, version control, frequent deployments	✅ MTDT
Regulated industries (audit, backup, CI/CD needs)	✅ MTDT

Change Sets are a good starting point, but if your team is scaling or adopting DevOps practices, MTDT provides the speed, visibility, and automation needed for modern Salesforce development.