Permission Sets vs Profiles in Salesforce: What's the Difference (and Which to Use)
· 6 min read
In Salesforce, every user has exactly one profile and can have many permission sets. A profile sets the baseline — and the settings that can only have one value per user, like default app, record types, page layout assignments, and login hours. A permission set grants additional access on top and stacks additively, so you can assign the same set to many users. The model Salesforce now recommends is minimal profiles plus permission sets (composed into permission set groups), and that's where the ecosystem is heading — though, as of 2026, there's no deadline forcing it.