Native Grids

Grids by RavenApps is a Salesforce Native App and this provides a number of benefits for customers including data security and much more. Please read below for more details.

What is a Salesforce Native App?

A Salesforce Native App is 100% built and hosted within Salesforce using solely Salesforce's technologies such as LWC and Apex.

It has no access to proprietary APIs, external systems or external data.

Are most apps Native?

You may be mistaken for thinking that most apps on the AppExchange are ‘Native’ but in fact of the 4,000+ apps currently live on the AppExchange less than 15% (~600) are native.

This is due to the strict definition above that the app is entirely built on Salesforce and in fact the majority of apps either use proprietary APIs to connect to external data or run some of their processing using external tools.

What are the advantages of a Native App?

1. Scalability – being built 100% on Salesforce means that Native Apps benefit from future Salesforce developments. We saw this at RavenApps when Salesforce released a new feature in Jan 2023 to allow Flows to be called directly from LWCs and this allowed us to give users modal flows rather than having to launch flows in an additional tab.

2. Usability – Native Apps will generally have a very close look and feel to Salesforce so end users will need very little or no additional training to use them. Some non-native apps are very custom and require expertise and training in that area to use.

3. Maintainability / Flexibility – Keeping an App’s build 100% on Salesforce ensures that the App is aligned to Salesforce consultants’ skills and experience with no need to engage with external consultants with expertise in other areas. This allows customers to easily build additional functionality on top of the App such as adding custom fields and automations to exactly meet business requirements.

4. Security – all your data is stored inside Salesforce with no external access by the app provider or anyone else. Hence no additional security reviews are needed outside of company’s Salesforce review.

5. Reliability – As based 100% on Salesforce infrastructure, Native Apps benefit from Salesforce’s 99.9%+ uptime – see here.

6. Real-time data – As all Native App data is stored in your Salesforce Org it can be reported on in real time will no need to worry about batch updates as some non-native Apps rely on.

What are the disadvantages of a Native App?

• If you need an App that will bring data in from another system, such as for data enrichment and connections to other system, then this app cannot be native.

• For highly customised processes Salesforce’s native architecture may not be the perfect fit for an app so developers may choose to use external tools and integrations to give clients these highly customized requirements.

• Native Apps must abide by Salesforce limits and in some cases app developers may decide that using external processing power is more appropriate for their business requirement.

How do I know if an App is Native?

All Native Apps are labelled under the Supported Feature section of the AppExchange:

How can I search for a Native App?

If you go to the Salesforce AppExchange and filter by 'Native' under Other Filters, you can see the list of all Native Apps: