Key Takeaways
- All new Salesforce features, Einstein AI capabilities, and platform innovations are Lightning Experience-only — Classic receives only security maintenance.
- Lightning's key advantages over Classic: modern responsive UI, Einstein AI features, App Builder, Kanban pipeline view, Path guidance, and dynamic forms.
- Run Salesforce's built-in Lightning Experience Readiness Check before planning your migration — it identifies custom Visualforce pages, buttons, and components that need updating.
- User adoption is the biggest risk in a Lightning migration — invest in training, gather feedback from power users early, and consider a phased rollout by team or profile.
- The migration is not optional long-term — the earlier you switch, the less you fall behind competitors already leveraging Lightning's AI and productivity features.
Salesforce launched Lightning Experience in 2015 as a ground-up redesign of its user interface and application platform. Three years later, in 2018, Lightning is the active platform — receiving all new features, Einstein AI integration, and UX improvements — while Classic has entered what Salesforce calls 'maintenance mode'. Classic users receive security patches; Lightning users receive everything else. For organisations still running Salesforce Classic in 2018, the question is no longer whether to migrate but when and how. The feature gap between Classic and Lightning is measured in three Salesforce release cycles per year, each adding capabilities that Classic users cannot access: Einstein Lead Scoring, Einstein Opportunity Insights, dynamic forms, the Path guidance feature, Kanban views, enhanced reports, and an App Builder that enables custom page configurations without code. This guide explains what Lightning Experience offers that Classic doesn't, what the migration practically involves, and how to approach the switch in a way that maintains the user adoption you've worked to build.
Definition: Visualforce vs Lightning Web Components
Visualforce is Salesforce's legacy page-building framework — it uses a tag-based markup language to build custom UI pages and components, and runs in both Classic and Lightning Experience (with some limitations). Lightning Web Components (LWC) is Salesforce's modern component framework, based on standard Web Components and JavaScript. LWC is faster, more secure, and aligned with open web standards — but requires rewriting Visualforce pages as LWC components. Organisations with significant Visualforce customisation must assess each custom page and component during Lightning migration planning: some work in Lightning with minor adjustments, some require full rewrites, and some can be replaced with standard Lightning functionality that didn't exist when the Visualforce version was built.
What Lightning Experience Offers That Classic Cannot
Lightning's key advantages over Classic are Einstein AI features, a modern productivity-focused UI, the App Builder for no-code customisation, and Kanban and Path features that guide sales teams through defined processes.
Einstein AI is the most significant Lightning-exclusive capability. Einstein Lead Scoring analyses your historical conversion data to predict which leads are most likely to convert, surfacing the best opportunities for your sales team without manual prioritisation. Einstein Opportunity Insights flags at-risk deals, identifies when a deal has gone quiet, and highlights competitor mentions in emails. Einstein Activity Capture automatically logs emails and calendar events to Salesforce records, eliminating manual activity logging. These features are not available in Classic and represent a genuine sales productivity advantage for Lightning users.
The Lightning App Builder enables administrators to create custom page layouts for any object (leads, accounts, opportunities, contacts) by dragging and dropping standard and custom components — without writing code. Dynamic forms allow field visibility to be controlled by conditions (show the 'Annual Contract Value' field only if the 'Deal Type' is 'Enterprise') rather than having to create multiple page layouts. The Activity Timeline on record pages gives sales reps a complete chronological history of every email, call, task, and event associated with an account or opportunity — replacing Classic's scattered activity sections with a unified view.
Kanban view for lists and pipeline management is a Lightning-only feature that sales managers consistently cite as a productivity improvement. Rather than a text list of opportunities, Kanban displays deals as cards organised by pipeline stage — with drag-and-drop to move deals between stages and visual cues for deals that are past their close date or flagged by Einstein. Path guidance provides contextual information, key fields, and step-by-step guidance for each stage of the sales process, displayed as an interactive progress bar on every record — replacing the sales methodology training that used to happen in manager conversations with in-app guidance.
How to Approach the Classic to Lightning Migration
A Lightning migration follows four phases: readiness assessment, technical remediation, user enablement, and go-live with monitoring.
Start with the Lightning Experience Readiness Check (Setup > Lightning Experience Transition Assistant). This tool scans your Salesforce org and produces a report identifying: Visualforce pages that need review, buttons and links that may not work in Lightning, Custom Objects using Classic-only features, and users with profiles that need Lightning permission sets. The report categorises items by severity and provides guidance on remediation for each. Use this report to scope the technical work required and estimate timeline.
Technical remediation involves addressing the gaps identified by the Readiness Check. Visualforce pages fall into three categories: those that work in Lightning without changes, those that work with minor CSS adjustments, and those that need to be rebuilt as Lightning Web Components or replaced with standard Lightning functionality. Custom buttons using JavaScript that worked in Classic may need to be converted to Lightning-supported alternatives. This is typically the most time-consuming phase for orgs with significant custom development.
User enablement is as important as technical migration and more commonly under-resourced. Lightning is a meaningfully different interface from Classic — users who have been working in Classic for years will need training and transition support. Best practice is to identify Lightning Champions in each team — power users who experience Lightning first, become familiar with the differences, and act as internal resources for their colleagues during the transition. Provide role-based training focused on the specific tasks each user type performs, not a generic 'here's the new interface' overview. Gather feedback during a parallel period where users can switch between Classic and Lightning, and address friction points before making Lightning the default.
Experience Signal
The Lightning migrations that go well follow a consistent pattern: a technical readiness assessment before any work starts, Champion users involved early in the process who provide honest feedback about what isn't working, and a training approach built around real use cases rather than feature demonstrations. The ones that struggle tend to make the switch technically and then leave users to figure out the new interface on their own. Classic-to-Lightning is a genuine UX change for daily users — records look different, navigation is different, actions are in different places. That's manageable with preparation; it's a support burden without it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Salesforce has not announced a hard end-of-life date for Classic, but they have made clear that Classic is in maintenance mode — receiving only critical security fixes, not new features. All new Salesforce features, Einstein AI capabilities, and platform improvements are Lightning-only. Salesforce has been actively encouraging migrations since 2016 and has stated that Classic will eventually be retired. Organisations that delay the switch will find the feature gap between Classic and Lightning growing every release cycle, while their competitors on Lightning access capabilities their Classic-based team cannot.
Lightning Experience offers: a modern, responsive interface designed for the full desktop rather than the 1990s-era Classic UI; the App Builder for creating custom page layouts and app experiences without code; Einstein AI features (Einstein Lead Scoring, Einstein Opportunity Insights, Einstein Activity Capture) that are Lightning-only; the Kanban view for pipeline management; path guidance for sales processes; dynamic forms for context-sensitive page layouts; enhanced reports and dashboards; and a fundamentally different user experience designed around how modern sales teams work. Classic has the same underlying data model and functionality, presented through an interface that has not meaningfully evolved since 2006.
A straightforward migration for an organisation with standard Salesforce configuration, few custom Visualforce pages, and a relatively small user base typically takes 4–8 weeks. Complex migrations — with many custom Visualforce pages that need Lightning equivalents, deep customisation, and large teams with varied profiles — can take 3–6 months. Salesforce provides a Lightning Experience Readiness Check tool in Setup that scans your org and identifies specific features and customisations that need to be addressed before or during migration. Running this check is the right first step in any migration planning process.
Sources
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Jai Paek
Creative Director
Jai leads brand identity and UX design at Webnixon, bringing 20+ years of experience building digital design systems for agencies and enterprise teams. He has shipped design systems and visual identities for over 200 brands across Canada and the US, with deep expertise in conversion-focused UI, WCAG 2.1 accessibility compliance, and responsive web design for service businesses and ecommerce brands.
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