Differences Between Q&A Features in Salesforce

Salesforce offers various question-and-answer features that you can implement in your Salesforce organization and communities. Because some of these features use similar terminology, take a moment to review the differences between them.

Required Editions

Available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience

Answers and Chatter Answers are available in: Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Chatter Questions is available in: Essentials, Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Salesforce has released three features that let users post questions and answers in a public forum setting. While these features share a common purpose, they represent an evolution of Salesforce’s Q&A features.

Q&A Feature	Description	Structure	How Users Access It
Version 1: Answers (Salesforce Classic only)	Answers, released in Winter ’11, was Salesforce’s first Q&A feature for communities. Starting in Summer ’13, Answers isn’t available in new orgs.	Answers is built on the Question standard object.	Internal users access the Answers feature via the Answers tab in Salesforce.
Version 2: Chatter Answers (Salesforce Classic only)	Chatter Answers, released in Spring ’12, was intended for customers who liked the Answers user experience but wanted more features. Chatter Answers let companies maintain an out-of-the-box, self-service site where users could help address each other’s questions, and provided a feed view of users’ questions. Starting in Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs.	Chatter Answers is built on the Question standard object.	Internal users access Chatter Answers via the Q&A tab, and moderators can view a list of questions in the Questions tab.
Version 3: Chatter Questions	Chatter Questions, released in Winter ’15, represents the most advanced developments in Salesforce Q&A functionality. Because it takes advantage of Chatter’s built-in capabilities, it’s ideal for customers who want their Q&A feature tightly integrated into Chatter. Chatter Questions is available in Salesforce orgs, as well as in Experience Cloud Aura and Visualforce sites where Chatter Questions is enabled.	Chatter Questions is built on the Chatter data model, and uses the Feed Post and Feed Comment objects.	Internal users access Chatter Questions within Chatter. They use the Question action in the Chatter publisher to post a question, and all questions are visible in the Chatter feed.

Q&A Feature

Description

Structure

How Users Access It

Version 1: Answers (Salesforce Classic only)

Answers, released in Winter ’11, was Salesforce’s first Q&A feature for communities. Starting in Summer ’13, Answers isn’t available in new orgs.

Answers is built on the Question standard object.

Internal users access the Answers feature via the Answers tab in Salesforce.

Version 2: Chatter Answers (Salesforce Classic only)

Chatter Answers, released in Spring ’12, was intended for customers who liked the Answers user experience but wanted more features.

Chatter Answers let companies maintain an out-of-the-box, self-service site where users could help address each other’s questions, and provided a feed view of users’ questions. Starting in Summer ’16, Chatter Answers isn’t available in new orgs.

Chatter Answers is built on the Question standard object.

Internal users access Chatter Answers via the Q&A tab, and moderators can view a list of questions in the Questions tab.

Version 3: Chatter Questions

Chatter Questions, released in Winter ’15, represents the most advanced developments in Salesforce Q&A functionality. Because it takes advantage of Chatter’s built-in capabilities, it’s ideal for customers who want their Q&A feature tightly integrated into Chatter.

Chatter Questions is available in Salesforce orgs, as well as in Experience Cloud Aura and Visualforce sites where Chatter Questions is enabled.

Chatter Questions is built on the Chatter data model, and uses the Feed Post and Feed Comment objects.

Internal users access Chatter Questions within Chatter. They use the Question action in the Chatter publisher to post a question, and all questions are visible in the Chatter feed.