Considerations for Selecting an Authentication Provider

To help you determine which authentication provider is right for your company’s enablement site, review how each provider affects your learning and enablement strategy. We recommend that all new enablement sites choose Salesforce Identity for Enablement.

Required Editions

Available in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions

User Roles
This topic supports these enablement site roles:	Salesforce Admins

You can choose between these providers:

Salesforce Identity for Enablement, which uses the Salesforce Identity access management service with your enablement site as an external client app or a connected app.
Trailblazer.me (TBID), which uses a separate profile that provides access to multiple Salesforce products.

Content Access

Consideration	Salesforce Identity for Enablement (Recommended)	TBID
Users can access content on your enablement site with one click.	Yes, if a user is already logged in to Salesforce. Otherwise, the user must first authenticate with their Salesforce credentials.	Yes, but requires building single sign-on (SSO) links.
A user can access your enablement site and Trailhead with the same credentials.	Yes	Yes
Learners can access a trailmix that includes content from both your enablement site and Trailhead.	Yes	Yes
Learners can access content from both your enablement site and Trailhead in Learning Paths in Lightning Experience.	Yes	Yes
Learners can access enablement site content from a mobile browser.	Yes	Yes
Learners can access enablement site content on the Trailhead GO mobile app.	Yes	Yes
Learners can access enablement site content in the Trailhead app for Slack.	Yes	Yes

User Registration and Profile

Consideration	Salesforce Identity for Enablement (Recommended)	TBID
New users get immediate access to your enablement site without creating a Trailhead profile.	Yes	No, new users are prompted to create a Trailhead profile first.
Learners earn points and badges by completing enablement site content, including content assigned in the Guidance Center panel in Lightning Experience.	Yes	Yes
Learners can view the rank, points, and badges that they earned by completing enablement site content.	Yes, learners can see the total count of their points and badges next to their user avatar. However, there’s no profile page that shows their rank or specific badges that they earned.	Yes, learners can access a profile page that shows the rank, points, and specific badges that they earned.
Learners earn points and badges by completing Trailhead content, including content assigned in the Guidance Center panel in Lightning Experience.	Yes	Yes
Learners can view the rank, points, and badges that they earned by completing Trailhead content.	Yes, but only if the user creates a personal Trailhead account and views their profile page from that account. This profile page reflects only the user’s Trailhead activity, not their enablement site activity. On your enablement site, the total count of points and badges shown next to the user’s avatar reflects activity from only your enablement site. The count of points and badges doesn’t reflect the user’s Trailhead activity. No rank information is available.	Yes, the user’s profile page reflects activity from both your enablement site and Trailhead content.
Your enablement site is accessible by internal users from your Salesforce org and by external users who are Experience Cloud site members.	Yes, if your internal users are also members of the Experience Cloud site. With Salesforce Identity for Enablement, we generally recommend that your enablement site serves either only internal Salesforce org users or only external Experience Cloud site members.	Yes

For more information about profiles for new users, see Enablement Site User Profile.

Admin Experience

Consideration	Salesforce Identity for Enablement (Recommended)	TBID
Admins create an external client app or use a connected app in their Salesforce org for connecting users in Salesforce to your enablement site.	Yes	No
Admins can define session timeouts and enforce security measures, such as specifying allowed IP ranges. For example, if you wanted to require a VPN, you can restrict session activity to IP addresses within the VPN.	Yes	No
Admins give users access to Trailmaker features by creating and assigning permission sets.	Yes	Yes
Admins give learners access to content by creating content collections and creating and assigning permission sets.	Yes	Yes

Manager Experience

Consideration	Salesforce Identity for Enablement (Recommended)	TBID
Managers can assign a trailmix to any active enablement site user, and the user doesn’t require a Trailhead account.	Yes	No
Managers can use the Trail Tracker app to report on a user’s enablement site activity.	Yes	Yes
Managers can use the Trail Tracker app to report on a user’s enablement site activity and their Trailhead activity, including points and badges earned from either platform.	Yes, if the user meets both of these criteria: Has created a Trailhead account using their enablement site credentials Has the Enablement Sites (myTrailhead) permission set license	Yes, if the user has the Enablement Sites (myTrailhead) permission set license.
Managers can use the Trail Tracker app to assign a trailmix that contains content from both your enablement site and Trailhead.	Yes, if the user meets both of these criteria: Has created a Trailhead account using their enablement site credentials Has the Enablement Sites (myTrailhead) permission set license	Yes, if the user has the Enablement Sites (myTrailhead) permission set license.

Note With Salesforce Identity for Enablement, if a user chooses to create a Trailhead account with their enablement site credentials, they can later disconnect their enablement site credentials from that account. They can still use their enablement site credentials for accessing your site, and admins can report on their enablement site activities using Trail Tracker. But admins can no longer report on their Trailhead activities or assign trailmixes that contain a combination of enablement site and Trailhead content.

Impact of Switching Authentication Providers

If you first selected TBID for your enablement site’s authentication provider, you can submit a Salesforce Customer Support case to request to switch to Salesforce Identity for Enablement instead. If you first selected Salesforce Identity for Enablement for your enablement site's authentication provider, you can’t request to switch it to TBID. To learn more about how this switch affects the user experience and how to submit a case, see Request to Switch Your Authentication Provider.