Hello Salesforce Thinkers, in our previous blog we have learned about Lightning Process Builder and in this blog we are going to learn “Difference between Process Builder and Workflows in Salesforce“.

Process Builder and Workflows both tools are used to automate business processes.

Process Builder is more advanced than workflows. It extends upon the things that workflow does.

The major difference between workflows and process builder is the number of operations or actions they have.

Actions of Process builder:-

Create a new record
Update any related record
Quick action to create a record, update a record or log a call
Launch a flow
Send an email
Post to Chatter
Submit for approval
Call Apex methods

But the process builder doesn’t support outbound messages.

Workflows enable us to set up rules that are evaluated and the corresponding action is executed based on the type of change in record.

Actions of workflows:-

Create Task
Update Field
Email Alert
Outbound Message

Process Builder brings a visual designer with it. Whereas the visual designer is not available in Workflows.

For updating related records, Process Builder can update any field on any related record.

Whereas Workflows can only update some fields on a parent record of a Master-Detail relationship.

Process Builder lets you control the order of your criteria.

It gives you the ability to set the exact order of operations, whereas In Workflows we had no control, there’s no way for you to determine which order your workflow rules run in.

Process Builder also has the ability to configure multiple if-then conditions in one Process rather than separate Workflow rules.
A single process can do what it would normally take multiple workflow rules to do.

Process Builder has versions so you can retain deactivated Processes. This can be very helpful if you realize something isn’t working and want to look back to what was happening before. You can clone the processes and make changes as you want.

A Process builder Starts when
A Record is changes
Invoked by another process
A platform event occurs
Workflow rule Starts when
Record is changes

Let’s take some scenarios:-

1.After a new contact is created, create a case for verifying the information.

As the requirement is to create a new record, we have to use Process builder. Because workflows cannot create new records.

2.Submit An opportunity for approval automatically when the amount is over $500,00.

Process builder has a feature called “Submit for Approval” which allows a record to be submitted for approval.

Always choose one tool to automate everything for a given object. If you use both Workflow and Process Builder, you can’t reliably predict the results of a record change.

Process builder is going to get new features in the future, whereas workflow rules will be no longer enhanced.

But Salesforce still supports workflow rules, all new functionality for the workflows use case will come through Process Builder. If you want to use them migrate your automation to Process Builder.

Now you can decide the appropriate automation solution between Workflows and Process Builder.