Hey friends,
Every Salesforce developer needs somewhere to break things safely. A free Developer Edition org is that place, and getting one takes a form, an email and a password.
To sign up for a free Salesforce Developer Edition org, go to developer.salesforce.com/signup, fill out the form with an active email address and a unique email-style username, click Sign me up, then open the activation email, click Verify Account and set your password and security question. You're logged in to your new org as soon as you finish.
People call it a Salesforce developer account, a developer org or a DE org, and they all mean the same thing. Salesforce offers it on its free trials page as a way to build on Salesforce for free with Agentforce and Data 360. The rest of this post covers the steps, what to do if the email never arrives, and how it differs from a Trailhead Playground, a sandbox and a scratch org.
What a Developer Edition org is
Salesforce's developer team describes a DE org as a free org that provides access to many of the features and capabilities of an Enterprise Edition org without a paid subscription. Here is what that means in practice:
- It's free and it lasts. Salesforce says it doesn't expire as long as you log in regularly.
- You can have more than one. The developer blog says you can sign up for as many as you like.
- It includes the new AI tools. The new Developer Edition comes with Agentforce and Data 360, and Salesforce says every org now has access to Agentforce Vibes IDE, a browser-based VS Code environment you open from Setup.
- It has limits. Data and storage are limited, it can't be refreshed, it doesn't have source tracking, and you can't create a sandbox from it.
That last list is why a Developer Edition org is a learning and experimenting tool, not a permanent home for a real project.
How to sign up for a Developer Edition org
These steps follow Salesforce's own Trailhead walkthrough, and Trailhead's Agentforce DX project describes the same sign-up:
- Go to developer.salesforce.com/signup.
- Fill out the form. For Email, enter an active address you can open. For Username, enter something that looks like an email address and is unique. It doesn't have to be a real email account, for example
yourname@example.com. - Click Sign me up. A confirmation message appears.
- Open the activation email, which can take a few minutes, and click Verify Account.
- Set your password and your challenge (security) question. Save your username, password and login URL in a password manager.
- You're now logged in to your new Developer Edition org.
One tip from Salesforce's older ISVforce workbook is worth keeping: since the username only has to look like an email, make it descriptive. If you plan to have several orgs, a prefix like dev_ or test_ helps you tell them apart later.
Salesforce updates this page from time to time, so if a label looks different from the steps above, trust the page.
If the verification email doesn't arrive
- Give it a few minutes. Salesforce's walkthrough says the activation email can take a while to show up.
- Check spam, and make sure the email address in the form was typed correctly. If the username was already taken, use a different one, since it has to be unique.
- If the email arrives but the link sends you back to a login page instead of letting you choose a password, an email link-scanning feature may be the cause. Salesforce Help names Microsoft Safelinks as an example and says disabling that feature or allowing Salesforce usually fixes it.
- Be wary of anyone else asking for your login. Salesforce Help says Salesforce will never proactively ask for your login credentials by email or phone.
What to do in your first hour
A new org is empty, so give it a job. These are the first things I'd do:
- Save your username, password and login URL in a password manager.
- Connect it to Trailhead. While you're logged in to Trailhead, open the Challenge section at the bottom of a hands-on challenge, click the org name, then click Connect Org. Enter the username and password of your Developer Edition org, click Allow, then click Yes! Save it. (Steps from the Trailhead walkthrough.) Some badges ask for a special Developer Edition org with its own sign-up link, so use the link the challenge gives you. My Trailhead for beginners guide covers what to do next.
- Open the browser IDE. Open Setup and search for Agentforce Vibes. Salesforce's announcement says it opens a full VS Code editor with the Salesforce extensions and CLI already set up, and your org's metadata loaded.
- Or connect your own tools. If you'd rather use VS Code and Salesforce CLI on your computer, Trailhead's Development Essentials project shows the flow: run SFDX: Authorize an Org in VS Code, choose Production, give the org an alias and log in through the browser. That project uses a Trailhead Playground, which Trailhead describes as essentially a Developer org. My Salesforce CLI guide goes further.
- Turn on Dev Hub if you want scratch orgs. Salesforce says you can enable Dev Hub in a Developer Edition org, which allows you to create scratch orgs.
Developer Edition vs Trailhead Playground, sandbox and scratch org
Salesforce has several free or temporary environments, and the names get mixed up. These definitions come from Trailhead's developer environments unit and the developer blog:
| Environment | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Developer Edition org | A free, long-lived org for learning and building your own things. No refresh, limited storage, and you can't create sandboxes from it. |
| Trailhead Playground | Essentially a Developer org with Trailhead extras, so you can earn points and badges on hands-on challenges. Use it for trails. |
| Developer sandbox | A copy of your production org's configuration for development and testing. Sandboxes can only be created from a production org, not from a Developer Edition org or a Playground. See my sandbox types guide. |
| Scratch org | A disposable org created with Salesforce CLI and a Dev Hub. It lasts up to 30 days, with a default of seven. |
| Free trial | A time-limited org for a product. The Salesforce Platform free trial on Salesforce's free trials page is listed at 30 days. |
My rule of thumb: use a Playground while you do Trailhead, a Developer Edition org for your own projects and anything you want to keep, and a sandbox or scratch org once you're working on a real company's org.
How to log back in to your Developer Edition org
- Use the username you chose at sign-up and the login URL you saved. This is the reason to save them. If you lose the URL, Trailhead says your My Domain URL is in Setup (search for My Domain) and looks like
yourdomainname-dev-ed.develop.my.salesforce.com. - Forgot your password? Salesforce Help says to click the forgot password link on the login page, enter your username and click Continue. Salesforce emails instructions to the address in your personal settings. You need your username, access to that email, and your MFA method to verify your identity. Sometimes you are asked to answer your security question instead.
- Log in every so often. A Developer Edition org doesn't expire if you log in regularly. If one is locked because it's pending deletion, Salesforce Help says Customer Support can reactivate it on request.
What to build in it
An empty org teaches you nothing, so pick a small project. The 8-week plan in my Platform Developer I study plan has you write each week's code in a free Developer Edition org. If you're thinking about a developer career, my Salesforce developer career path shows where the skills lead, and I also wrote about a free Apex coding practice site that works with a developer org.
If you want structure, my Platform Developer Cert Lab includes short hands-on tasks you can do in a free Developer Edition org like the one you just made.
Cert Lab by Nick Frates
Learning Apex in your new org?
The Platform Developer Cert Lab has lessons weighted like the PD1 exam, practice questions that explain every option, flashcards, and short hands-on tasks in a free Developer Edition org.
Start the Cert Lab, $9.99 →Frequently asked questions
Is Salesforce Developer Edition free?
Yes. Salesforce offers it on its free trials page as a free way to build on Salesforce with Agentforce and Data 360, and it doesn't expire as long as you log in regularly.
Does a Developer Edition org expire?
Salesforce says it doesn't expire as long as you log in regularly. If one is locked because it's pending deletion, Salesforce Help says Customer Support can reactivate it on request.
How do I sign up for a Developer Edition org?
Go to developer.salesforce.com/signup, fill out the form, click Sign me up, open the activation email and click Verify Account, then set your password and security question.
What username should I use?
One that looks like an email address and is unique. It doesn't have to be a real email account, and a descriptive name helps you tell several orgs apart.
Can I have more than one Developer Edition org?
Yes. Salesforce's developer blog says you can sign up for as many as you like on the sign-up page.
What is the difference between a Developer Edition org and a Trailhead Playground?
A Trailhead Playground is essentially a Developer org with Trailhead-specific extras, such as syncing your progress to earn points and badges. A Developer Edition org is the plain version you build in on your own.
Can I create a sandbox from a Developer Edition org?
No. Trailhead says sandboxes can only be created from a production org, so Developer Edition orgs and Trailhead Playgrounds can't create them.
Can I connect a Developer Edition org to Trailhead?
Yes. In the Challenge section of a hands-on challenge, click the org name, click Connect Org, log in with your Developer Edition username and password, and click Allow.
Hope this helps!
Best,
Nick
