Difference between Sites.com / Force.com sites and Customer Portal

[Amit Sinha]

Hello Everyone,

Can someone please help me understand the difference between Sites.com / Force.com sites and Customer Portal ?

Which of these products could be used to create an eService Site for customers to be able to login and create cases / access knowledge base / access other objects like their Entitlements / Contracts , etc.

Also are Service Clodu Portal and Customer Portal two different things ?

Thanks for your help in advance.
Amit Sinha

[Akshay_Varu]

Hi,

Force.com Sites

Force.com Sites lets you create public web applications and web sites that run natively on Force.com - under your own domain. Force.com Sites lets you easily extend the reach of your existing applications to new, external audiences, and your site visitors don't need to authenticate to view your pages. In fact, if you're already using Visualforce to create your user interfaces, it's a simple matter of bundling them into a Force.com Site to create a public web application.

see : http://wiki.developerforce.com/page/Sites

Force.com customer portal

A Salesforce Customer Portal provides an online support channel for your customers—allowing them to resolve their inquiries without contacting a customer service representative. With a Customer Portal, you can customize and deliver a visually stunning user interface to your customers.

see : http://ap1.salesforce.com/help/doc/en/customer_portal_setting_up.htm

also read this for manage customer portal for force.com sites : http://ap1.salesforce.com/help/doc/en/sites_customer_portal_setup.htm

http://wiki.developerforce.com/page/Authenticating_Users_on_Force.com_Sites

Thanks