Salesforce Dynamic Forms Versus LWC Forms 2023

Alice M.

Hawk-eye editor with a passion for trailblazing Salesforce experiences

Updated: Jan 9th, 2025

Salesforce Dynamic Forms and Salesforce LWC are two of the most popular tools in Salesforce. Both are used to create User Interfaces inside the #1 CRM but their approaches are quite different. It’s a matter of choosing between Salesforce declarative vs programmatic.

On one hand, Dynamic Forms for Salesforce is declarative, which empowers you to adjust object layouts without necessarily needing to use code. Dynamic Forms work with drag and drop to build visual interfaces tailored to your unique business needs. In contrast, Salesforce LWC is programmatic. This means that to use it you need to work with JavaScript and HTML to build web apps, connect effectively to third parties, and also to build custom Lightning Dynamic LWC Components to suit your business requirements.

Should I use Dynamic Forms in LWC 2023?

Whether or not you choose to use Salesforce LWC or Dynamic Forms depends on the demands of your use case or LWC project ideas. Dynamic Forms give you the ability to create visibility rules, display or hide fields based on bespoke criteria, adjust sections, and arrange data to enhance the user experience, ensure data accuracy, and optimize productivity. Some limits to Dynamic Forms include the fact that they do not necessarily support custom field types and do not always offer full flexibility for design. So if your project requires specific field types that are not supported by Dynamic Forms, or has particular design requirements that are not possible with Dynamic Forms, you might want to use Salesforce LWC.

Salesforce LWC is a type of programming model, which enables you to build more advanced and complex components for your particular business needs. Using LWC’s programmatic approach, you can work with Salesforce data types such as Apex and draw on the Lightning design system to optimize your project. LWC full forms in Salesforce offer greater customization than Dynamic Forms, though if you don’t have development experience then it can be more difficult to use. If your project requires LWC and you don’t have coding knowledge, then you might need to draw on a third party to help you develop.

Let’s take a look at the biggest differences between Dynamic Forms and LWC below:

10 Biggest Differences between Dynamic Forms and Salesforce LWC:

There are several important differences between Dynamic Forms and LWC full forms, here are the top 10:

1. As discussed in the introduction, LWC is based on programming whereas Dynamic Forms is declarative and works with drag and drop. Both can help you manage fields and sections, record types, and record details but they do so in different ways.
   
2. Customization and flexibility: Dynamic Forms does not require development work but compared to LWC it does not offer extensive customization or optimum flexibility. For advanced customization, LWC is the more robust and powerful tool.
   
3. Dynamic Forms offers less control over dynamic layouts, dynamic actions, design, and presentation than LWC. For simple designs and use cases, Dynamic Forms is a solid and easy-to-use option, but for more in-depth customization LWC is the preferable tool.
   
4. Dynamic Forms offers limited Salesforce integration power with external systems whereas LWC does have this integration power through working with APIs.
   
5. Dynamic Forms cannot interact with advanced data in Salesforce such as SOQL and Dynamic Apex Salesforce. Salesforce LWC, which requires coding knowledge and expertise, enables you to work with these data models.
   
6. Third-Party libraries cannot be used or supported with Dynamic Forms. This can be challenging if you want to extend custom LWC dynamic components using this feature. For third-party library support, opt for LWC.
   
7. Testing and troubleshooting for bugs are relatively straightforward with Dynamic Forms. Conversely, given that LWC is a development-heavy tool, you do need to have significant technical skills to debug and test with this Salesforce tool.
   
8. LWC can be filled with advanced code and customizations, which are much more likely to require maintenance than Dynamic Forms. On the other hand, maintenance of Dynamic Forms is less complicated given that it works with simpler objects and low code tools.
   
9. LWC is much more scalable than Dynamic Forms but this does of course come at the price of more lengthy development and setup.
   
10. The development and expertise required for LWC are significant and not just anyone can use this tool. Learning how to work with LWC may require a dedicated learning path. On the other hand. learning to use Dynamic Forms requires no code and the skill can be picked up easily and quickly.

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Disclaimer: The comparisons listed in this article are based on information provided by the companies online and online reviews from users. If you found a mistake, please contact us.