What are the trade-offs between making Salesforce the consumer identity store and using a dedicated customer identity platform?

Salesforce as the consumer identity store is attractive when Salesforce owns the customer-facing experience: one system, the login and the contact and the consent record all in one place, no integration to build, and the identity data is immediately usable in service and marketing.

A dedicated platform wins when the consumer touches several channels that are not Salesforce. It is built for very high authentication volumes, tends to move faster on authentication features, and — the decisive point — gives the consumer one login across every channel rather than one for the Salesforce-powered channel and another for the rest.

So I frame it as ownership of the identity of record rather than as a product comparison. If a platform already authenticates the consumer elsewhere, Salesforce should accept that identity as a service provider and keep the contact as the profile record. If Salesforce is the front door, Salesforce Identity for customers is a sound choice. The answer I refuse to give is “both, synchronised nightly” — two credential stores double the attack surface and guarantee drift.