Comparison · Public sector
Nine options, what each is genuinely built for, and how to tell which one fits your agency. Written by a Salesforce partner who implements several of them.
The short answer
Salesforce Public Sector Solutions is an industry-cloud licence sold per user on top of core Salesforce. The usual alternatives are Accela, Granicus, Tyler Technologies, OpenGov, CivicPlus, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and ServiceNow. There is a fourth path: stay on Salesforce and skip the vertical licence. Oh My Gov! by apphero delivers 311, permitting, inspections and citizen portals on core Service Cloud licences.
Last reviewed August 2026
The landscape
Most comparison pages exist to sell you one product. This one names the cases where another vendor is the better answer — including Salesforce's own vertical licence.
| Solution | Built for | Best fit | Licence model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accela | Permitting, licensing, inspections and code enforcement | Agencies that want civic permitting out of the box | Vendor SaaS, per module |
| Granicus | Resident communications, websites, digital services and engagement | Communications-led modernization and outbound citizen engagement | Vendor SaaS, per module |
| Tyler Technologies | Broad back-office suite — ERP, courts, public safety, permitting | Agencies replacing core systems of record | Vendor SaaS or on-premise, per module |
| OpenGov | Budgeting, procurement, asset management, permitting and licensing | Finance-led modernization in small and mid-size agencies | Vendor SaaS, per module |
| CivicPlus | Municipal websites, agendas and 311 request intake | Small municipalities that start from the website | Vendor SaaS, per module |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 + Power Platform | General CRM and low-code platform with public-sector accelerators | Agencies standardized on Microsoft 365 and Azure | Per-user platform licence |
| ServiceNow Public Sector Digital Services | Workflow and case management on the Now Platform | IT-led agencies already running ServiceNow | Per-user platform licence |
| Salesforce Public Sector Solutions | Prebuilt public-sector data model — licence and permit management, grants, inspections, benefits | Agencies that want Salesforce's vertical model as delivered, especially for grants and regulated programmes | Industry-cloud licence, per user, on top of core |
| Oh My Gov! by apphero | 311, permits, inspections, municipal assets and citizen portal — a native Salesforce managed package with Agentforce agents | Organizations already on, or moving to, Salesforce that do not want a vertical licence | Runs on core Sales and Service Cloud licences |
Where we fit
Oh My Gov! is a native Salesforce managed package, distributed on the AppExchange and built on core licences — not on Public Sector Solutions. A municipality can run constituent services, service requests, permits, inspections and a bilingual citizen portal on a standard Service Cloud Enterprise edition. Same platform, same Agentforce, same security model, without a second per-user licence on top.
Book a 30-minute assessmentWhen Public Sector Solutions is the right answer
If you need Salesforce's grants management or its regulated-benefits model exactly as delivered, the vertical licence buys you years of modelling you would otherwise rebuild. We say so during the assessment rather than after the contract.
How to choose
Are you replacing a system of record, or adding citizen-facing services?
Replacing finance, courts or public safety points to Tyler or OpenGov. Adding citizen services on top of what you own points to Salesforce or Microsoft.
Do you already own Salesforce licences?
If yes, a managed package on core licences is almost always cheaper than adding an industry cloud — and there is no migration.
How much of your process is genuinely standard?
Highly standard permitting favours a packaged vendor like Accela. Processes shaped by local by-laws favour a platform you can configure.
Who maintains it in three years?
A vendor SaaS means waiting for their roadmap. A platform means your own admin can change a field on a Tuesday afternoon.
FAQ
Public Sector Solutions is a Salesforce industry cloud: a prebuilt data model and set of applications for government — licence and permit management, inspections, grants, benefits and constituent case management. It is licensed per user, on top of core Salesforce, and can run on the commercial instance or on Government Cloud.
They solve different problems and are often confused. Government Cloud is an infrastructure option — a Salesforce instance operated to meet public-sector compliance requirements such as FedRAMP. Public Sector Solutions is a functional licence that adds government applications and data model. You can buy either one without the other.
No. Service requests, permitting, inspections, asset management and citizen portals can all be built on core Sales and Service Cloud licences, either by configuration or through a managed package such as Oh My Gov!. The vertical licence buys you Salesforce's own prebuilt model — valuable for grants and regulated benefits, optional for most municipal work.
The government-specific alternatives are Accela, Granicus, Tyler Technologies, OpenGov and CivicPlus. The platform alternatives are Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Power Platform, and ServiceNow Public Sector Digital Services. Staying on core Salesforce with a native package such as Oh My Gov! by apphero is a fourth path that keeps the platform and drops the vertical licence.
Yes, and it is the least disruptive migration available, because the platform, the users and the integrations stay in place. The work is remapping the vertical objects to core or packaged objects and reworking automation that depends on them. Volume and process complexity drive the effort; the org itself is not rebuilt.
A small municipality with no in-house administrator is usually better served by a packaged vendor or by a partner-operated managed service. That is why Oh My Gov! ships as a managed package with a fixed-fee engagement rather than as a build project: the configuration is maintained by apphero, not by a role the city does not have.
Thirty minutes with a certified consultant. We map your processes to the options above, licence costs included — and tell you when the answer is not us.
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Salesforce Education Cloud alternativesSalesforce, Public Sector Solutions, Government Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud and Agentforce are trademarks of Salesforce, Inc. All other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. apphero.tech is a Salesforce partner and is not affiliated with the other vendors listed on this page. Positioning reflects publicly available product information as of August 2026; pricing is not published here because vendor list prices change and are negotiated per contract.