Difference between Freeze and Deactivate users on Salesforce

Freeze or Unfreeze User Accounts

In some cases, you can’t immediately deactivate an account, such as when a user is selected in a custom hierarchy field. To prevent users from logging in to your organization while you perform the steps to deactivate them, you can freeze user accounts.

Let’s say a user just left your company. You want to deactivate the account, but the user is selected in a custom hierarchy field. Because you can’t immediately deactivate the account, you can freeze it in the meantime.

Tip: You can perform this and other administration tasks from the SalesforceA mobile app.

1. From Set-up, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Click the username of the account you want to freeze.
3. Click Freeze to block access to the account or Unfreeze to allow access to the account again.

Note: Freezing user accounts doesn’t make their user licenses available for use in your organization. To make their user licenses available, deactivate the accounts.

Deactivate (Delete) Users

You can’t delete a user, but you can deactivate an account so a user can no longer log in to Salesforce.

Removing Users’ Access to Salesforce

1. From Set-up, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users.
2. Click Edit next to a user’s name.
3. Deselect the Active checkbox and then click Save.