Email Action vs. Email Alert in Salesforce Flow Explained

Key Features of Email Alerts:

• Uses Classic or Lightning Email Templates
• Recipients can include users, roles, public groups, and email fields
• Reusable across multiple Flows and processes
• Easy to set up with minimal manual configuration

Pros:

• Template-Based: Use pre-built templates for consistency
• Supports Roles/Groups: Great for sending to Public Groups and Roles
• Reusable: Defined once, used in many places
• Quick Setup: Minimal effort once templates and alerts are created

Cons:

• Limited Customization: Can’t use Flow variables directly inside templates
• Static Sender: The “From” address is fixed
• No Email Logging: Emails are not tracked as activities

Key Features of Email Action:

• Compose emails directly in Flow using Flow variables
• Supports Lightning Email Templates (if using Template ID)
• Allows sending to dynamic, ad-hoc recipients
• Logs emails as activities if enabled

Pros:

• Highly Customizable: Full control over content using Flow variables
• Dynamic Recipients: Choose recipients at runtime
• Email Logging: Log email as an activity related to a record
• Flexible Sender: Choose sender from CurrentUser or Org-Wide Email Address

Cons:

• Manual Effort: Email content must be built from scratch
• Not Reusable: Each email is tied to that Flow only
• Recipient Limit: Maximum 5 recipients per email
• Requires HTML/CSS: For rich formatting

Choose Email Alert if you:

• Want to reuse an existing email template
• Need to send emails to a public group, role, or fixed set of users
• Prefer quick plug-and-play setup
• Are okay with limited dynamic fields

Best for:

• Approval Notifications
• Standardized Emails
• Organization-wide communications

Choose Email Action if you:

• Need full control over the content and structure of the email
• Want to use Flow variables for dynamic personalization
• Are sending to recipients identified during the Flow execution
• Want email logging for activity tracking

Best for:

• Personalized Customer Emails
• Case/Lead-specific Notifications
• Sales Communications