What is a Sandbox Environment? How to Get Started

A sandbox environment is a replica of your production environment. It’s a secure, isolated space where developers, administrators, and testers can build, test, and troubleshoot applications without impacting the live production environment. Within the sandbox environment your teams can experiment freely with new code, configurations and integrations in a risk-free setting.

Because sandboxes are detached from your operational systems, any changes made during testing — such as deploying new features, running security scans, or simulating user interactions — remain contained. This helps prevent unintended consequences that could pop up during testing like data corruption and broken functionality. Having a sandbox environment lets you experiment and make sure certain integrations are working well, so you’re able to create iterative improvements with confidence.

A sandbox environment typically includes several defining features that make it ideal for safe development and testing:

• Isolation from production: Sandboxes are fully separated from the live environment, so that tests and experiments won’t disrupt active services or users.
• Customizable configurations: You can tailor sandbox setups for different purposes — from application development and quality assurance to penetration testing and end-user training.
• Controlled data usage: Sandboxes often use masked, synthetic, or limited datasets to protect sensitive information while still letting you experiment in realistic testing scenarios.
• Reset and refresh capabilities: Many sandbox environments can be quickly reset to a clean state, so you’re able to do repeated testing without lasting side effects.

Together, these characteristics create a flexible, secure foundation that lets your development teams innovate and validate new iterative additions to your applications.

A sandbox environment works by running code, AI agents, or applications in a controlled and secure space that mimics real-world conditions — without exposing your production systems to risk.

Sandboxes typically rely on virtualization or containerization technologies to simulate the infrastructure, configurations, and data of the live environment. This allows you to replicate production-like scenarios while maintaining strict boundaries. Any code executed within the sandbox stays confined, preventing it from interacting with external systems or services unless explicitly permitted.

To maintain this isolation, sandbox environments are designed to block unauthorized access and prevent data leakage. This includes limiting network connections, enforcing strict access controls, and masking sensitive information. These safeguards make sandboxing a trusted approach for testing new features, debugging, conducting security assessments, and even safely analyzing potentially harmful files or code.

When you use a sandbox, they can provide powerful advantages across the entire application lifecycle — from development and testing to compliance and performance assurance. Here are the key benefits of using a sandbox:

• Reduces risk to production systems: By isolating untested code, configurations, and data changes, sandboxes prevent disruptions to live environments. This ensures that mistakes, bugs, or experimental features won’t affect users or critical operations while your development team tests.
• Enables secure and realistic testing: Sandboxes create a safe environment to test new features, workflows, and customizations — including third-party integrations — without exposing sensitive data or interfering with real-world functionality.
• Supports security analysis and vulnerability testing: You can simulate threats and run penetration tests within a sandbox to identify and remediate vulnerabilities. This proactive approach helps improve application security and resilience before going live.
• Monitor and analyze user behavior: With a sandbox, you can simulate user behavior with your application, so your team can analyze how your application or agent adapts.
• Improves software quality through early issue detection: Developers and QA teams can identify bugs and performance issues earlier in the development cycle, reducing rework and shortening time to release.
• Facilitates scale testing and performance testing: With larger sandbox types (like Salesforce Full Sandboxes), teams can simulate high-traffic scenarios to evaluate system performance under load. This helps identify bottlenecks, test infrastructure limits, and prepare for high-demand periods.
• Provides a safe space for training and onboarding: Sandboxes offer a realistic but risk-free environment to train new users, test new business processes, or run demos — all without exposing sensitive production data.
• Ensures compliance and governance readiness: You can validate security controls, user permissions, and data handling policies in a sandbox before deployment. This helps maintain alignment with regulatory standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX.
• Accelerates development cycles and continuous delivery: By allowing parallel development and testing in a controlled setting, sandboxes enable faster iterations and more confident deployments — especially in agile and DevOps environments.

Setting up a Salesforce Sandbox environment is a critical step in establishing a safe and productive space for development, testing, and validation of your Customer 360 and Agentforce. In a sandbox, you can replicate your production environment for a variety of use cases — from building new apps to testing security controls — all without impacting your live system.

To get the most from your sandbox, it's important to choose the right type, configure it properly, and maintain it over time. Below is a step-by-step guide to setting up and managing your sandbox environment.

Salesforce offers four main types of sandboxes, each tailored to different needs in the development lifecycle. Choosing the right one depends on your project scope and required storage needed to replicate your production environment. Here are the four:

• Developer Sandbox: Best for individual development and testing tasks. It includes a copy of your organization's metadata but no data itself. It’s fast to create and refresh, so your developers can jump right in.
• Developer Pro Sandbox: Similar to the developer sandboxes but with more storage. That makes the pro sandbox a better option for developers who are testing and working with larger data sets.
• Partial Copy Sandbox: Includes metadata and a sample of production data defined by a sandbox template. Using one of the sandboxes is ideal for developers testing use cases that require realistic data scenarios.
• Full Sandbox: A complete replica of your production system, including all metadata and data. Using a full sandbox is best for performance testing, staging, and user training.

The right type of sandbox for your company can vary depending on what you’re working on, what size of projects your teams work on, and whether or not you need data involved. Before choosing one, you’ll want to work with your developers and evaluate your testing goals.

Once you've selected the appropriate sandbox type, you can create a sandbox and configure it directly within Salesforce:

1. Navigate to “Setup” in Salesforce.
2. In the “Quick Find” box, enter “Sandboxes”, then select “Sandboxes” from the menu.
3. Click “New Sandbox”.
4. Enter a name and description to help identify the sandbox's purpose.
5. Select the sandbox type that fits your needs.
6. Configure additional settings such as sandbox templates (if applicable).
7. Click “Create” to begin the process.

From there, you can specifically configure your sandbox to meet your development needs and testing requirements. You can use Salesforce Data Mask & Seed to quickly add realistic data into your sandbox without risking security. Sensitive customer data is automatically masked in sandboxes, so you can comfortably test while staying secure and compliant.

After your sandbox is set up, it’s important to manage and refresh it regularly to ensure it reflects your current production environment. Here’s how to do that:

• Refresh your sandbox periodically to update it with the latest metadata and data from production. This helps maintain test relevance and accuracy.
• Go to “Setup” > “Sandboxes”, where you can monitor the status of all your sandboxes.
• From this view, you can initiate a refresh, view progress, or delete unused sandboxes to free up resources.

Depending on the sandbox you’re using, you may have different rules for when you can refresh your sandbox. For example, Developer Sandboxes can be refreshed daily, while Full Sandboxes may only be refreshed every 29 days. Keeping your sandbox environments current helps ensure your tests are reliable and your development process stays aligned with production conditions.

Sandboxes play a vital role in development by providing safe, isolated environments for testing, troubleshooting, and innovation. They enable teams to experiment with new features, validate configurations, and ensure security — all without disrupting the live environment or risking customer data.

With the Salesforce Platform, managing sandboxes becomes even more efficient. The platform offers built-in tools to simplify sandbox creation, configuration, and refresh cycles. It also supports seamless integration and deployment workflows, so teams can move from development to production with confidence. Whether you're building agents and apps, customizing workflows, or testing complex integrations, Salesforce Platform helps you get more value from your sandbox environments.

Ready to get the most from your Salesforce Sandbox setup? Learn more about Salesforce Platform.