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SF-0170 · Concept · Easy

What is web-to-case?

✓ Verified by Vikas Singhal · Last reviewed 5/17/2026 · Updated for Spring '26

Web-to-Case is a built-in Salesforce feature that takes an HTML form on your website and turns each submission into a Case in Service Cloud. It’s the Sales Cloud Web-to-Lead pattern applied to support — one of the easiest ways to give customers a self-service “Open a ticket” form.

How it works

  1. Setup → Web-to-Case — enable it, choose a default case owner and origin.
  2. Generate the HTML — pick fields, get a complete <form> element with hidden orgid.
  3. Paste on your site — works on any page.
  4. Customer submits — Salesforce ingests, creates a Case, fires assignment / auto-response rules.
  5. Customer gets confirmation (if Auto-Response is set up) and the agent picks up the new case.

Form HTML shape

<form action="https://webto.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.WebToCase?encoding=UTF-8" method="POST">
  <input type="hidden" name="orgid" value="00Dxxxxxxxxxxxx">
  <input type="hidden" name="retURL" value="https://www.example.com/thanks">

  <label>Name <input type="text" name="name" required></label>
  <label>Email <input type="email" name="email" required></label>
  <label>Subject <input type="text" name="subject" required></label>
  <label>Description <textarea name="description" required></textarea></label>

  <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

orgid is your 15-character organisation Id. retURL is where the visitor lands after submit.

Limits

  • 5,000 cases per day captured via Web-to-Case (much higher than Web-to-Lead’s 500).
  • Over-limit submissions are queued and emailed to the default case owner — not lost.
  • reCAPTCHA support is built in — enable it in setup to block spam.
  • Web-to-Case does not run validation rules but does fire assignment rules, auto-response rules, and workflow / Flow / Apex triggers.

Web-to-Case vs Email-to-Case

Web-to-CaseEmail-to-Case
SourceHTML formInbound email
Channel field (Case.Origin)“Web""Email”
AttachmentsNot natively — needs custom uploadEmail attachments preserved
Thread trackingOne submission = one CaseThread Id keeps replies on same Case
Limits5,000/day2,500 emails or 1,000 routing addresses per day, edition-dependent

Many orgs use both: web form for new tickets, email-to-case for replies and customer-initiated emails.

On-Demand Email-to-Case alternative

For richer ingestion (attachments, threading, in-line forwarding), pair Web-to-Case with On-Demand Email-to-Case so your support inbox auto-creates and threads cases too.

Spam protection and validation

  • Turn on reCAPTCHA (built-in toggle)
  • Add a honeypot field on the form (name="company", hidden — bots fill it, real users don’t)
  • Validate in a Flow / Apex trigger after insert if you need strict rules
  • Throttle by IP/email on the website’s edge if abuse continues

What flows from a submitted Case

The standard chain:

  1. Case created with Origin = 'Web'
  2. Assignment Rules route to user / queue
  3. Auto-Response Rule emails the customer
  4. Omni-Channel pushes to an available agent
  5. Entitlement linking (via Account auto-linking or Flow)
  6. Milestone timers start

Common follow-ups

  • Daily limit? — 5,000 cases per 24 hours.
  • Difference vs Web-to-Lead? — Lead = sales prospect (Sales Cloud). Case = service ticket (Service Cloud).
  • Where do over-limit submissions go? — Held in a 24-hour queue; emailed to the default case owner.

Verified against: Salesforce Help — Web-to-Case. Last reviewed 2026-05-17 for Spring ‘26.