Standard versus custom big objects
Key Takeaway
Standard big objects, such as FieldHistoryArchive, are defined by Salesforce, and you can't customize them. To store data unique to your org, you create a custom big object.
A big object stores very large amounts of data on the Salesforce platform and keeps consistent performance at a billion records or more. Big objects come in two types. Salesforce defines standard big objects and includes them in its products. You create custom big objects to hold data unique to your org.
How big objects differ from regular objects
A big object keeps consistent performance whether it holds 1 million, 100 million, or 1 billion records. Big objects and regular objects (sObjects) store their data in different kinds of databases.
| Regular objects (sObjects) | Big objects | |
|---|---|---|
| Database | Relational and transactional | Horizontally scalable, distributed, and non-transactional |
| Sized for | Millions of records | Hundreds of millions or billions of records |