Sandbox copy versus change set deployment
Key Takeaway
A sandbox copy brings production's metadata into a sandbox, and some sandbox types copy production data as well. A change set carries only metadata between connected orgs and never carries records.
A sandbox is a copy of your Salesforce org in a separate, fully isolated environment, so nothing you do in it affects your production org. A change set is how you send selected customizations from one connected org to another, such as from a sandbox back to production.
What you can use a sandbox for
You can use sandboxes to:
- Keep development work apart until it is ready.
- Test changes against copies of production data and users.
- Run training.
- Combine individual changes into one deployment to production.