Introduction

Salesforce provides multiple ways to run code in the background:

● Future Methods
● Queueable Apex
● Batch Apex

All of them run asynchronously, but they are designed for very different purposes.

Using the wrong one can cause:

● Governor limit failures
● Poor scalability
● Hard-to-maintain code

Let’s simplify the decision.

Future Methods – When to Use

Use Future methods when:

● You need to run small logic asynchronously
● You want to make a simple callout
● No job chaining is required

Example Use Cases

● Send data to external API
● Update few related records
● Fire-and-forget processing

Limitations

● Cannot return values
● No job chaining
● Limited control and monitoring

Future is best for simple, short background tasks.

Use Queueable when:

● You need complex logic
● You want to chain jobs
● You need better structure and control

Example Use Cases

● Multi-step processing
● Integration pipelines
● Retry mechanisms

Advantages

● Can pass objects in constructor
● Supports job chaining
● Better error handling

Queueable is best for most modern async processing needs.

Use Batch when:

● Processing large data volumes

● Data must be processed in chunks
● You need long-running jobs

Example Use Cases

● Data cleanup

● Mass updates
● Data migrations

Key Features

● Handles millions of records
● Runs in batches
● Can be scheduled

Batch is best for high-volume data operations.

Requirement	Use
Simple async callout	Future
Multi-step background process	Queueable
Large data volumes	Batch
Need chaining	Queueable
Scheduled mass jobs	Batch

● Using Future for complex workflows
● Using Batch for small operations
● Not handling failures in async jobs
● Hardcoding logic inside async methods

Correct async choice gives you:

● Better performance
● Fewer limit issues
● Easier debugging
● Scalable design

Most enterprise systems rely heavily on Queueable + Batch patterns.

All async tools are powerful, but they solve different problems.

Future is simple.
Queueable is flexible.
Batch is scalable.

Knowing when to use which is a major step toward professional Apex development.

Choose your async tool like you choose your data model — based on the problem, not convenience.

Keep experimenting and you’ll quickly gain confidence with background processing. 🚀