Salesforce utilizes profiles and permission sets to regulate user access and functionality within the system. These two features work together to give admins fine-grained control over user access.
Profiles form the base level of permissions for users. Every Salesforce user must have a profile assigned to them. Profiles define what a user can see and do in Salesforce, including which objects and fields they can access and what actions they can take.
Permission sets add extra abilities to profiles. They allow admins to grant specific users more access without changing everyone’s profile. This makes it easy to grant special permissions to just a few people who need them.
For example, one user on a team might need to create custom reports while others don’t.