Microsoft Power Apps Reviews

Once you have a cloud solution, for instance, and you work within a Microsoft suite, such as Dynamics CRM, ERP, or another dynamic platform and you want to extend it with a mobile app, Microsoft PowerApps is the right solution.

Main limits will be the "vendor lock-in" concept, pricing for mass external users, and the training could be better. It is not intend to serve ex-Azur assets or on-prem. 

The solution integrated well in Azure environment thus provide a full rapid development solution. Thanks to the extensibility (as low code platform should), You can do anything, and if not directly, you can use other Azure functionality. 

1. The licensing lakes a plan for a mass number of external users on the app.

2. The Data layer based on Azure data layer which complicates the environment, the min. required knowledge (citizen developers will not be independent under with PowerApps) and the vendor lock-in limitation.

3. The training is not integrated in the tool and the available training is not a full course which might be available in the online universities but not free and accessible like in other tools. 

It's a stable and trustworthy solution and can serve in an organizational critical processes.

Anything special to share.

Yes I'm using Mendix.

The major advantage of PowerApps is in Microsoft environment.  Once your assets are in Azure, this is the natural choice for rapid development.

As always - depends on the size and complexity of the needed solution. But the cloud based solution + the Low Code approach simplify it. 

I estimate that the time to market will be 3-5 times faster then 3rd generation solution or twice faster that best of breed of the shelf solution (which you have to find the specific specialist +rely on your solution provider ...)

The setup costs depend on the organization (it's professional knowledge) and it's assets location once the basic data and application is in Azure the setup effort will be very cost effective.

For organizational internal users the prices are fair. But for external users It's negotiation. The the long term is vague.

Our primary use case is for the three locations in our company. We use it mainly for setting up meetings in our various conference rooms. Numerous choices need to be made - size of room, number of phones and projectors, date, time, number of participants. It's a great way to keep track of everything. We have 200 users. We're gold partners and I'm a lead consultant in our company. 

We can design apps quickly and we can connect to any database. We can connect to any technology, like Microsoft Analytics or SAP. It requires less code from our side and is available on cloud. Updates are done automatically, which is a valuable feature. 

If they would reduce the price, that would be an improvement, and they should also improve their customer service support, because the last time I contacted them it took one week to resolve the issue. That's not right.

I would like to see improvement in terms of implementation. Sometimes the application is a little slow. If I want to load the data from Power Apps, it generally takes time to take the data from experiential Power Apps, but in this case it takes longer compared to other technologies. I've written to them about this.

I've been using this solution for six months.

It's a stable product. 

Scalability is good. 

Initial setup is not very difficult. Even with minimal knowledge it's easy to understand. Deployment took somewhere around half an hour and it required one person to implement. We have four people in the company maintaining the solution. 

If I want to use Power Apps with Singalab, then I have to pay $10 per month. But if I want to have unlimited access to Power Apps that is $40 per month per user. Prices may have changed.

It's very easy to use this solution, you can do integration, there's no need to write much code. I would suggest that Power Apps is for all ERP people.  If you want to connect to SPL on-premises, it requires one gateway. That's the bridge between Power Apps and the on-premises SPL. 

The Power Apps tool is relatively new technology. Not many people are using it yet so whatever problems they are facing, they will be posting to WordPress or something similar. If I need an answer I can go there.

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

Our primary use for Microsoft PowerApps is to develop production-ready applications.

The most valuable feature is the simple data connectivity components. With no code, you can use multiple data sources with different software systems.

Integration with databases and other tools needs to be improved.

I have been working with Microsoft PowerApps for about three years.

The stability is fine and we have no issue there.

I am a bit concerned about scalability.

I have my own technical support team so we have not had to contact Microsoft technical support.

I have experience with Zoho Creator and I find that the environment is much better. The database integration is better and creating a production-ready app is very straightforward.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The problem that I am having with Microsoft PowerApps, and other no-code or low-code solutions, is that younger developers are not comfortable with it. They are more comfortable with C# because it gives them more control over what they are doing, and more control over the testing.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to first conduct a large-scale, enterprise-level project. This way, you will see if the product is scalable enough for your requirements.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

The primary use case of this solution is to automate the interaction between documents and departments. For example, it's a flow for someone who has to validate a request, a file, or to review another file. A flow is put in place to avoid email communication.

I like the status of the flow and the dashboard, with all of the flows that are running and showing the stages of them.

If you are accustomed to Microsoft technology, then it's quite easy to learn, but if you are new around the whole online platform of Microsoft, then it takes time. Even if you are familiar with Microsoft products then there is still a learning curve on the use.

Previously with Microsoft, they were offering hands-on exercises or labs. I think that should be put back in place. Also, a few years ago Microsoft had an MVA program. It was called Microsoft Virtual Academy, where you could learn a lot about technology, but now it's deprecated and that's why it takes time to learn the new platform.

I have always felt that you need an IT background to use this solution.

I would like to see more regarding the help element of the program itself. More courses around the usage and of the technology features, more training, and guides.

I have been using this solution for six months.

Normally, our downtime is planned, and we are aware of it. However, on one or two occasions we have experienced unplanned downtimes. As it was on our end, and not problematic, it was disregarded.

At this time we have three to five users.

We are using this solution once a week, as we have only just started using it.

We have not needed to contact technical support b. Microsoft has a tool located in the portal where we can see the service, help, and stages. This includes all of the help for Office 365.

The initial setup was very easy. It's a cloud solution. Because we were already using Microsoft products, we only had to enable the license and just start using it.

At this time, we are still learning the basics and the setups while discovering the entire product and how to best use it internally.

I would suggest investing in the training of the product. 

It is very important to know the capabilities of the product to be able to address any questions a customer or user may have for you.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution to create and arrange a number of requests, including requests for expenses, requests for leave, requests for documents, etc. Depending on the type of business, we can customize the request application.

In our organization, PowerApps is used to manage internal requests for expenses, leaves, documents, company resources. One connects to the application, enter the details of the requests and the request flows directly to the appropriate approvers. Less paperwork and more efficient management of the requests.

The most valuable aspect of the solution is the fact it is highly customizable. All types of forms can be created to collect information, pictures, and files. With PowerApps, you can connect your application to a wide variety of databases and applications where your data lives to read or write to it. If a connector doesn't exist, it's also possible to create a custom one.

With a plan starting at 10 USD, it makes it very affordable for anyone to create a low-code, no-code application. Very little costs are needed to run the solution. Furthermore, PowerApps has a community plan for free, and usually offer a trial period of about 2 months. Plenty of time and potential to learn, discover and develop.

The solution has a large community, so it's quite easy to find tutorials, how-to, and help.

PowerApps is part of the PowerPlatform from Microsoft, with Flow, or Power BI and enhances the possibilities to collect data, to automate processes, and to create rich and visually appealing data visualizations.

The solution is evolving very fast and every month new features are introduced. Sometimes it's difficult to catch up with all the evolution that's happening. I had to focus on Power BI for a while and left PowerApps at the side for a couple of months and when I came back, it had changed its interface and moved components around. 

Some connectors are not very easy to use and sometimes they lack proper documentation.

There should be better connectivity with other applications. I tried connecting with IBM and it brings errors at each refresh. The PostgreSQL connector is useless as it doesn't work. There's a lot of research needed and you often need to download extra drivers or equivalent components that end up not working well.

I've been using the solution for a year now.

The solution is very stable. There are a few issues with the environment, where we would have needed to create a new one. This would have been a problem if we had a lot of data. However, but I haven't faced any stability issues.

Scalability is okay, but they recently changed the pricing. Depending on what we do and what we use it for, the pricing is a bit confusing now. They're also offering a bit of a delay on the adjusted pricing for those who have a certain subscription, so I'm still figuring out what that means for us.

Technical support is very fast, with answers within 24 hours. Most of the time they either call directly or send an email. I've found them very good and they are helpful. They try to give a solution and offer direct service.

I've had experience with IBM and it was a bit more difficult to find the right solution and obtain results. As with some other PRN providers, I was expecting a slower turnaround, so this has been a nice surprise. Microsoft and PowerApps have been very good.

The solution is very easy to set up. Deployment is almost instantaneous. It's on the cloud, so you connect the logins and it's ready to go. You don't have to download it onto any device.

I handled the implementation myself.

The pricing is pretty good. Right now, I'm paying for a two or three-month trial that is priced well. This trial period gives a company time to try an application, develop it, test it, and decide as to whether they will go ahead and pay for a modular plan.

I find their pricing quite affordable.

We use the cloud deployment model. I'm a consultant; I work mainly with other companies.

Already with what exists, the solution is quite good and we can do quite a lot. I don't think too much can be improved.

I'd advise others to make sure they have good parameters and documentation before they get started. It's a good idea to follow the tutorial at the beginning. There are a lot of things about the solution that are good to understand beforehand, including how the different components work.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. For me, it has worked very well.

I'm a developer and we use the product for in-house development and finding in-house solutions. We have a developer relationship with Microsoft. I'm currently working on a smart parking app for a college here in Kuwait. It would be a big time saver and enable drivers to know where there are available parking spots when it's a busy time and would maximize free space usage. It would make things easier for everyone.

The common data point would be the most valuable feature. PowerApps is also usable for data mining, it can be used with Power BI or SQL. All the data integrates easily on all Microsoft apps. And it comes with most of the subscriptions and extras.

The product could be improved by making it a production application and enabling the export of apps. If you want to set up a site for home rentals, for example, just a basic outline as a starting point, this can be done. The issue is that it cannot be exported. It can be applied in-house, for demonstration purposes for your employees, for example, but you can't really make use of it otherwise. It's a problem.

On the whole, it's a very workable solution because it's an automated way of making applications. You have a template, you have the application know-how, etc. If it could be exported into different languages and could enable different ways of outputting the information, that would be great. For now, it's limited and that's a bit of an issue. Enabling all the applications on internet-based devices to transfer data in and out would make it an excellent product. 

I've been using the product for six months and we're using the latest version.

It works as intended, it's not going to be a magical solution, but it just does what it's meant to do. That's the beauty of it.

I believe the product is very scalable.

Customer service has been pretty good. Actually I tried contacting them today and they've put up this bot that can get a response for you, but it takes more than a day, I think. I could do with some support. I can't access Azure Maps here, and I need Azure Maps to set up the smart parking system. 

I previously used BlinkID but nothing else really has the same power as PowerApps. Google has its Cloud Suite but they've been a bit slack, and Amazon is iffy. They're not really workable here. I live in Kuwait, and there are a lot of contracts with Microsoft - they have the App Center here, but they haven't enabled much of it other than for government contracts, I think.

The initial setup was very straightforward. I tend to think the documentation and the community forms are more than enough to help improve your setup experience. It's very, very, straightforward. I don't think it took more than five minutes to set up and that's amazing. Previously, it might have taken a week to complete setup - all the code, database, linking. 

I have no idea about licensing costs. I tried contacting Microsoft about this because the information isn't easily available and it was unclear where I could search for this. My guess is that the cost is dependent on the company and product needs. I tried to make a calculation and it looks like it's going to be much cheaper to purchase the product than if I were to hire an engineer, get him to develop an app, and have it maintained. This is a much more scalable and less expensive solution.

Previously, we had a whole department using the product. When I lived in Australia, it was used for assembling websites and to upload photos, videos and the like. It worked well because it was for internally-based users. 

My suggestion to anyone searching for a product would be to invest in a solution if you know that it works. Don't go for anything high-risk. This product works as it's intended. It's missing a few key features to make it really stand out but I believe it has the potential to be the best app for access to the database.

The product can be easily integrated - with Microsoft Graph, with common data links, and Power BI especially. You can have a dashboard ready, all the information you want, displayed in whatever form you want. It can present your data in whatever way, shape, and form you want it to.

I would rate this product a seven out of 10. 

The primary use case of this solution is for developing Proof of concepts and for preparing some use cases to present or to showcase them to the customers. Nothing related to production. It's only for presentations and for showing the merchandise to the customers.

The deployment model we are using is cloud-based.

The most valuable feature is easily connecting to data services.

I can have a SharePoint list and connect with users through PowerApps to present the information.

I am also able to connect with Microsoft Flow, which allows me to connect with different people to email and update items in Sharepoint.

The editor in the Web browser could be improved because it can be difficult to implement the commands in the buttons.

In the next release, I would like to see Microsoft PowerApps be more integrated with Microsoft Teams or SharePoint and with different applications.

When I configure PowerApps in Sharepoint it appears that it is not integrated with the page.

When it is configured it looks like it is a different application.

This solution is stable.

I have not contacted technical support because I haven't needed to.

The initial setup was easy and straightforward.

It took approximately two days, but it depends on what features have to be implemented.

I maintain this solution myself, and it only requires one person for maintenance.

We did not use a vendor to implement this solution. I did everything myself.

My advice would be to create a master screen for items like layouts and all of the typography that you may have in your application. 

Create a master screen widget. The rest of the screen will have, for example, settings for the layout that will refer to these objects in the master screen settings. Mainly for editing.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for, production orders, and for statement classification expenses for a family company. 

The support is the most valuable feature.

The incorporation of AI to construct a no-code application is an advantageous feature. However, I believe it is an unfulfilled promise. I think it will eventually be implemented, but ultimately, we will require the assistance of a programmer to guide us through the process.

There is room for improvement with the amount of code required to implement the expense classification app.

I have been using the solution for three years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is completely scalable when we are also using Microsoft Dataverse.

The technical support is quick to respond.

The initial setup is not complex, but there were some areas that we struggled with, such as the gallery limitation. Nowadays, we are able to pull more than two thousand records, but if we do so, we have a lot of problems with the performance of Microsoft Power Apps.

The pricing is complicated to understand.

I give the solution a seven out of ten.