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Microsoft Power Automate pros and cons

Vendor: Microsoft

3.9 out of 5

126 reviews
87% willing to recommend

1,391 followers

Pros & Cons summary

Microsoft Power Automate seamlessly integrates with Office 365, offering low-code capabilities for easy automation. It features numerous templates and connectors, although it lacks advanced AI tools and has limited third-party integration. While cost-effective in markets like Romania, the licensing model is complex. The platform excels in basic RPA tasks but requires improvements in OCR features to compete with tools like UiPath and Automation Anywhere.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Microsoft Power Automate is known for its low-code functionality, allowing users to automate processes without requiring extensive coding expertise.

It offers seamless integration with Office 365, enabling users to connect multiple systems and applications effortlessly.

The platform is praised for its cost-effectiveness, making it a competitive choice in markets like Romania.

Power Automate provides extensive templates and connectors, enhancing user experience and simplifying the creation of automation workflows.

Users appreciate its intuitive nature, which allows businesses to quickly implement and benefit from its automation capabilities.

CONS

Microsoft Power Automate lacks advanced AI tools and cognitive features, limiting its capabilities compared to more mature RPA products.

There are gaps in RPA functionality and integration with third-party platforms, making it less versatile for complex automation needs.

The licensing model is complex and lacks transparency, making it difficult for users to fully understand the costs involved.

Stability issues persist, as it struggles with complex tasks and large data loads, impacting reliability.

Technical support and documentation are insufficient, leading to challenges in learning and utilizing all available features effectively.

Microsoft Power Automate Pros review quotes

EG

Earlgarth Greaves

Principal Consultant at The Bluestone Corp

Apr 1, 2021

Power Automate Desktop allowed me to quickly visually identify parts of a screen and record it. So I can see that I know I'm going to have to click this button here, this field there, and this tab here, and I can literally go and quickly just record all of them and identify them and have them in a list that I can see and say - there's my list of things.

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DL

RPA Developer at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees

Jul 17, 2020

This product has an easy-to-use interface with nice detail in the features.

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VS

IT Team Lead at Kantar

Sep 13, 2020

The most valuable feature is that it is very easy to use.

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Microsoft Power Automate

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reviewer1225296

Practice Principal - Cloud and Automation at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jan 4, 2021

The integrations that are built into Power Automate for those different Microsoft functions are good.

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TR

Head of Digital Transformation at Zaact

Jul 20, 2021

Workflow management is what clients select the most. It is very intuitive and pretty much drag-and-drop, so we can create escalation, decision flows, and if-else conditions pretty much by dragging and dropping boxes. Even someone who is not technical can develop a workflow for the business.

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reviewer1268505

Digital and E-Business Analyst at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jan 29, 2020

This product is a really easy-to-use solution for quickly developing prototypes.

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SM

Owner at maricau consulting

Dec 27, 2021

This solution improved the reporting in our organization. The financial department was doing a lot of copy pasting from different sources to create financial reports. Through ProcessRobot, we were able to automate all those copy pasting and produce all those financial reports overnight.

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Meindert Van Der Galiën

Information Technology Software Developer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Apr 10, 2022

Its ease of use is most valuable. A lot of the bulk functionality is done either through standalone or custom connectors and standard API processes.

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reviewer1521363

Digital Strategy Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Apr 29, 2021

The best part is the automated workflow, which is quite good and easy. It is just drag-and-drop. We are able to create workflows quite quickly. We are able to directly integrate the data that it generates with Power BI dashboards. Its integration is quite good with other Microsoft tools, such as Power BI. The visualization of the data has become helpful for us.

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CEO at Vertical Symmetry

Feb 9, 2022

With the desktop version, we can automate many things. The ability to do a lot of things is one of the most valuable features.

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Microsoft Power Automate Cons review quotes

EG

Earlgarth Greaves

Principal Consultant at The Bluestone Corp

Apr 1, 2021

I was working on it for around three days and then took a break of about two days. When I went back to it, all of the Excel, and all the Excel functions, just disappeared. Completely vanished. When I looked up the help, it said that sometimes that happens when you're not connected to the internet.

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DL

RPA Developer at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees

Jul 17, 2020

The stability of the product is not very good and can even fail with simple projects.

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VS

IT Team Lead at Kantar

Sep 13, 2020

The tasks that can be automated are limited to Microsoft applications only.

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Microsoft Power Automate

Free Report: Microsoft Power Automate Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power Automate. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.

849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer1225296

Practice Principal - Cloud and Automation at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jan 4, 2021

When compared to other workflow automation tools out there, it's just not as mature.

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TR

Head of Digital Transformation at Zaact

Jul 20, 2021

While working with big data, when we have structured data like logs, we have to work with an ETL tool before manipulating the data and creating the workflows and the forms. This can be improved. Big data support is something that I'd like to be covered a lot.

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reviewer1268505

Digital and E-Business Analyst at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jan 29, 2020

If the product had onscreen help, it would be easier to learn and use.

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SM

Owner at maricau consulting

Dec 27, 2021

Some automation features on some programs did not work smoothly.

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Meindert Van Der Galiën

Information Technology Software Developer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Apr 10, 2022

There are two versions of the automation suite. You've got your cloud functionality, and you have got your on-premises functionality for legacy systems. There are a lot of functionalities between the two systems that don't cross-correlate with each other. A lot of the functionality in the cloud system is not there on the production side in the on-prem system. If they could implement some of the similar functionalities and streamline them for integration, it would be a lot easier. There should be seamless integration between the two systems.

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reviewer1521363

Digital Strategy Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Apr 29, 2021

Microsoft shouldn't charge extra for the database license if you want to store the data in the database during the trial. We wanted to have a historical trend of the data, and we started with the trial version of the tool. The database license is not included with the trial version, and you have to purchase it separately. Because we had a budget constraint, we had to pull all the information manually from the system, massage it, and push it to the dashboard. About two months ago, we have upgraded to the full-fledged version in which the database is integrated. The database license should be there in the trial version, but they have totally decoupled it. They should have provided a bundle, at least for the trial version, so that once a person or a firm gets a sense of it, they can start building. It might be because they wanted to sell additional licenses or premium licenses, and that's why they have added it in the premium version. It should have more cognitive features. Automation Anywhere and UiPath are different because they have cognitive functionality plus intelligent automation. The cognitive functionality is currently not there in Microsoft Power Automate. It is just for workflow automation and basic bot-level tasks. It should have more cognitive features, which probably will be launched in a couple of years.

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CEO at Vertical Symmetry

Feb 9, 2022

The debugging tools require improvement as well as the monitoring which goes along with it.

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