Microsoft Power Apps Reviews

The solution is for rapid application development software.

There is a specific environment, in part a platform of PowerApps, in which you can just deploy the solutions and then you share the link with the users and they are able to open them using iPads or mobile devices, or even a computer.

We have been working to build a maintenance events app for assets, it's an app to manage and show all the assets that have been working or down for maintenance in an operation, inside one bigger mining company. They have many trucks and many other, let's say, machines in the operation and sometimes they have to put these machines just through a maintenance mode, to see what's happening, or to change some part specifically, or even if the machine is having some kind of issue. That's due to the fact that if it's down, they have to manage how long it's down and what was the part that was the issue, the cause of the issue. They have to change the parts and everything's very costly in terms of money for the company when we have one specific asset that's down.

Previously, they were using a board in a room, just to manage all these statuses.  Instead of this, now we have one specific app that is working in live modes in almost real-time. Just getting the data from the services and showing it on a big board in PowerApps can show what's happened, what's the status, and what's the reason for the issue. This app allows for adding some comments. It's a collaborative app where many people can just go there and add comments and notes about what's happening with the machine.

There are many things there that I like about the solution. I like the galleries, which are really powerful. I like the way that we can build forms very quickly. 

In terms of timing to develop, PowerApps is very fast. We can integrate with Power BI. You can just show the Power BI report embedded in PowerApps, and it works really nicely.

In my experience, the solution's deployment can be tricky.

In my experience, it was not good as it was giving errors around the tables and I couldn't find what was happening. I had to break it down into different solutions - one solution containing all the tables and the second solution containing the application, plus the power domain that I had for this particular application. It's something that's not good, in terms of the way that things work. 

When I added Power Automate into the solution, for some reason it disappeared from my Power Automate page, as it was added inside the solution. It was very, very weird. It may be a bug. 

There's a primary interface and integration feature and we build some HL processes there. However, suddenly after adding this part, and automating the solution to deploy it, it was just not available for me anymore and I had to go inside the solution and open the MS files from there instead of the usual place where all the Power Automates are created. It was like a bug and also. In terms of the issues that I have with the solution feature inside PowerApps, I didn't like it. I've seen this too complicated. It's something that Microsoft has to improve.

The speed and performance could be better. PowerApps sometimes gets stuck, gets slow and I don't have any reason for why it's happening. Suddenly you are trying to see the rows on your screen and you just have a wait to get the results back, then there's nothing happening. These things look like an environmental issue, however, I don't know if it's something about the localization or something else.

We'd like our option in terms of licensing that can be paid by the app and not by users. That could be something good. Just the way that they charge the license, it's too much. There are not many options. They could give a little bit more flexibility to choose in terms of options for a license.

I've used the solution for six months. 

It's stable, however, sometimes it is slow.

There are no issues about the connection falling. Just, when you are using it, suddenly the page is broken. There is no issue yet, sometimes it gets a little bit frozen and you're waiting a little bit more time to gather results. The table is not a big table with many, many rows, so why is it taking so long, so much time to get the answer back from the app? That's the main issue. There's a performance problem. It's not a stability question.

It's scalable if we're talking about the database, about data warehouse, however, not about PowerApps. PowerApps is not scalable. It's scalable, in the sense that the app you can share for many users, however, you have to pay by user. Scalability isn't really applicable.

We're still not running it fully. We're just prepared to start testing. 

We've dealt with technical support in the past. 

We had some little situations where we couldn't get the help as we needed, however, that was a limitation in the tool - it was not an issue with them.

For the most part, they are really good.

Positive

IN terms of the initial setup, we have to choose which kind of approach we are going to use in PowerApps, as PowerApps has different strings. You can choose PowerApps Canvas, or you can choose a driving app, and that's a little bit different. In my case, I chose a PowerApps combo as I needed a little bit more in terms of flexibility and in terms of how I build this topic they screen. 

In terms of the development, it's quick, really it's quick, however, it's not the fastest way to develop and there are some other solutions in the market that are faster in some ways. In terms of deployment, in my experience, when you're going to deploy perhaps an application, you have to build a solution and a solution and it's a little bit tricky. You have to add all the components to the solution and, after that, you have to export the solution and import the solution into the production environment. We have an environment for development and a second environment for production.

The application is deployed, however, it's not in use yet. They are just preparing to start testing the application and once they finalize the test, the app is going to go live.

After I passed over all these little issues that I had, it was quick to deploy. It was just a question of minutes. When we export the solution and import the solution back, it's easy. However, all the processes to be able to finally get over these issues and everything, it took me four weeks just to realize what was going on and handle it. 

I was the one that deployed the solution. 

In terms of ROI,  I didn't see any. However, if you look at the cost of building an app, the coding costs would be much higher without this solution. You can save months of development time and the money needed to deploy the solution. In that sense, the ROI is awesome. 

The licensing is restrictive and can get expensive as you have to pay per user, not per app. It's a range of users. For example, if you go above 50 users, you need to pay more. 

If you compare it with competitors like Google, they are more expensive than Google. Google has another option that's a PowerApps competitor called AppSheets and AppSheets is cheaper than PowerApps.

We are Microsoft partners. 

I'm using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

There are some things that need improvement in some ways to make the tool better. However, it's very powerful and it's very fast to deploy something. It's great.

I am not a PowerApps user, but recently I have been evaluating and scoring no-code to low-code platforms (for developing mobile apps). The score chart is divided into sections, such as usability and features like the ability to test and multi-platform. Due to these evaluations, I learned the systems well enough to be able to build a sample application on all of these platforms and then fill in my evaluation.

I like the fact that Microsoft PowerApps it a self-contained solution; I could build everything and then deploy it. I liked the UI designer that they had for building the screens and also defining the flows. Of all of the solutions I evaluated, it was the easiest to use and deploy.

Microsoft PowerApps is not intended for customizing what's generated in a major way. You have these little windows where you can enter your script and such, but there is no script debugging, nothing like that. You build and you auto-generate the code. From there, if you want to customize it too much, then it's going to get difficult — OutSystems was more intended for that; you can do a lot more customization after you build your solution.

The stability is pretty robust. I didn't encounter any crashes or anything unexpected.

I did have a negative experience with customer support. I contacted them and was connected with an automated messaging system; It was hard to get to talk to someone. That was definitely a concern for me.

For me, the initial setup was very simple and smooth-flowing.

I was using a free version. The company has a subscription where you can use certain features for free, but there are features that require a premium subscription to use. I am not certain, but I suspect they would be expensive.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.

We use this solution to provide a cloud-based platform for our clients to develop, connect, and store data from across the full Microsoft suite.

We particularly like the workflow connectors in the forms, for information introduction purposes.

Our customers appreciate the fact that the licensing for this solution is also connected with Office 365, making it a it's less expensive overall system.

It is also very user-friendly in terms of learning curves; it can be picked up very quickly by new users and provides good interoperability between Teams, Outlook, and other solutions from Office.

We would like to see some improvement in the cost of the solution when an organization has a more complex network structure. The advanced connectors are very expensive, which discourages our customers from implementing it.

We would also like to see a more robust library of uses for different system roles to be built into this solution, such as for authorizations.

We have been working with this solution for nearly three years.

The stability of this solution is okay, and really depends on the clients architecture and infrastructure.

When the solution is properly designed at the implementation stage, the scalability is incredible, and the only limiting factor is the cost involved with scaling.

The initial setup for this solution is very easy.

We would recommend this solution to organizations of all sizes. However, the level of investment needed may mean that it is better suited to medium to large organizations.

We would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are user integrators and partners with Microsoft. 

One of the valuable features of PowerApps is the ability to generate QR codes and scan barcodes, as well as take an image. Integration is good; the solution is low code and easy to deploy. It's great that you need to create a unique verification, it's a feature that helps a lot. 

We had issues with the syntax during the build. Writing quotes could be simplified. Customization, in general, is somewhat complicated.

I've been using this solution for a couple of months. 

As with most Microsoft products, it's scalable. We recently deployed in a company in Burundi where they have 50 users. It requires two, sometimes three people for maintenance. Once the solution is set up, there's not much required. We'd like to scale nationwide but it ultimately depends on the cost. 

I haven't had contact with Microsoft support regarding this product. 

I think for the first-time user, the initial setup takes more time. Other tools like Automate are easier to deploy. PowerApps requires so many things to click and customize, it's really detailed. Building the system takes a little bit more practice than with other solutions. The deployment was done in-house and we had a couple of people working on it. The implementation took about a week. 

The solution is quite expensive because if you have, say, 100,000 users or more, that can add up. Licensing works on a tier system but I don't have the details. 

Building is the simple part of this product, it's the costing that needs to be checked. It can often be overlooked when you build a solution. 

I rate this solution seven out of 10. 

I'm working for a company that provides services and develops projects for our clients. I am a solution architect and I use Microsoft PowerApps.

In Microsoft PowerApps the most valuable features are the fully customizable design that we can control everything that we would like to control. For example, the integration between Microsoft and third-party services through pre-built connectors, and the functionality to create custom connectors.

The solution could improve by having more connectors for different solutions in a way to create custom connectors. Additionally, they should make HTTP Connectors free again because it was not always a premium feature. These HTTP connectors allow you to send API requests which can be important.

I have been using Microsoft PowerApps for approximately four years.

The performance and the stability of Microsoft PowerApps are great because it is based on the Microsoft platform. We are able to use a lot of other features, we have no problems with the performance.

The technical support from Microsoft PowerApps is quite good because they respond in a few hours. They provide comprehensive support as well. If you do not buy any support package, SLA agreement, et cetera, and only have a standard license, you are able to raise a ticket with them and they will support you.

The initial setup is very easy.

There are areas of Microsoft PowerApps that can be improved. For example, the license policies are expensive to purchases the premium connectors. If a company would like to use the premium features, they have to pay a lot of money. The Microsoft PowerApps portal could be easier to use when there are a lot of external users because if a company has 1,000 external users, it is too expensive to use the Microsoft PowerApps portal.

I would recommend people to pay attention to not only the documentation of the solution but Microsoft provides a lot of video and text documentation. They give step-by-step guides on how to use different features and how to start and complete the implementation. Microsoft documentation is a good way to start for non-familiar people to Microsoft PowerApps.

I rate Microsoft PowerApps a ten out of ten.

We're using it for our business processes. We have applications for expenditure requests, travel requests, and accident reporting.

I am using the latest version of the solution.

It is easy to use.

Most of my training for what I do has been by watching or learning in the community. There needs to be better training on either one of these. 

We started implementing it in February 2020.

It is stable.

It is scalable. About 150 to 200 people are using it. 

In terms of our plans to increase its usage, I'm moving to a different department and starting over. We might be scaling up in my new department. In the current department, they still need to figure out what they're trying to do.

If I'm dealing with the community, technical support is incredible.

We were paper-based before switching to PowerApps.

It was easy. We started in February, and everything had to be up and running in March because of the pandemic of 2020.

I did it, and there was no reseller. We're a university, and the university was not going to pay for us to have this deployed by an outside partner.

I also take care of its maintenance.

I don't have that information. We work with a procurement office that deploys it for our university.

We looked at ServiceNow because some of the departments in our organization were using ServiceNow.

Deployment has to be supported from the top down because if you're trying to get things supported from the bottom up, you run into a lot of interference. This has not been the easiest.

PowerApps is incredible, so I would give it a nine out of 10.

I had to upload a form, an invoice, specifically, and then using an Azure function, I had to get that form from the Dataverse database and feed it to an Azure form recognizer and write the data back to the Azure Power App.

I like that you can quickly click together a user interface. For all no-code platforms that let you create a front end, you can click together something very quick. 

My problem with solutions like Power Apps and Betty Block blocks and probably with every no-code platform out there is that, as soon as you want to do something custom, something that's not provided by the environment you're using, it gets really tough. You have to work around the constraints of the platform. No-code platforms have constraints. I'm a developer myself, so I tend to not use no-code. I tend to code a lot. 

The notion people have is that no code equals no knowledge, and that's simply not true. Even though you don't have to write codes, you still have to know what you're doing.

I had some trouble interfacing with the Dataverse database. If I could, I'd make the couplings with other software easier. The integration with other software could be better. Any developer who had to work with an application made in Power Apps would find that useful.

There are limited use cases. 

I've used the solution within the last 12 months. 

The solution is a lot more stable than Betty Blocks. I haven't had any crashes or lost data or anything. That said,  haven't used it thoroughly. While I say it's pretty stable, I can't say how it performs under heavy use or big projects.

I've never had to reach out to technical support in the past. 

I've also used Betty Blocks. With Power Apps, you can quickly click together a user interface, that's also the case with Betty Blocks. However, both being no-code have constraints. For example, Betty Blocks was using jQuery one, and at the time we had jQuery three. I wanted to use a front-end framework. That was just not possible since it would mess up the Betty Blocks designer. And that's also the case with Microsoft Power Apps.

The ease or difficulty of the initial setup varies. For me, it wasn't that hard. However, I already had an Azure subscription and a Microsoft account. If you don't have any of that, it's not that easy - especially if you're not very technically inclined. It can be a daunting task.

I'd rate the ease of setup six out of ten. 

The deployment is fast and takes almost no time at all. I developed the application, and I pushed the publish button, and it was published.

I handled the initial setup myself. I did not need outside assistance. 

The license for the solution comes with my professional license, so I'm not sure actually if you pay by the user. For me, it was free to develop with a professional license, which is about 70 euros a month. That said, if you get a lot of users using it, it's not included. I don't know how much that would cost.

Whether it is worth the cost or not depends on the use case. 

We initially chose the solution as it was a customer specification. They wanted to use a Microsoft Power App.

I'm an end-user. 

I have been using the latest version of the solution. However, I don't even know if you can switch between versions.

If you want a complex system with lots of custom work done, then it is not ideal, as you are going to have to face the limitations of the platform. If what you want is a simple tool where you just need to upload some files, or you need to store some data to make a custom CRM application, then it's very easy to use.

It's certainly not a replacement for actual development work, and it's not a replacement for developers.

I would recommend the solution to others. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. In terms of no-code, it's pretty good, especially when you use it with a Logic App, which is part of the Power platform. When I compare it to Orbis or Betty Blocks, it's just a really good product. It has a small learning curve, however, it should be really easy for people who have no previous experience.

We use Microsoft PowerApps for very small use cases. For example, conducting internal surveys, or say some of the key business stakeholders want day-to-day reporting. Using PowerApps, we are creating such reports for those executives.

We connected PowerApps to the relational database, which generates the report. 

Also for contract review and approval of these types of use cases. Those are, in my opinion, very simple use cases. There are no complex rules or decision-making processes, which is why PowerApps was designed.

It offers integration with several Microsoft products, including SharePoint and Outlook, in my opinion, is a huge plus. 

It can also integrate with Microsoft SQL servers, which makes it easy, and you can send reports and create business applications from it.

In terms of workflow automation, I believe that capabilities for creating the entire business process are required, or, at the very least, the option to model the business process, define complex business events, handle them, and route them to appropriate business stakeholders.

Those, I believe, are the critical areas that require improvement. 

For the time being, it is only an application development platform. I am not counting a business processing management platform, only working on capabilities with business process management.

It is extremely stable. 

The apps that we created were not particularly complex. We did not thoroughly test PowerApps to determine their true capabilities. It was similar to tactical applications built as part of the POC to ensure what capabilities of the PowerApps could be used.

It was not used for any critical business application.

I believe it should be scalable. 

However, in our organization, we only have approximately 15 to 20 people who are currently using it.

The initial setup is straightforward. It does not take long.

Maintenance is minimal. It is only one or two people who keep it running.

I believe it simply depends on the complexity of the business process. If you are serious about implementing a complex business process, I believe you should use a platform like Appian or Pega.

In terms of low code automation, I believe those two platforms are quite mature. They also develop capabilities such as robotic process automation and process mining. That's where the most value is because business users don't just want one thing; they want several things at the same time.

I believe it is preferable to use a platform that is robust in nature. Appian and Pega, in my opinion, would be better for them. However, if you only have a simple application that does not require much scaling, I believe you can use PowerApps, such as a simple three or four screens or forms. That should suffice for Microsoft PowerApps, in my opinion.

We are Microsoft partners and resellers.

I would rate Microsoft PowerApps a seven out of ten.