Power Platform Licensing for Dummies

The Power Platform is a suite of Microsoft products that includes Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages, Power BI and Virtual Agents. It provides businesses with a powerful and intuitive way to create apps, analyse data, streamline processes, and automate tasks. But with any software platform, there are different kinds of licensing models that must be considered when evaluating the cost of using the Power Platform.

As with many other Microsoft products, mastering Power Platform licensing is nearly as tough as getting a university degree. That’s why I’ll just focus on the most popular tooling - Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Pages - in this blog post. In addition, I’ll cover the most common use cases without diving into the small print.

When you acquire a license for the Power Platform you basically have 2 options:

• make use of the (limited) license that’s included in the license of Microsoft 365 (or Dynamics 365)
• get a standalone (premium) license

Let’s dive into the details of and differences between these plans.

Power apps for Microsoft 365

If you already have Microsoft/Office 365 licenses (Business, E1, E3, E5, F1, F3…), you also have access to some limited Power Apps capabilities. This is for organisations who want to extend the Office experience with Power Apps and Power Automate (e.g., integrate an app or flow in Teams).

The main differences with the standalone option are:

• canvas apps only (no automatically model-driven apps)
• no access to premium and custom connectors. You only have access to the standard connectors (in essence only a connector to SharePoint Online)
• No access to AI builder
• Not possible to run apps in a managed environment
• Only Dataverse for Teams can be used, not the full option Dataverse. Dataverse for Teams is tailored for Teams. Security, for example, is aligned with the way Teams’ security is set up (Owners, members and guests).

Standalone plans

Standalone plans are fully featured and there are no limitations. Microsoft offers 3 flavours of standalone plans. The pricing for these 3 plans can be found here.

Power apps per app plan

Power Apps per app plan allows individual users to run one application (be it a canvas app or model driven app) or one website (built using Power Pages) based on the full capabilities of Power Apps. If you want to build more than 1 app you need to purchase an extra license per app with this plan. Customers with the per app plan typically start with 1-2 leading use case scenarios before adopting the platform more broadly.

Power apps per user plan

The Power Apps per user plan allows licensed users to run unlimited custom applications and access unlimited Power Pages websites based on the full capabilities of Power Apps. Obviously this plan is more interesting if you have fully embraced the Power Platform and are planning to build multiple applications with it. Once you offer users 5 Power Apps, it’s cheaper to pay per user than per separate app.

Pay-as-you-go

The plan basically means that you only pay when users are actively using an app on a monthly basis. There are some use cases which make this plan very interesting:

• infrequent use: when your apps are shared with a wide user base with infrequent use
• unpredictable usage: when you’re not sure how well the app will be adopted and how the usage will be

You are being charged per unique user, per app, per month. When you prefer a predictable cost at the end of the month, the per app or per user plan are recommended.

Next to the 2 licensing options we saw with Power Apps (standalone and included in Microsoft 365 licenses), for Power Automate (and as you will see later also for Power Pages), some features are also included in the Power Apps standalone plans. Let’s discuss the 3 licensing options.

Power Automate capabilities included with Power Apps licenses

When you purchased a Power Apps standalone plan, you’re also entitled to use Power Automate for the purpose of automating workflows associated with the Power Apps applications. This means:

• the flow must use the same data sources for triggers or actions as the app
• flows that are triggered from the app are automatically considered as being in context of the app

A simple way to determine if the flow is part of the context of the app is to ask yourself: “Can the flow be deleted if the app is deleted?”. If so, the flow is in context.

If the flow is isolated and has nothing to do with the Power Apps application, then standalone Power Automate licenses will need to be purchased.

RPA and AI builder capabilities are not included in this plan but you do have access to all connectors, full Dataverse, on premises gateway…

Power Automate for Microsoft 365

When you already have Office 365 licenses, you have access to the same limited Power Automate capabilities as with Power Apps:

• no access to premium or custom connectors
• only access to Dataverse for Teams
• no RPA
• no AI builder
• …

For enterprise grade scenarios, standalone licenses are recommended.

Standalone Power Automate plans

Licensing is supported on both a “per user” basis as well as a “per flow” basis. All standalone plans include the full capabilities of Power Automate with the exception of RPA functionality. Pricing can be found here.

Power automate per flow plan

This plan allows an unlimited number of users to run a maximum of 5 different flows (The base fee of the plan includes the use of 5 flows). Just as with Power Apps, this plan is advised when you have a limited number of flows and are adopting the Power Automate tool.

Power automate per user plan

The Power Automate per user plan equips individual users to create and run unlimited workflows and business processes. The per user plan is intended to support the broad adoption of an automation culture in an organisation.

Pay-as-you-go

This plan is also available for Power Automate and you only pay for the actual usage based on the number of times the flows run.

I also want RPA

If you want RPA there are 2 options:

Power Automate per user with attended RPA plan

This plan builds on the Power Automate per user plan with the ability for a user to run an attended RPA bot on their workstation (User needs to follow up on the automation and needs to interact and/or make decisions. The automation is also manually triggered).

Add-ons

Add-ons can be added onto a standalone license. There are 2 add-ons to get access to RPA functionality:

• unattended RPA add-on. This add-on enables a bot to run autonomously (independent of a user).
• hosted RPA add-on. In this option the bots are hosted by Microsoft, so no infrastructure needed.

These add-ons are only available when you have the base per flow plan or the base per user with attended RPA plan.

Power Pages licensing is capacity based depending on the user type:

• authenticated users per website/month (users who obtain secure access to a website by logging in through an authentication provider on the website)
• anonymous users per website/month (users who access a website and do not log in)

Power Pages use rights included with Power Apps

Authenticated users who are licensed with Power Apps licenses can also use Power Pages:

• Power Apps per app licensed users can only use 1 website
• Power Apps per user licensed users have access to unlimited websites

Standalone Power Pages plans

All standalone plans include the full capabilities of Power Pages. Pricing can be found here.

Power Pages authenticated users plan

This plan provides licenses for the anticipated number of unique, authenticated users per month. The plan is licensed through capacity packs of 100 users/pack.

Power Pages anonymous users plan

This plan provides licenses for the anticipated number of unique, anonymous users per month. The plan is licensed through capacity packs of 500 users/pack.

Pay-as-you-go

If you only want to pay the actual number of users which visit your website instead of estimating and purchasing capacity beforehand, both plans are also available in a pay-as-you-go environment.

What if I just want to test it out?

If you want to play with the Power Platform first, there are 2 options: the trial plan or the developer plan.

Trial plans

You can explore all the Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Pages capabilities for free by signing up for a trial plan. The trial plan provides temporary access (30 days for Power Apps and Power Pages, 90 days for Power Automate). If you're already using Power Apps with Office 365, this is the right plan to test the premium functionalities of Power Apps.

Developer plan

The Power Apps Developer Plan gives you a free development environment for individual use. The plan enables you to:

• Create apps and flows with full-featured Power Apps and Power Automate development tools.
• Connect to standards, premium and custom connectors.
• Use of the Dataverse

Obviously, it’s not allowed to use the apps and flows you build in a production context.

This plan gives you access to the same functionalities as available in the paid plans but in a developer environment meant for development and test use only. If you want to deploy and run solutions in a production environment, you need to purchase the necessary licenses.

Recap

Wow, that was a lot of information! Let’s try to recap: The Power Platform offers a variety of licensing plans to support the broad adoption of an automation culture in an organisation. Depending on the number of users and use cases, different Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages and RPA licenses are available. Standalone Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Pages plans are available, as well as a pay-as-you-go plan. If you just want to explore and test the Power Platform, the trial or developer plan is recommended. It is important to know the functionalities and restrictions so that you choose the right plan for your organisation.