Microsoft Power Apps Reviews

Microsoft has come at the right time. To come out with a RAD (Rapid Application Development) tool where you can develop your apps on the cloud much faster, and deploy them for multiple devices, whether it is mobile, cloud, laptops, or desktops. It is similar to Oracle APEX or Oracle developer tools where you just drag and drop into your application within minutes.

The primary use case of this solution is case management reporting. If, for example, you have a set of engineers who have been assigned a particular case or project they will need to record all of their activities and their visits. Using the application created in PowerApps, they report everything, then it goes through a workflow. 

The workflow goes from recording the daily activities of the team for the specific project. The project then goes through a series of approvals and gets logged, completed, and the report is generated. 

Expenses are also being logged. 

We have Power BI as well, and it moves the data from the source to the data warehouse then generates a report.

This is quite a short term, six-week engagement. We wanted to create an application and have it up and running within four to six weeks, rather than spending three to six months on bigger projects on the platform. We wanted it to be quick and fast.

PowerApps is best suited for those cases where you have a small scenario and an application to support that project or scenario. You can call these departmental applications, which are needed on the fly. We create a much shorter development lifecycle and then deploy, and then people start using it.

Take an example of the COVID-19 situation. We wanted all of our branches to log their COVID cases or what exactly are they doing daily to manage the COVID cases and to know what the process is. All of those details are logged into the COVID folder and then the reports are generated daily or weekly.

Microsoft PowerApps is a no-code solution.

I would say that the most valuable features are the user interface, navigation, and business routes.

It quickly drags and drops. It doesn't take much coding, there is no coding in fact. You drag and drop, select a few things to configure, and then read those applications in the user screens. 

With business rules, you can just select and you don't need to elaborate coding or backend code. This way, it's much easier to write or create those applications using their features.

When you capture a lot of data, the data becomes enormous. It's one of Microsoft's challenges that there is a threshold limit of 5000 items. It has to improve the threshold limit where it can handle data beyond 5000 items.

I would like to see integration with on-premise business applications, complex business routes, and complex business workflows.

We started using Microsoft PowerApps in 2014.

Currently, there is a challenge in scaling up. We can't scale beyond large data.

We have approximately 10,000 users in our organization.

There is a challenge in getting support. The support staff is not trained properly in PowerApps.

The initial setup was not easy, but not exactly complex. There was a lot of research.

There are two licensing costs, one is pay-as-you-go, or you can develop it for one year.

I would advise others to make an informed decision before you implement it. There are a lot of challenges, and the product is going through a lot of changes.

It's promising, so I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We use the Microsoft PowerApps platform to create low-code applications that are used for optimizing internal business processes.

The most valuable feature is automized processes.

The connectors are the main components that reference the data sources, and these need to be improved. They have to both improve the ones that are already there and add new ones.

We have been using this product for a couple of years, since 2018

This is a pretty stable product. So far, we haven't had any critical issues with it.

There are some options for scaling the product but we haven't used them, so I am not sure about scalability. We have approximately 1,000 users.

I would rate the technical support a nine out of ten. They are very good but the response time could be improved.

The initial setup is straightforward. It is a self-service solution, so there is no real deployment. It is a case of enabling that functionality within the Microsoft account, and then telling the people that it is enabled and available. At that point, I think that that they can create their own applications if they need to.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to research the material that is available in the documentation, as well as videos on YouTube. These sources contain a lot of information and recommendations for how to implement and use the platform.

They also have a really good community with Microsoft the websites, where many people post their issues and the solutions as well.

Overall, this is a really good product.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

We use this solution for process authorization in our company.

It is very easy for us to implement. We have a Microsoft ecosystem, and this solution has many components for integration.

It would be good if this solution supports standard BPM notation. We are thinking of switching to a BPM solution next year because it is not a BPM solution.

I have been using this solution for a year.

It is stable.

Its scalability is very good. This solution is in Microsoft cloud, so we don't need to worry about scaling it.

We didn't use technical support. I have only used online documentation, and it is very good. There are good videos out there.

We didn't use any other solution.

The initial setup is very easy because it is a SaaS solution. We don't need to implement any server in the company. We just use the SaaS solution.

In terms of the implementation strategy, we take a small business use case in the financial area and do a proof of concept to evaluate a solution. 

We did it on our own.

We use the Office 365 package, and Microsoft PowerApps is a part of the package. We don't pay any separate price for this.

There are no additional costs. We just pay for the Office 365 package.

I would recommend this solution because it is an easy solution for the Microsoft ecosystem.

I would rate Microsoft PowerApps an eight out of ten. We are happy with this solution.

Our sales reps use it in the field on a daily basis. I get the data from there and then analyze it for my needs. We are also developing an application to start using Microsoft PowerApps. I would assume we have the latest version. 

We get feedback on a real-time basis, which is actually very useful for us.

It is not enough user friendly. It also doesn't integrate very well with SQL Server.

I have been using this solution for almost a year and a half now.

I would say, overall, it is not bad.

We haven't gone that far yet, so I'm not sure. We have almost 500 sales reps who use it.

They are good. We get a pretty good response and support from them. I had to talk to them on a couple of occasions, and it was a good experience. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

We didn't have anything before.

The initial setup was straightforward, but if you want to put more options, it gets complicated.

It is definitely a useful product. I would absolutely recommend it.

I would rate Microsoft PowerApps an eight out of ten because there are still some issues that we are addressing, specifically related to its integration.

The solution is really strong. I'm not an engineer. I'm an economist. Even without being an engineer, I can handle working with the data warehouse. It offers good speed and excellent design.

If I want to process for payments, I can do it fast and easy in Power Apps. If I need to process information from Facebook, from Twitter, or other places, it's really wonderful. 

Overall, the tool is very democratic. It's easy for anyone to use. You don't have to be a professional or well-versed in technology.

For me, it's easier if I have visual references in order to learn the system. However, I'm also Spanish, and the tool is in English. That's one level of difficulty. Another level is that there aren't too many Spanish use cases and examples. It would help if there was more documentation in my native language to help me learn the system more effectively. In English, I don't think this is necessarily a problem. There seems to be a lot of English documentation.

It would be helpful if there was more explanations built right into the solution's interface so that I can understand what action is supposed to get what result.

In terms of usability, when I tried to make an amortization table, I couldn't find an exponential option. I don't know if it's ideal for financial tools that deal with credit or loans. I'm still looking into this.

It's sometimes hard to import groups of options. At this point, I need to enter those manually and it slows the process down.

I've only been using the solution for about four months at this point. It hasn't been too long. I've used Power VA, Power Pivot, and Power Query for a long time, however, in terms of Power Apps, it hasn't been nearly as long.

The tool is good for work. I haven't had issues with bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash.

For me, and the way I am using it, the tool is fine. I'm unsure if it would work on a very large scale for big, big companies.

The initial setup was not complex. It's very easy as it's on the cloud. You don't need to be an expert in order to deploy it.

I'm using a trial version right now. I'm still learning the system, so I haven't moved into a paid version yet.

It's my understanding that the pricing isn't too bad. I've heard other people mention it's not as expensive as Azure in comparison with Linux. One or two licenses may not be too expensive, however, I don't know the exact pricing.

I started working with the common data model and the entities and working with my data warehouse. Now I'm working on my data warehouse with common data series. I use Power Apps for my standard entities' values. I need to modify it now with the new processes that are in place. And in the beginning, I use Power Apps for the management of the entities for Power VA. Since I've started using Power Apps, as I can see it's powerful and makes it easy for many, many, many kinds of work processes.

I'm still trying the solution out, and I'm still learning a lot about it. I'm by no means an expert yet.

I'm pretty satisfied with the product. Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten. It's a good tool and it's nice that it's part of a suite in Microsoft.

The most valuable features are low-code and fast development.

Microsoft is evolving constantly.

PowerApps is still a bit new compared to a slightly more mature product such as OutSystems.

OutSystems has many features that are still not available in Power Apps.

Simple things like navigation are better with Outsystem without much coding.

The key is the licensing; the fees could be reduced, especially at the enterprise level.

I would like to have more usability, with more fanciful navigation. More like what you would find in Outsystems BI. They offer more drag and drop navigation, and more advanced navigational options around the drag and drop lists and hierarchical navigation out of the box is literally a drag and a drop.

It can be done in Power Apps, but you need to do a bit of coding to achieve the same thing. It's lacking in features.

We are in the evaluation phase and have been using PowerApps for three months.

We are using the latest version of this solution.

To be fair, we are relatively new to this solution. It's stable but at the moment in terms of stability, the enterprise version is more sustainable.

The version that I am using is not at an enterprise level. If you want to increase in size you have to purchase more licenses. It's scalable as long as you purchase the license.

We have more than 100 users in our organization.

I have not contacted technical support. We haven't had the need to.

I am currently working with Microsoft Power BI and Power Automate, which goes hand in hand with Microsoft Power Apps.

The initial setup is quite easy, it's as simple as turning it on.

It took us two weeks to deploy it and to come out with the first prototype.

The licensing fee at the enterprise level is expensive.

We are currently doing a proof of concept with Microsoft, we are evaluating some of their products.

I would recommend Microsoft Power Apps to anyone who is interested in using it.

As of recent Microsoft has been evolving the Power Platform rather aggressively. 

For example, I'm using Power BI, and every month they have a rollout of new features, and with Power Apps, when you compare to one year ago has evolved quite a bit, and so has Power Automate.

Microsoft is on a journey of evolving. 

It's a good tool now, but it will be a great tool soon.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

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.