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Power Automate Free vs Paid

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Where can I find a description of what I am able to do with the Free versions of the Power Platform, (Power Automate specifically for this board) versus what can I do with a paid version of the same?

 

Specifically, I'm currently interested in the limitations of the free version as that's what I will be using until I decide if the Power Platform would have a good enough ROI.

 

i.e. Can I make a PAD flow, for my personal machine, using the free version?

 

David😎

  • powercorner Profile Picture
    powercorner 477 on at
    Re: Power Automate Free vs Paid

    Hi @F_DPuthuff ,

     

    there is no real "free version" of Power Automate. I think you are describing the basic version which is included into the enterprise licenses (E1, E3 and E5). 

     

    Honestly the basic versions are good enough to make your automations work as long as you store your data inside the SharePoint, Outlook or Onedrive. When you want to use other datasources like Dataverse or an SQL Server you will need to have the premium licenses or use the LogicApps. 

    So if you are working in a company that really wants to make it right you will need to have the premium licenses. You can read this article here it describes why you should use the premium licenses if you want to want to use the Power Platform professionally: Power Platform – How to start right? ♥ PowerCorner (ktttw.de)

     

    If you really need it depends on where you are standing, what do you want to achieve and how clean your solutions should be. If you want to have clean solutions with a nice ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) you cannot work with the basic version. 

     

    On the other hand when you have a couple of workers who want to creat some simple automations or Power Apps that connect the standard Microsoft stuff (like SP and so on) you can think about it.

     

    You can also take a look at the offical licensing guide, there you can see what the licenses are capable of: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2085130 


    What is your plan? What is the background?

     

    The ROI is also an interesting thing. Because its hard to estimate this. But let my try to give you an example.

    You want to build a business application and you let a company implement an Webapplication or an App and some automation hosted in Azure. This could cost you around 50-120.000 $. With Power Platform you could do this implementations without the external company. But if you want to create a good managable solution in Power Platform you should use Dataverse as your datasource, cause it is creatable and patchable in your PowerPlatform solutions.

     

    In addition you should start calculation how many users your company has. There more users you have the bigger the impact on the users is when your solution is down. So it should be a solution which is created professionally and will be scalable. When you work with the basic E-licenses you cannot guarantee this. 

     

    In the end if you want to create small apps which support processes locally you can use the basic. If you want to create apps for your whole company the premium licensing should be your choice.

     

    With regards

    Kevin

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