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10 Microsoft Power Apps benefits
Microsoft Power Apps can improve the speed of app development and enable easier app creation, which can benefit organizations and users with minimal technical skills.
Microsoft Power Apps is a component of the Power Platform, which enables users to automate and build applications that improve business processes with no code or very little code. Power Apps differs from classic software development in regard to app lifecycles and how users or developers interact with them.
For a business analyst, chief financial officer or sales representative, building a fully functional app to solve business challenges is appealing, as many modern organizations prefer to solve challenges internally and quickly without the traditional long lifecycle of custom development. If users can build mobile or desktop apps with Power Apps within minutes, they can quickly address common gaps in data collection from users, customers or other entities that may have relied on emails or Excel files. Non-technology organizations can use Power Apps' non-developer resources to transform users into app designers.
Explore several benefits of Microsoft Power Apps below.
1. Speed of app creation
Power Apps accelerates app creation. Users have five ways to build apps with Power Apps, which are the following:
- Use an existing SharePoint Online list or other data sources to generate apps.
- Use a blank canvas in the Power Apps designer.
- Use existing templates in Power Pages.
- Build model-driven apps that offer more advanced functionality and data storage.
- Build Power Pages that generate web-based screens to manage and interact with data.
2. Low-code and no-code
The Power Apps web interface offers toolboxes that enable the design and development of the app's form through the GUI, so apps do not always need to have code. The designer interface offers capabilities to adjust screen layouts and add and remove fields.
3. Microsoft and other third-party service integrations
Power Apps can connect to different data sources and online services with few development requirements. Some integrations include Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and third-party services such as Salesforce, Adobe and Dropbox.
4. Business process automation
As part of the Power Platform, Power Apps can access Power Automate -- formerly Microsoft Flow -- which enables organizations to automate several activities, including notifications, approvals, documents or record routing. Power Apps can trigger Power Automate's workflow engine to enable developers and users to add automation functionality based on end-user behavior or data changes.
5. Low cost of app ownership
App development and deployment have several associated costs, including licensing of components and developers. With Power Apps, a low-code or no-code platform, development costs are much lower.
Power Apps pricing tiers are as follows:
- Power Apps Developer Plan: Free.
- Power Apps Premium: $20 per user monthly.
- Power Apps Premium, with a 2,000 seat minimum: $12 per user monthly.
6. Traditional AI capabilities
As many organizations want more AI capabilities, developers can use Power Apps to add intelligence to business apps with its AI Builder feature. This tool eliminates the need for data scientists and advanced developers to build different AI models.
Power Apps' AI capabilities offer several options that users can embed into the apps to increase productivity, including the following:
- Business card readers with automated data capture from images using optical character recognition.
- Category classification.
- Identity document reader.
- Invoice processing.
- Key phrase extraction.
- Language detection.
- Receipt processing.
- Sentiment analysis.
- Text recognition and translation.
- Interactive bots.
- GPT-powered actions.
7. Generative AI capabilities
Power Apps also offers a tool to help users build apps with generative AI capabilities from Microsoft Copilot. With this feature, a user can describe in everyday words what the app should collect, track or manage, and the AI generates the app and acts as the developer to make any changes on the user's behalf.
8. Cross-platform access and ease of deployment
Users who develop mobile apps outside of Power Apps must undergo Apple or Google's review before they can roll them out. With Power Apps, teams can build and quickly deploy apps to their designated catalog from the main platform.
Additionally, users can share and access any app developed within Power Apps from a tablet, web interface or mobile device, which removes unnecessary complexity from traditional app development.
9. Scalable, advanced data management
With Microsoft Dataverse, users get advanced security features, data management and design capabilities to store and manage app data. This connection lets Power Apps create both simple apps for basic functions and more advanced apps that support larger data sets with complex relationships and standardized storage.
10. Dynamics 365 data access
For customers who use one or more apps from Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Apps lets them extend functionality that can natively interact with data stored within Dynamics 365.
Ultimately, Microsoft Power Apps is a low-code platform that enables rapid app development and deployment. Power Apps gives businesses a range of features, including seamless integration with Microsoft and third-party services, AI-driven capabilities and scalable data management. It bridges the gap between technical and non-technical users, aiming to empower users in all different roles to become app creators themselves and solve challenges independently.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in 2021 and updated in 2025 to reflect changes in Power Apps.
Reda Chouffani runs a consulting practice he co-founded, Biz Technology Solutions Inc., and is CTO at New Charter Technologies. He is a technology consultant with a focus on healthcare and manufacturing, cloud expert and business intelligence architect who helps enterprises make the best use of technology.
