An Introduction to Power Apps Licensing
The Version 1 Microsoft license consulting team (Karl O’Doherty, Niamh Ní Shúilleabháin, Richard Ojo, and William Nelson) are producing a series of video chats and blogs over the next few weeks or so, on Power Platform, its components and license models.
So far, we have covered a couple of topics including:
· An introduction to Power BI Licensing
· Microsoft Power Platform — Governance and controls
In this post, we will take a detailed look at Power Apps licensing. We have also recorded a short fireside chat on this topic which you can listen to at the link below.
What is Microsoft Power Apps?
As a quick recap, Power Apps is a suite of applications, services and connectors, all of which when combined allow you to rapidly develop custom business applications that can connect to data storage within the Microsoft ecosystem, as well as third-party environments.
This is all made possible through the concept of ‘no code/low code’ development which can be achieved by both technical and non-technical stake holders. The non-technical stake holders are commonly referred to as ‘citizen developers.’
Power Apps is part of Microsoft’s Power Platform family of products, which is in effect a term used to describe a host of associated technologies: Power BI, Power Automate, Power Pages, Power Virtual agents, and services such as Data verse.
Since Power Apps was launched in 2015, there has been a number of changes to the way this product is licensed. So, it is really important if you are either a long-term user of Power Apps or starting out for the first time, that you fully understand how it’s licensed. These term changes over the years have occurred as product usage has grown and Microsoft gradually gains an understanding of how the product is being used and at what scale.
As a consequence of these changes, we have encountered quite a bit of customer confusion as they question whether the product is free or needs to be paid for. It’s imperative for customers to understand exactly what is ‘free’ and what’s not — the terms used are ‘license included’ and ‘paid.’
Power Apps License Types
License Included — this version of Power Apps included in Office 365/Microsoft 365 user subscription/Dynamics 365 users is slightly different to the version that you would pay for. The rights that you receive are limited — they allow licensed users to customise and extend MS365 for productivity scenarios or to deliver a comprehensive ‘low code’ extensibility platform for MS teams. There is a limited Power App use right included with Dynamics however it’s important to remember that it must be used within the same environment as the licensed Dynamics 365 application or applications, to allow users to customise and extend MS 365 Dynamics applications. The use of the Power Apps capabilities included with Dynamics 365 can only be utilised within the context of the licensed Dynamics application. A ‘license included’ version provides a pathway to a ‘paid’ licensing model and is likely to have a few elements that may hinder some businesses and potentially create bottlenecks, warranting the need to look at stepping up to a paid version. This can potentially lead to unforeseen license costs for some organisations that haven’t fully understood exactly what they need to license relative to the needs of their organisation. When you look at leveraging other data sources for example, this is when you start to see the need to license users on a commercial basis.
Stand-alone License — general purpose use that provides full Power Apps capability on a standalone basis. This breaks down into 2 key areas; per user and per application.
· On a per-user basis each month allowing the user to run unlimited custom applications based on the full capability behind Power Apps — no restrictions.
· With per application, you can access and run one custom application or website per month which is quite constrained for a single user.
More recently Microsoft has introduced the Power App ‘pay as you go’ plan which sits outside the usual per user per month subscription and enables customers to ‘post pay’ for active users who access a single application per month within a single portal or environment.
This means, for example, that you could have 100 users making use of it in one month and one user in the next month — you can pay for those users that surface the app within their day-to-day job during a calendar month. In this model, you can scale up and down — you just pay for what you use.
Consequently, this needs metrics, analytics and careful monitoring to ensure that the price of this is not extending beyond what it would cost to assign a license to each user on a monthly basis.
Other Power Apps Licensing Considerations
Some additional considerations relate to Power Pages and Power Automate (more information on these in future fireside chats):
· Power Pages — The traditional portal. You can build an app and publish this to outside users (whether anon or authenticated). However, this opens up a completely different subset of commercial pricing.
· Power Automate — If you are connecting to other data sources or connecting into a ‘premium product’ then there will be connection charges or ‘flow’ charges for Power Automate.
It’s also worthwhile considering Dataverse capacity fees and/or other services that may lean on your Dataverse requirement. Within Power Pages, there are licensing dependencies around external identities to remember.
Take time to understand what data sources you are using for Power Apps. There is a potential license risk, not just within the world of Microsoft but with other third-party products, depending on those products’ licensing terms. If you are exposing your surface data through a Power App that has an underlaying licensing requirement, this risk could remain hidden until a vendor audit.
For example, with SQL Server, if you are exposing data through a Power App in SQL Server (a server that you have licensed on a server plus CAL basis) and your organisation has thousands of users that have now been exposed to that data, then that SQL Server should have been licensed on a ‘per core’ basis.
This could also apply to other software vendors who may have limitations around who and where the data can be accessed.
It’s worthwhile taking the time to consider any of these potential licensing dependencies in case they have a significant commercial impact further down the line.
With the mix of Power App products available, it’s easy to see how complex from a cost and license perspective this can be and why it’s important to go through a ‘profiling’ exercise within your organisation before you make a commitment to Power Apps.
Take Note — so, before you go ahead and unilaterally give everyone a per user plan, especially if you are starting out, keep in mind that there are a variety of different license metrics available. This will allow you to ‘dabble’ and scale before you make a large commercial commitment to licenses that could potentially turn into shelfware, if you don’t achieve the app dev trajectory that was perhaps initially anticipated.
In Summary
As experts in Microsoft licensing, here are some of the key Power Apps license considerations we would suggest;
· Ensure that the most suitable licenses are aligned to the functional need of the user and business.
· Take stock of what entitlement you might already have in place. Don’t pay for licenses until you have checked what you already have and whether they will meet the needs of the business.
· If you are using Power Apps right now or are just about to take on Power Apps, consider having a discovery and design process that incorporates the services of a license expert such as Version 1, to understand what your total investment should be.
Within the Version 1 SAM practice we are actively working with customers to help them understand the nuances around Power Apps licensing, and can assist you with any questions. Go to our website or contact us for further information.
About the Author:
Karl is a Principal Licensing Consultant at Version 1, providing Microsoft license expertise to organisations globally and ensuring customers get the best value from their Microsoft assets.
