How to license Power Apps?
To understand how to optimize your costs for Power Apps, you need to understand what the different licensing options are, how the costs look like, and what your current usage looks like. In this blog, we will deep-dive into these three areas.
Note: Due to the high complexity of the various license options, we will only cover Power Apps in this blog. Next week and the following week, we will publish guides on how to license Power Automate and inform you on licensing data capacity.
Licensing overview
Access to all the features of Power Apps is licensed on a per-user basis. These user-based licenses come in three different options: Power Apps Premium, Power Apps per App, and a Pay-As-You-Go offer via Azure. Additionally, limited Power Apps capabilities are built into Dynamics 365 and Microsoft/Office 365 licenses.
| Power Apps Premium | Power Apps per App | Power Apps pay-as-you-go |
| Per User | Per User, per App | Per Active User |
| Unlimited Apps and Pages | 1 App or 1 Page | Pay-as-you-go per used app, per month |
| Previously called Power Apps Plan 2 | Changed from two to one app per 01-OCT-2021 |
Build-In Power Apps use rights Dynamics 36, Microsoft 365 and Office 365 licenses
Specific Dynamics, Microsoft 365 and Office365 licenses include limited build-in rights for Power Apps usage. The use of Power Apps is restricted to the context and environment of the Dynamics, Microsoft 365 and Office 365 applications.
Power Pages
Power Pages is a comprehensive website building and hosting platform that empowers customers to build low-code, scalable, and secure business-centric websites. It offers pre-built templates and tools to govern and administer live sites.
Power Pages licensing is capacity based and offers two types of capacities based on user type: authenticated users per website per month and anonymous users per website per month. Both types are offered under subscription licenses or pay-as-you-go. Power Pages subscription licenses can’t be used in a pay-as-you-go environment.
| Authenticated User | Anonymous User |
| Per User | Per User |
| User who obtains secure access to a website by logging in through an authentication provider. | User who browses a website and don’t log in. |
The per user licenses are sold in capacity packs of 100+, 10.000+ and 100.000+ packages. Or as a Pay-as-you-Go model.
How to analyze your current usage?
Microsoft has created a separate admin center to manage your PowerPlatform environment. Here, you can allocate licenses to specific users and manage your usage and licenses.
To manage and monitor your active and inactive users, you can go to: Billing > Licenses > Environments. In the analytics section, you are able to go more in-depth and analyze the current usage across the different apps and determine the number of users.
How to Optimize your Power Apps licenses?
We now have a better understanding of the different licensing options and where to find the actual usage of your different apps. This gives us the possibility to optimize the costs.
Okay, there is one more thing we need to know to optimize, and that is the cost per different license type.
| Power Apps Premium | $ 20,- per user, per month | Annual commitment* | |
| Power Apps per App | $ 5,- per user, per month | Annual commitment* | |
| Power Apps pay-as-you-go | $ 10,- per active user, per month | No commitment |
*The annual commitment is calculated up to your next anniversary date. For example, if you wish to procure the licenses in March and your anniversary falls in June, you will only pay for the months of April, May, and June.
Based on the actual usage, licensing options, and cost, you are now able to calculate your most cost-effective solution using the following questions:
- Is the App within the boundaries of Dynamics, M365 and/or O365?
- Is the App using Premium Connectors?
- Is the App using On premises and cloud services data transfers?
- Have you created and accessed custom tables?
When the answer is “NO” to the above questions, you are able to use the built-in license from Dynamics, Microsoft 365 and/or Office 365.
When the answers is “YES” to any of the above, you need to procure a paid option, and the following additional questions apply.
- Is the specific user, using more than 4 apps?
- Yes, then use the Power Apps Premium license.
- No, then use the Power Apps per App license
- Do we have seasonal users?
- Yes, my users are only using the app for 4 months. In that case, the pay-as-you-go option is the most cost-effective.
- Yes, my users are only using the app once a year. In that case, the pay-as-you-go option is the most cost-effective.
- Do you need a scalable licensing solution where you can’t predict the number of users?
- Yes, then the pay-as-you go option is the most cost-effective.
