Power Apps Premium costs €17.30 per user per month paid yearly on Microsoft's Irish price list, excluding VAT, and Power Automate Premium costs €13.00. Many businesses do not need either to start, because most Microsoft 365 plans already include Power Apps and Power Automate for Microsoft 365 with cloud flows. ERS IT Solutions, a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider in Dublin 15 since 1983, builds Power Platform apps and automations and tells clients honestly when custom software is the better route.
What is the Microsoft Power Platform?
Power Platform is Microsoft's low-code family: Power Apps for building business apps, Power Automate for workflows, Power BI for reports and dashboards, Power Pages for websites and portals, and Copilot Studio for AI agents. They share connectors and a data platform called Dataverse.
Power Platform vs Power Apps
Power Apps is one product inside the Power Platform. When people compare "Power Platform vs Power Apps", they usually mean: do we need only apps, or apps plus automation, reporting and agents? Most real projects use at least two of them together, for example a Power App to capture data, a Power Automate flow to route approvals and a Power BI report on top.
How much does Power Apps cost in Ireland?
Microsoft's Irish Power Apps pricing page, checked 28 October 2026, lists (Microsoft Power Apps pricing):
| Plan | Price (per month, paid yearly, excl. VAT) | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Power Apps Developer Plan | Free | Build and test in developer environments, not for production use |
| Power Apps Premium | €17.30 per user | Unlimited apps per licensed user, premium and custom connectors, Dataverse |
| Power Apps Premium (2,000-seat minimum) | €10.40 per user | Same, for very large organisations |
| Dataverse Database Capacity add-on | €34.70 per GB | Extra database storage, pooled across the tenant |
Microsoft also offers pay-as-you-go licensing billed through an Azure subscription, which suits apps with variable or seasonal use. The Irish page does not show a price for pay-as-you-go or for a per-app licence. Older plan names you will still see in forums, such as Power Apps Plan 2 or "Power Apps for Office 365 Plan 3", refer to earlier licensing; the current page lists only Developer and Premium.
Power Apps per user vs per app pricing
Per user pricing (Premium) means each licensed person can run any number of apps, so it suits staff who use several business apps. Per app or pay-as-you-go suits a single app used by many people occasionally. Before choosing, count the users and apps over the next two years; the per user plan becomes cheaper quickly once people use more than one or two apps.
What does Microsoft 365 already include?
Microsoft 365 business plans include Power Apps for Microsoft 365 and Power Automate for Microsoft 365 with cloud flows (Microsoft business plans). That is enough for many internal apps built on SharePoint lists and approval flows. You need Premium when an app uses premium connectors (for example SQL databases or third-party systems), Dataverse, or custom connectors.
Power Apps portals and Power Pages pricing
People searching for Power Apps portals pricing now want Power Pages, Microsoft's low-code platform for "external-facing business websites" built on the same Dataverse data as Power Apps (Microsoft Learn). Power Apps Premium includes Power Pages use for the assigned licensed user, but a portal is usually built for customers, members or suppliers, and those external visitors are licensed separately. The Irish pricing page does not list a Power Pages price, so get a quote based on your expected number of external users.
How much does Power Automate cost?
Microsoft's Irish Power Automate pricing page lists (Microsoft Power Automate pricing):
| Plan | Price (per month, paid yearly, excl. VAT) |
|---|---|
| Power Automate Premium | €13.00 per user |
| Power Automate Process | €130.00 per bot |
| Power Automate Hosted Process | €186.30 per bot |
| Process Mining add-on | €4,332.40 per tenant |
Premium covers cloud flows and attended desktop automation for a person. Process licenses an unattended bot or a business-critical flow. Hosted Process adds a Microsoft-hosted virtual machine.
Power Apps vs Power Automate: what is the difference?
Power Apps is for screens people use: forms, lists, inspection apps, approval dashboards. Power Automate is for work that happens without a screen: when something happens, do these steps. A leave request app is a Power App; the flow that emails the manager, waits for approval and updates the HR list is Power Automate. Most solutions need both.
Canvas vs model-driven Power Apps
Microsoft describes canvas apps as starting "with your user experience": you design the screen freely and connect to more than 200 data sources. Model-driven apps start "with your data model": you define tables and processes in Dataverse and the app layout is generated for you (Microsoft Learn).
| Canvas app | Model-driven app | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Screen design | Data model in Dataverse |
| Good for | Mobile and task apps, field forms, simple workflows | Case management, CRM-style apps, complex records |
| Data | SharePoint, Excel, SQL, Dataverse and many more | Dataverse |
| Licence | Microsoft 365 rights for standard sources; Premium for premium ones | Premium |
Power Pages vs Power Apps
Power Apps builds apps for your own staff. Power Pages builds websites and portals, mainly for people outside the organisation: customers, members, suppliers, applicants. Use Power Pages when outsiders need to log in, submit forms or see their own records.
Power Apps vs Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is for surveys, quizzes and quick data collection, with results in Excel. Power Apps is for full applications: several screens, rules, lookups, editing existing records and working offline. If you only need to collect answers, use Forms with a Power Automate flow. If people need to view, update and act on data, use Power Apps.
Power Apps vs Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 is a set of ready-made business applications (sales, customer service, field service, finance) built on Dataverse, the same data platform as Power Apps (Microsoft Learn). Choose Dynamics 365 when a standard CRM or ERP process fits your business. Choose Power Apps when your process is specific to you, or to extend Dynamics 365.
Logic Apps vs Power Automate
Both are workflow tools with similar designers. Microsoft positions Power Automate for business users and citizen developers building "simple integrations without having to work with IT or developers", while Azure Logic Apps supports everything from low-code to "more advanced, codeful, and complex workflows" such as B2B processes (Microsoft Learn). Logic Apps is billed through Azure and managed by IT; Power Automate is licensed per user or per flow. Power Apps vs Logic Apps is not a real choice: Power Apps is for screens, Logic Apps is for back-end integration, and a Power App can trigger either.
Power Apps best practices
- Start with one process and its users, not a platform rollout.
- Use environments: separate development, test and production.
- Turn on data loss prevention policies so connectors cannot mix company and personal services.
- Store data in Dataverse or a proper database for anything business-critical, not in Excel files.
- Give every app an owner and document it, so it survives when the builder leaves.
- Plan licensing before you build, so premium connectors do not surprise you at go-live.
- Monitor flows and set alerts for failures.
Power Apps alternatives
Alternatives include other low-code platforms (for example OutSystems, Mendix, Appian and Zoho Creator), workflow tools such as Zapier and Make for simple automations, and custom software. Choose by where your data lives and who will maintain it. If you run Microsoft 365, Power Platform is usually the cheapest route for internal apps. When requirements outgrow low-code (heavy logic, high user numbers, public-facing apps with complex rules), custom development is often cheaper over five years. See bespoke software vs off the shelf.
What is the best workflow automation software?
The best workflow automation software is the one that connects to the systems you already use and that someone in your business can support. For Microsoft 365 businesses, Power Automate is the default. For integrations across many SaaS tools, iPaaS products are an option. For complex, high-volume or business-critical processes, a custom workflow or middleware layer gives more control. ERS uses "Microsoft Power Platform and custom solutions" and picks per project.