PowerApps When NOT to use PowerApps 

Thank you for your clarification of the negative side of Power Apss. There are not many people who step forward and allow another side to be seen. Most talk about the positive side without being aware of the things to consider.

Thank you so much, Paul, especially on the license part, I was planning to create one with PowerApp using SQL server DB, but after going through this video I have to rethink again...

Thanks for this video, i have 4 years experience with power apps and it is so. Also you depend on the power apps support team and you have to pay for support

Perfect Analysis. I am watching this video again so I can take notes in a document to show my Product Owner later. The limitations of PowerApps is valuable information to know when deciding what the future use case might be.

Thanks Paul, you have synthesized and clarified in a precise video the thoughts of most developers. nice job!

Absolutely appreciated! I started back in the early 90's "developing" in MS-Access, writing Macros and VBA against data stored in MS-Access (IMHO a much better starting point for data Devs as Sharepoint or Dataverse could ever be), then converting to VB5/6 and SQL-Server (and Oracle as well), later switched to .NET. About 10 years ago I joined "the dark side" and dropped development, focussing on mass-data related operations. Recently I stumbled across PA and did some work with that. First Impression was great, no question. But as soon as one dives deeper into that, I got the feeling of "eye candy". Looks sweet on first sight, but the more you work with it, the more you miss control of things. Recently I struggled with the "explicit column selection" stuff. Cost me nearly 2 days to figure out, what goes on there. A "feature" to cope with the "SELECT * FROM" guys to prohibit PA-Apps to slow down. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for PA, but there are bounderies as well and those should be known! Therefore: Thanks for this vid!

Excellent exposure of Power Apps dark side, not often revealed, very informative, many thanks for your effort.

Very useful and informative. It's good to know the limitations. Many thanks.

Your feedback stood the test of time. Still valid today despite 50% discount on licensing. You could have added that it comes with E5 subscription as well.

This video is so underrated .. Thanks a lot Paul!

I very much appreciate learning the cons of Powerapps! Thank you!

Great video Paul! Related to your first point, I've wrestled with situations where my users are running PA on their personal devices, yet they are also using multiple accounts (representing different companies that they are simultaneously working for). This requires them to frequently switch PA accounts to have access to the desired app. Makes me think I'm developing with the wrong tool. I'd be very interested in hearing more about your recommended alternatives to PA.

Thanks for sharing your valuable experience. Very informative.

Thank you for great video. Enjoyed nice explanations and clear point of view. Also contains useful comments. Rare thing in youtube

Paul, great explanation! I agree with your point of view. I am interesting to get your points over CDS. Did you shared on videos? Thanks!

So, Ink Recognizer through to file or scanner photo is recommendable ?

Excellent video, thank you for spending the time and energy doing it.

Great video Paul. I can relate to everything you are saying here.

Paul: this is a great video, very informative! You mentioned a native app as an alternative to Power App, do you have a recommendation of what this native app could be? I am a new bee on this and trying to figure out what other app we could use to design a project tracker - since IT in organisation seem to have security concerns with Power App. Info path is no option I believe. Again good stuff, more power to you!

Great analysis.. My only quibble is that power platform is the underlying platform for Dynamics apps, millions of users and business critical also, eg crm. Major revenue driver for ms, and it will not be discarded.

Very informative and cautionary, Thanks! What's your take on low code app builder such as retool or appsmith? Are they good alternative to escape these horrors?

This video is very informative and helpful, thank you.

In case of external sharing - can we use power apps portal instead of canvas apps?

My company is taking a hard look at using PowerApps . This video was quite informative indeed. There are more things to consider than we originally thought.

Thank you for the information. It was a great help.

Excellent video, thanks Paul

There is a big difference between bug in software and recommendation when to use it or not.

Really an eye opener, thanks Paul!

Thanks for this, I'm gonna use Kivy now👍

Very precious informations, thanks!

Many thanks for this analysis.

Thanks! This video help me a lot!

Very informative, thank you

The per user/per month plan for each user is too much expensive. Even if you use the cheapest plan (Microsoft 365 Business Basic), if you have 1000 user, it will cost 60000 dollar per year. To me, from Brazil, it will cost 342,000.00 reais (my currency) per year. It is too much. I think Microsoft would have a plan for User that not use all applications like sharepoint and onedrive (just log in the app and use it). i have to pay for Microsoft 365 Business Basic for each user just to them log in the app.

Great video, thanks!

Hi Paul, any updated to this since Feb 2020? I'm sure quite a lot has changed since then

As I hear this I would then say that someone should NEVER use Power Apps for anything production... Yes, real apps are difficult to get going but the number and serverity of the the negatives are just way way to high

Paul, still feel the same ?, or have Microsoft improved the offering over the past couple of years ?

I think Power Apps "Portals" means the initial point about customers and partner no longer applies

Thanks for sharing the horrible experience.

I think that canvas apps are good for prototyping and very very small apps that will not change much in the future. For anything else I think it is not only the wrong choice but also a very dangerous choice for your customer. It does not support most ALM features (Automated testing for example), it is stupidly hard to extend by other people. You can not work as a team on it. It takes long to learn, because it is full of "hacks" (or Tricks) to achieve something. It is slow and there is nearly nothing you can do about it. Canvas Apps also look so bad by default. You have to invest so much into making it look "less bad". Have fun adding basic animations like stagger, fading or even ripples. All those are basic with nearly every major web framework. When it comes to (even the most simple!) programming patterns, like DRY. No chance in Canvas Apps. Personally I think people should invest the time in learning web development instead of wasting time with canvas apps. Canvas Apps are nice for a "business card reader" kind of App. Nothing more :( Also I like the honesty you put into this video! Not many people do this when it comes to PowerApps.

It's sad to see tiktokers making billions of views but not you 🤣 Thank for all this informations