Help understanding powerapps license changes October 2019

[seanbrogan]

Can anybody shed any light on the new PowerApps licensing plans? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around what is going on.

I specifically went out last year and purchased a number of Office 365 premium licenses as well as the F1 plan for employees in the field, so that we could use powerapps.

I am using a combination of an Azure SQL database(pay as you go license) and SharePoint (under the 365 licensing) to function as the back end for my apps.

Am I now no longer going to be able to develop and distribute Apps to my employees under these licenses? Am I now being asked by microsoft to go out and buy more licenses specific to PowerApps?

Hope this is the right place to ask the 365 messages aren't very clear.

[sscarcella]

This is insane, I agree!

I spent a year converting all my InfoPath forms on SharePoint 2010 server to PowerApps on Office 365 using the Gateway and SQL server connector then they ripped that away and made it a Premium connector.  Next I purchased an Azure SQL Server Database and 3rd party sync software to sync my on premises SQL server data to Azure to avoid the premium connector cost.  Now they are ripping that away and calling that a Premium connector and charging an additional $40 per user per month on top of the SQL Azure costs just to use the PowerApps apps.

We are a company of less than 50 employees and can not afford this.  We will be dumping the PowerApps and O365 all together and going with Google Docs or something else...

What is happening???

@Audrie-MSFT 

[Anonymous]

PowerApps seemed like a great option before.  But these Standard to Premium changes are ridiculous.

The value proposition for PowerApps now appears to be, "Why pay a third party company $10/user/mo for some pre-built SaaS solution when you can pay for the time of one of your employees to reinvent the wheel, then pay Microsoft $10/user/mo for the privilege of using something that you built and have to maintain yourself?!"

[MorningMusic]

This is one of the worst licensing/business decisions I've ever seen.  We're a relatively small company with a smaller budget for technology.  I've taken us all in on PowerApps largely because of the affordability and the ability to accomplish many workflows with one platform.  These licensing changes actually make the platform virtually unusbale for any company without a massive budget for custom dev.  

I'm infuriated. This is horrendous, Microsoft

[JamesM]

I am forced to agree that these changes will radically alter our potential use of the Power Platform + Microsoft Flow. I sincerely hope there is re-consideration of this move, as it will push PowerApps out of the competitive Low Code space.

[mogulman]

I've been talking up PowerApps and the Azure SQL support since I started working with it 2 years ago. I thought it provided real value. I was disappointed it doesn't support triggers but I was able to come up with some marginal workarounds. I pay for the database which is a reasonable cost. With the cost of $40/user/month it will become the largest part of my budget by a considerable amount. Previously it was beneficial to widely distribute apps and let numerous people support the business. This new pricing model will probably limit app distribution/use and change business processes.

I work for a small company so overall the impact will not be as much as a large company. I would hate to be an IT manager at a large company presenting a budget that is 10X-20X larger than the budget from a few months prior.

I'm hoping MS comes to their senses and reconsiders their business model.

[OneThing]

Like I mentioned above, we are not a large company with about 1600 active staff.

We have a few smaller app's such as a Training Booking Calendar, Agency request form and App to take Photo ID's. They are connected to an Azure SQL database to hold user and lookup data. They connects to another to store the requests.

Currently costs us 365 Licences (free as we are a non profit) and about £400 in SQL costs per year.

New Pricing of 40/month/user equates to $768,000 / Year (plus SQL Costs!). 

This is roughly a 1920% increase in price (although will probably be much less with Non Profit Pricing).

I know we are an edge case, but still! 

[dyee4614]

My office uses Office 365 Business Premium.  Is PowerApps per app plan still going to be included now that Plan 1 is going away?

[Anonymous]

I do not think you are an edge case. 

We are also developing multiple apps (which is now put on hold) that are targetting about 1,000 to 1,500 users. Like you we are using the SQL server connector which used to be a standard connector. This change will force us to evaluate alternatives on the market. 

[seanbrogan]

Sat down with my boss and ran the numbers.

Powerapps is now more expensive than paying a third party to develop and maintain our Apps.

Thats not even counting the savings on the salary of an in house developer!

[Anonymous]

Can someone please confirm my understanding, that as long as the PowerApps have been created prior to October 1st 2019, the standard connectors such as SQL Server connector will NOT require additional end user licensing until October 1st 2024.