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.

[MikeM_FSA]

This is absolutely insane.  If you are looking to kill the platform this is the perfect way to do it.  $40/user/month is just ridiculous to use a connector that should be standard.  Fortunately, I have only 1 application using the platform and tomorrow I start re-writing it. 

[gavinleung]

If my apps are running on O365 E3, and the only connectors are OneDrive for Business, Sharepoint, and O365. Is there any impact by the new licensing ? 

[ContentGroup]

Really looks like MS is pushing everyone to use the per app / per flow license, as a P2 license which was $15 is now $55 per user ($40 for powerapps and $15 for flow)

[mogulman]

I'm still unclear what MS is pushing.  I think any serious business app needs to use a database.  Azure SQL DB was a perfect choice for PowerApps since it was a standard connector.  Now that it made it a premium connector at a cost of $40/user/month it puts the whole use of PowerApps in question.  A business with 1000 users will suddenly have an IT expense of $480K/yr.  For that cost you can easily do custom apps.  I'm thinking MS is saying only use PowerApps with standard connectors and don't do any serious business app in PowerApps.

[seanbrogan]

@mogulman 

Absolutely.

I am currently in the process of rewriting our app to use SharePoint as a back end and I'm already running into difficulty. SharePoint tables are all non delegable which means I can't even call 'MAX(table_name,Column_name)' from within powerapps.

Sharepoint just does not have the same functionality as a SQL database, and without a SQL database to drive tha App it will not be any where near as powerful or as useful.

[mogulman]

@seanbrogan

I totally agree.  SP Lists isn't for serious business apps.  I use many DB features like views and stored procedures to get around limitations.  I also use Azure Functions.  I have a complex business process that involves a lot of steps 120+, emails, events etc.  SP Lists doesn't work with Azure Functions.  I currently only have 1 app and it is grandfathered until 2014.  I plan to have more.  I'm looking at implementing a custom solution using ASP.NET Core 3  Razor Pages.  I'm a little worried about security and identity but I have time to get it right.  It should be a fun project.  A custom app will allow me to use SQL triggers.  This is a major disappointment/limitation in PowerApps.  It will also allow clients to see selected data.

My opinion is the new pricing model is the death of PowerApps for serious business apps.  Time will tell.

[SteveGBVL]

This is just outrageous, we have spent 18 months developing and now actively using PowerApps for our business based on Microsoft finally appearing to allow access to really useful tools at an affordable price. They have effectively, with no notice, stopped us in our tracks and killed any useful development of PowerApps. I have seen some of the threads saying how much this change will cost other large companies; we are small by comparison but tens of thousands of pounds per year now need to be found if we are to continue.

Our hope is that Apps we have developed and in use are unaffected until 2024 and can continue to be 'tweaked' without falling foul of the new licence. Theo ther hope is Microsoft change their minds.

How do we take action to let Microsoft know what a dumb and frankly bully boy move this is?

Steve

[MrNigel]

The Microsoft reasoning behind the price increase is simple to understand.  This is what happens when MS move a product from being licensed as a part of Office 365 to making it licensed as a part of Dynamics 365.  The launch of the CDS was the key to this a couple of years back as it was clear that PowerApps was going to be repositioned as a part of D365 to get over the custom apps/solution issues.

From 'going public' at Ignite to implementing the change on 1st October is a matter of weeks.  What makes this underhand is the way Standard connectors for Microsoft's own platform have become Premium connectors. I wonder as to the age/experience of the humans who signed off this change.  My guess is they are Blue Badge Millenials who have never worked in an end-user scenario so have no idea as to the disruption this financial grab is going to cause.  Take a look at Nintext as an alternative https://www.nintex.com/resources/pricing/

[sshah2001]

I am also keen to know this. With some applications in Production environment, we can't just kill them due to cost. We will be moving to some other non microsoft solutions. but need time to build on. How would the transition time work? 

[Debug_Bug]

Reading about this move from Microsoft, I'm truly saddened.

Being a long term promoter of Microsofts solutions, I have been driving and implementing Microsoft technologies for more than a decade. Specifically, we just completed a major project to move a number of on-prem SQL servers into Azure, with the specific goal to avoid using premium connectors, the price of which would undermine our IT strategy.

Now, Microsoft decides to completely change the guiding points we have used to decide on PowerApps and Flow for our business applications. Not only are they reclassifying the Azure SQL connector to "Premium", but they are also increasing prices at rates, I have never seen before from any serious IT soultions provider - in our case, specifically, we are using a number of Office 365 Business Essentials and Business Premium licenses for our users. My calculations show we will expierence price increases of more than 500% !!.

I ask myself: How can I ever trust Microsoft again, when this can happen - with this, you are directly undermining my personal credibillity as an advisor, promoting Microsoft solutions. Customers have invested in migrating to Azure and the Powerplatform under completely wrong assumptions and based on Microsoft being a trustworthy partner in the long run. All gone now. It makes me sad. One of the big arguments for migrating to the cloud in general, is less hastle with operations. This just moves the hastle from the IT operations to the strategic level - constantly forcing management in companies to get involved to re-consider their IT strategy, because Microsoft decides to change the economical foundation decisions were based on.

I just kindly ask you to deliver on your promises - make it a worry free expierence to migrate to the cloud without constantly rocking (tipping over) the boat. The least you could do is to provide existing users an option for nothing to change and then only change the price structure for new/added or changed featuresets instead of causing all this agony that is slowly undermining your position as a trustwothy and reliable partner for companies and cloud first strategies in general.