Questions about license

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody,

I have some questions about license required to PowerApps and CDS.

First question: Right now I have a plan 1 and have no problem with collecting data to CDS when I fill out my app. Is plan 1 optimal or do I need a plan 2 in the future? I created a new entity inside CDS and made my own fields, and then inside my app, I made a patch function to collect the data to the entity (is this a great way to do it?)

Second question: As mentioned in the first question, I have no problems with using the app and then collect my own data inside my entity in CDS. But what about the users in my organization that is going to use the app (about 200 persons)? Can they just have the license that is connected to office 365 or do they need a plan 1 or plan 2 to add data to CDS?

Hope someone can help 

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

1) If you currently have Plan 1 then you are covered for using CDS until either next October or when your Plan 1 expires, whichever is longer. After that you will need to get either a per User plan (Plan 1 and 2 no longer exist) or a per App plan if you only have 1-4 apps.

2) Users of any app that uses CDS will also need a license that covers CDS.  The Office 365 "seeded" license does not.  Since your organization already has a Plan 1 you may be able to get them Plan 1 licenses during the time period mentioned in #1.  Otherwise they will need a per User plan license or a per App plan license (per app/user/month).

[wyotim · Accepted solution]

Hey @Anonymous, Microsoft actually changed the plans from the P1 and P2 to a "per-app plan" and a "per-user plan".

The "per-app plan" is $10 US/month and gives the licensee access to 2 apps and 1 portal as well as 50MB of CDS data storage space and 400MB of CDS file space. The "per-user plan" is $40 US/month and gives the licensee access to unlimited apps as well as 250MB of CDS storage space and 2GB of CDS file space. Either of these plans provide the "premium" connectors like CDS. Also, I believe the CDS storage is cumulative, so the more licensed users you have in your tenant the larger the overall storage amount.

So, if you are only looking to provide one app to your organization, the "per-app plan" might be the best choice as it would be roughly $2000 US/month instead of $8000 US/month if you went with the "per-user plan". I imagine there could be a mix of those licenses within your organization as you may want to release more than just one app one day! 

Here is a link to the PowerApps pricing page. I hope that helps!

Regarding the patch method: it's great! You could also use a form, but patching provides some flexibility that can be nice to have. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks to both of you @wyotim @Pstork1 ,

I appreciate your help. So It can literally be very expensive if you want to use CDS. But what if I collect data in a SharePoint List? Do my users need a license to do that? And can you guys recommend to collect the data in a SharePoint list?

[wyotim]

@Anonymous As long as you don't need any "premium" connectors, you can use SharePoint as the data source with the Office 365 license without paying for an additional PowerApps license. So if your users are on an Office 365 plan they wouldn't need anything else. If they don't have one, the least expensive is the F1 license, which is a fairly minimalistic plan designed for first-line workers. It is $4 US/month and includes some features like 2GB of OneDrive storage, email, and access to the online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as access to Teams. It doesn't allow the creation of PowerApps or SharePoint sites, just use, so you would need an Office 365 license that does.

Here is a link about the small business plan pricing and here is a link to the enterprise plan pricing. The F1 plan, link here, is actually an enterprise plan but there is no minimum purchase that I am aware of.

As far as recommending it, I think it depends on the structure of your data and what you are wanting to do with it. I haven't ever really used it myself; we use SQL where I work. I know many people in businesses of all sizes use it and love it and there are a ton of resources out there to learn about it. If you look up Wonder Laura on YouTube, she has all sorts of videos on SharePoint and PowerApps. It might be a good place to check!

Hopefully, that is enough to get you started but, if not, feel free to reply back!

[Pstork1]

Yes, you need a license if you are going to store the data in SharePoint, but the only license you need at that point is the one that comes with Office 365.  So you need a license, but not an additional premium license.