"Microsoft 365 developer subscription" vs the "Power Apps Developer Plan", is there a functional differences when it comes to Dataverse or licensing?

[dlprentice]

Hello all,

If I want to practice, and develop Power Apps with Dataverse is there a functional difference in the "Microsoft 365 developer subscription" against the "Power Apps Developer Plan"?

I asked the question in another area but I'm not able to delete those posts. Was advised to post here instead for a faster or better response

[dlprentice]

O365 dev environment

Power Apps Dev environment

App from default O365 dev environment

[poweractivate]

@dlprentice Another thing, this is the Default Environment. This is a special kind of Environment and is actually not usually supposed to be used to build directly on when using Dataverse in particular. It may not be possible to use the full gamut of Security Roles and other specific features of Dataverse on the Default Environment. It has these limitations: 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/environments-overview#types-of-environments

Type Description Security

Production	This is intended to be used for permanent work in an organization. It can be created and owned by an administrator or anyone with a Power Apps license, provided there is 1 GB available database capacity. These environments are also created for each existing Dataverse database when it is upgraded to version 9.0 or later. Production environments are what you should use for any environments on which you depend.	Full control.
Default	These are a special type of production environment. Each tenant has a default environment that's created automatically. Its characteristics are discussed in the following section, The default environment.	Limited control. All licensed users* have the Environment Maker role.
Sandbox	These are non-production environments, which offer features like copy and reset. Sandbox environments are used for development and testing, separate from production. Provisioning sandbox environments can be restricted to admins (because production environment creation can be blocked), but converting from a production to a sandbox environment can't be blocked.	Full control. If used for testing, only user access is needed. Developers require Environment Maker access to create resources.
Trial	Trial environments are intended to support short-term testing needs and are automatically cleaned up after a short period of time. They expire after 30 days and are limited to one per user. Provisioning trial environments can be restricted to admins.	Full control.
Developer	Developer environments are created by users who have the Developer Plan license. They're special environments intended only for use by the owner. Provisioning developer environments can't be restricted unless through a support ticket. Developer environment will be available as long as you actively use the Power Apps Developer Plan. More information: Power Apps Developer Plan	The user with the Developer Plan can choose to add other users as makers.
Microsoft Dataverse for Teams	Dataverse for Teams environments are automatically created for the selected team when you create an app in Teams using the Power Apps app for the first time or install a Power Apps app from the app catalog. See About the Dataverse for Teams environment.	Limited control. Admins have limited settings available for Teams environments. No customizations of security role or assignments are available. Teams members are automatically mapped to their Teams membership type - Owners, Members, and Guests - with a corresponding security role assigned by the system

and

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/environments-overview#the-default-environment 

• No users will be added to the Environment Admin role of the default environment automatically. More information: Administer environments in Power Apps
• You can't delete the default environment.
• You can't backup and restore the default environment.
• The default environment has the following free storage capacity: 3GB Dataverse Database Capacity, 3GB Dataverse File Capacity, and 1GB Dataverse Log Capacity. Note that we're in the process of rolling out this feature.
• The capacity check conducted prior to creating new environments will exclude the default environment's free storage capacity when calculating whether you have sufficient capacity to create a new environment.
• The default environment is limited to 32 GB of storage capacity. In case you need to store more data, you can create a production environment. More information: Provisioning a new environment

It is common for people to randomly start building on the Default Environment. To build a true Dataverse app and setup, it should usually not be built on the Default Environment and the Dataverse that is inside the Default Environment in general, but rather on a separate production environment with Dataverse in it.

So this could also be part of it.

[dlprentice]

I see what your saying, I loaded the 16 demo users so I need to login as one of them and test from their perspectives as well.

[dlprentice]

I see, so if all I wanted to do was make Power Apps, and want to learn Dataverse (or create apps for use outside of the dev environment for production later). Would it be appropriate to setup the O365 dev subscription, then also have a user setup the Power apps Dev plan. Then only develop in the Power Apps dev environment?

[poweractivate]

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@dlprentice wrote:

I see ... Would it be appropriate to setup the O365 dev subscription, then also have a user setup the Power apps Dev plan. Then only develop in the Power Apps dev environment?

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@dlprenticePower Apps Developer Plan (formerly Power Apps Community Plan)

can ONLY be started by that individual user.

Their environment is completely siloed out and is of the "Developer" type. No apps can be shared with anyone else from these environments, and are for non-production use only.

So I would say yes, it is best to have each user to set up the Power Apps Developer Plan.

And yes, having a O365 dev subscription could be very useful so you can have SharePoint and things like that to actually test Power Apps with Office 365 too.

If you wanted to have a true Dataverse in a separate production-like environment with people sharing apps with each other, etc. you could, at the right time after using an individual Developer plan, when everything feeld closer to ready, start a free 30 day trial of the true Power Apps Per User Plan and assign this license to a few of the users. You can then test solution export out of one of the non-production environments into one of these true production dataverse environments under a Trial, and test your ability to deploy the solution as well.  The trial can be upgraded by the end of the 30 days and then the same production environment that was practiced during the Trial can be the real one.

Check if it helps @dlprentice 

[dlprentice]

Ok I think I understand now, thank you so much for helping me understand this.

Feels a bit like inception creating a O365 dev subscription then loading it with the default fictitious users then using one of those users (probably the default admin account) to then acquire the Power Apps Dev Plan, but if that works it works! Its all dev so I'll probably nuke the whole thing a few times to figure this all out...

I did hit what you said I would when I tried sharing in the default environment. Other users cannot see anything from others users Power Apps Dev environment either.

So if I wanted some collaborative Power Apps development work to happen I'd need to do some trials or create environments for this since its not really appropriate to stay on default. Does this all sounds right?

[dlprentice]

I did want to point something out when I view the "Manage product licenses" for the curious.

[poweractivate]

@dlprentice That is correct, you should get exactly that message saying "This app uses features that come with a Power Apps premium plan. Start a trial to use these features". Now if you have a Power Apps Per User Plan Trial on that user - this is when the error should go away. An Individual Plan isn't applicable (Power Apps Developer Plan) because any app in that kind of dedicated Developer environment that cannot be shared with any other Users on that tenant at all.

For collaborative development or testing how it is in almost real production, you may be able to just get away with using the Default Environment for now and Standard Connectors, but you won't be able to use Dataverse or Premium Connectors at all. You will only be able to do this in the Power Apps Developer Plan in the environment. Or, you could start a  Power Apps Per User Plan Trial if you really want - but I recommend you do this when you're a bit closer, otherwise you'll start using up days from a pretty valuable type of Trial as it is going to be equivalent to having the real PowerApps Per User Plan free for 30 days, I'd say use that wisely.

[poweractivate]

@dlprentice Out of curiosity, are you able to go here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/create-database  (i.e. https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/ ) and create a new Production environment? Or it won't let you do this?

Now try the above https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/ on Trial Environment - will it let you? - You can also go here and try creating a new "Trial" environment - perhaps without starting any Power Apps Per User Plan Trial - but 1. It'll be deleted after 30 days 2. you'll get a nice separate environment with Dataverse and the ability to share stuff with users too, but you should still get that Premium nag screen again just like you did on Default environment for apps that use Premium Connectors (if you don't have that 30 day Power Apps Per User Plan Trial started and assigned to the User). Though like I said, I recommend using that 30 day Power Apps Per User Plan Trial really wisely. Try not to start it at all unless you're about 30 days out from launching to production, I'd say, and stick with the Power Apps Developer Plan and the Office 365 E5 Developer Plan as well  if you can and especially if you're really just barely testing stuff out. 

To try Premium Connectors (for both Power Apps and Power Automate), it should be pretty easy to try most of this on a Power Apps Developer Plan's Developer environment, in many cases sharing the app is not absolutely needed when just testing it out.

[dlprentice]

Here are my options:

When I tried making a Trial (subscription-based) I got this error.

I got a similar error for just "Trial"

The rest gave errors telling me my tenant needs at least 1gb of database capacity.