PowerApps Portal vs regular PowerApps

Question

I developed a PowerApps application, but each user would have to pay $10 a month making it not economically viable (I had hoped for some kind of run-time license at a much lower rate). So I talked to a MS sales guy who said I should switch to PowerApps Portal. However, it seems to be a completely different product. I have drop-down boxes, radio buttons, command buttons all with PowerApps type code behind them. Also datasources (Azure SQL database, Excel workbook). And 3 or 4 screens that the user is directed to (based on command buttons pressed). Anyway, none of this functionality seems to be found in PowerApps Portal from what I can see. Am I missing something? If so, just posting me a link to point me in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

You are right. PowerApps and PowerApps portals are unrelated & not having very much in common.

PowerApps (Canvas app) is meant for low-code/no-code for quickly building apps by citizen developers, using 200+ connectors for different datasources. Applicable for AAD users, will be available shortly for external users as well. This has per user per app, or unlimited app access kinda licensing models.

PowerApps (Model-driven) is Dynamics 365 CRM under the hood, with SQL Azure as backend. Strictly for AAD users only. This has module based licensing (Sales, Service, Field Service, Talent, Project mgmt, etc)

PowerApps Portals (previously Dynamics 365 portals & Adxstudio) - Main purpose is to build portal solutions (B2B or B2C), like website for Employees, Customers, Partners, etc provisioned on top of Model-driven PowerApps platform. This can leverage external logins like Google, Facebook, Windows Live (Microsoft), etc.

This has even tricky licensing model - Refer official page and the gist below explains crisply:

For external users, Microsoft will differentiate between anonymous and authenticated users. Access by authenticated users will be charged on a "per log-in" basis that has raised some confusion among people on Twitter. A log-in is defined as a twenty-four hour period of access by a single authenticated user, and one hundred such log-ins will cost $200 and will be charged on a monthly basis.

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