Microsoft Power Apps
In short
Power Apps is the part of the Microsoft Power Platform used to build forms and small applications without classic programming, on data that already sits in Microsoft 365, SharePoint or a database. Typical results are capture forms, checklists and approval screens that previously existed as a spreadsheet.
What it is built for
The application a company needs that does not exist as a product: site reporting, material issue in the warehouse, the handover checklist at a customer. Too specific for standard software, too small for a development project.
The value comes from the connection, not the form. A capture screen writing straight into SharePoint and triggering an approval through Power Automate replaces a workflow; a form on its own only replaces a sheet of paper.
Where the line runs
At many simultaneous users, at demanding interfaces, and anywhere people outside the company are meant to work with it. A web app is then the more honest route.
The second limit is licensing. What is included in Microsoft 365 and what needs its own licence depends partly on which data sources the application touches. That belongs settled before the build rather than after – it is where projects get unexpectedly more expensive.
The most common misconception
«Without programming» does not mean «without expertise». Anyone building an application makes the same decisions as in any software project: data model, permissions, error cases, what happens when two people edit at once.
What grows without supervision is therefore often the next piece of shadow IT: an application that runs as long as the person who built it is still around. That is no argument against it – only an argument for treating it like software.
How we handle it
We choose by lifespan. What will be a workflow for the next few years gets a data model and someone looking after it; what is an experiment is allowed to stay one.
Delivered as internal tools and, where the line is crossed, as a web app with its own integrations.
Related terms
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