Power Apps portals, Dynamics 365 portals, Power Pages – what is the difference?

Not long ago, Microsoft re-branded Power Apps portals (formerly known as Dynamics 365 portals ) to Power Pages. Now it is even more powerful technology to create websites for different purposes, tightly integrated with Dataverse. But at the same time, Microsoft changed the licensing options, confusing consumers. So, let us look at the updated features, prices, and policies.

What is Power Pages now:

  • Ability to create a website fast by using a default template depending on business needs.
  • Make the design without writing a single line of code by Design Studio.
  • Built-in responsive rendering to make the website user-friendly.
  • Extend the functionality with the developer`s code to make the website even more powerful.
  • Microsoft security policies and up-to-date technologies always secure it.
  • The built-in content delivery network makes the website fast in any region/location.

Power Pages licensing user types and capacity

Power Pages licensing offers two types of capacities based on the user type: authenticated and anonymous.

Authenticated users - the users, internal employees, or external users who have signed in to your website through any connected authentication provider. Counting unique authenticated users.

The following capacities are available for authenticated users:

  • Subscription plan - licenses for the number of unique, authenticated users. It can be purchased with a pack of 100 users/site/month.
  • Pay-as-you-go plan - you are paying only for the actual amount of unique authenticated users, so no packs are available for this option. You need to have an active Azure Subscription.

Anonymous users - the users, internal employees, or external users who can browse your website without the need to sign in. The counting of unique users is based on browser cookies.

Same as for authenticated users, the following capacities are available for anonymous users:

  • Subscription plan - licenses for the number of unique anonymous users. It can be purchased with a pack of 500 users/site/month.
  • Pay-as-you-go plan - you are paying only for the actual amount of a unique anonymous user. You need to have an active Azure Subscription.

For each of your websites, you can combine those options or even split the purchased pack to several portals by their needs:

  • At least 25 users are required for authenticated user access per website.
  • At least 200 users are required for anonymous user access per website.

It makes the licensing even more cost-effective because you can have several websites licensed in one package. Please note that you cannot combine Subscription and Pay-as-you-go plans in one environment.

More about licenses and costs:

  • A pay-as-you-go plan is suitable for a start, but a Subscription plan is the most cost-efficient way of Power Pages licensing.
  • There are pricing Tiers available (the higher tier, the better price):
    • Tier 1 - if you need 100+ authenticated or 500+ anonymous users` licenses.
    • Tier 2 - if you need 10000+ authenticated or 10000+ anonymous users` licenses.
    • Tier 3 - if you need 100000+ authenticated or 100000+ anonymous users` licenses.
  • Each license also includes Dataverse storage capacities - a great benefit.
  • Ability to use Power Pages by internal employees with licenses for Dynamics 365 Enterprise or Power Apps per app/user.

As you can see, Power Pages is another helpful product of the Microsoft Power Platform Family, enhanced comparatively to previous revisions (Power Apps portals), and licensing became much more business-friendly and more predictable in terms of costs.

The current retail prices are:

  • $200 for 100 users/site/month for authenticated users as a Subscription plan.
  • $75 for 500 users/site/month for anonymous users as a Subscription plan.
  • $4 per user/site/month for authenticated users as a Pay-as-you-go plan.
  • $0.30 per user/site/month for anonymous users as a Pay-as-you-go plan.

Summary

If you have a business need to implement Power Pages, our company will be happy to help you provide, develop, and license this solution, of course, at the best prices

Feel free to — contact us if you have any questions.