Question on use cases for different kinds PowerApps Licenses

[timvancleave]

Hello! I've been digging around to figure out how PowerApps licenses work and would hugely appreciate some help figuring out how this works in real life.

Some background:

• I know that there are E3-provided, Plan 1, and Plan 2 licenses (among others like the Dynamics 365 included versions).
• I've found the cross-sections that detail the capabilities of each plan and that seems to make sense in isolation (i.e. Plan 1 lets you use premium connectors and Plan 2 is required to create actual app enviroments and custom connections) at https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/. 
• Our internal users will mostly be just fine creating basic apps for themselves using the E3 provided version but many will need access to an app that is created by my team (who will all have Plan 2 licenses). 
• We're currently planning on equipping my team with Plan 2 licenses so we can access the full capabilities of PowerApps and build out proper development workflows.

I start to get a bit confused when we begin planning a deployment plan that involves multiple different scenarios around these licenses and was hoping that someone else has been able to figure this out.

1. Are licenses for using PowerApps determined by the license assigned to the creator, or the capabilities of the individual app? I.e., If I have a Plan 2 license and create an app that just connects to a SharePoint list, will my users need a Plan 1 license to use it? Would users with the included E3 license be able to use it since it doesn't use any custom or premium connectors, or would they all need Plan 1 because it was created by someone with a Plan 2 license?
   
   
2. How does this work with Government subscriptions? We have tried to get a clear answer on when/if PowerApps will be available to Government and so far haven't gotten anywhere other than a "This isn't available in your tenant" message in Office 365. Would we need Commercial O365 to use PowerApps anytime soon?

Sorry if this is a bit long, I would hugely appreciate any and all insight you guys might have. Thanks!

[paul_culmsee]

In terms of P1, I was told by a PowerApps team member that if say, you utilise P2 so you get some of the nice Application Lifecycle Management features like environments, only the developers of the apps need a P2 license. Consumers on other plans are fine...

So I think that answers your question - although the final word should be left to someone in the PowerApps team 🙂

Paul

[v-micsh-msft]

Hi @timvancleave,

Have you checked the following article?

Licensing overview

Check for the examples part mentioned in the article above, which I think is helpful for you to understand how the plan works.

For your second question, I have no idea, maybe staff @jo would share more details about that.

Regards,

Michael

[timvancleave]

Thanks for sending a link to the licensing page, I did have a chance to look at that and while it answers some questions I'm still not sure if all of my end users need Plan 1 all the time or if some can just use Plan 1 and some use the normal E3 license. My team will always have a Plan 2 license so we get the application lifecycle improvements and I want to make sure that we plan ahead on licensing as much as possible.

Thanks for your help!

[paul_culmsee · Accepted solution]

I can now definitively answer this as I was part of a webinar with Darshan who is one of the product managers. He said P1 is only needed by those using the app. So let's say you write an that uses push notifications and share it to 10 people, those 10 people will need the P1, but no-one else will.

If you want to be sure, here is the webinar... I don't remember when he mentioned it sorry

https://collab365.community/live-show-13-darshan-desai-microsoft-powerapps-stream/

[timvancleave]

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!