Compare Activepieces vs Microsoft Power Automate

Activepieces

MIT-licensed open-source automation with per-flow pricing instead of per-task, plus AI agents, MCP support and free unlimited self-hosting.

0 upvotesintermediate

Visit Activepieces ↗View profile

Microsoft Power Automate

AI Workflow AutomationFreemium

Microsoft's automation platform combining cloud flows, desktop RPA, AI Builder and 1,000+ connectors inside the Microsoft 365 estate.

0 upvotesintermediate

Visit Microsoft Power Automate ↗View profile

Pricing

Pricing Comparison

Activepieces

Community Edition$0

Self-hosted under MIT licence, unlimited flows, unlimited runs, all core pieces

Cloud Free$0

Managed cloud, up to 10 active flows to start, AI credits included

Standard$5/active flow/mo

Unlimited runs per flow, AI agents, Tables, managed hosting

Ultimate$Custom

Annual contract, SSO, SCIM, audit logs, RBAC, governance and compliance controls

Microsoft Power Automate

Included with Microsoft 365$0

Basic cloud flows using standard connectors only

Power Automate Premium$15/user/mo

Premium connectors, attended desktop RPA, AI Builder credits, Dataverse

Power Automate Process$150/bot/mo

Unattended RPA for a single concurrent process, organisation-wide

Hosted Process$215/bot/mo

Unattended RPA with Microsoft-hosted infrastructure, no VM to manage

Process Mining add-on$5,000/tenant/mo

Enterprise process discovery and analysis, Premium plan required

Features

Feature Comparison

Activepieces

MIT Open SourceFree Self-HostingPer-Flow PricingUnlimited Runs700+ PiecesVisual Flow BuilderAI AgentsMCP Server SupportCustom PiecesTypeScript SDKBranching LogicLoopsWebhooksHTTP RequestsActivepieces TablesEmbedded AutomationSSO and SCIMAudit Logs

Microsoft Power Automate

Cloud FlowsDesktop FlowsAttended RPAUnattended RPA1,000+ ConnectorsAI BuilderProcess MiningTask MiningDataverse StorageCopilot BuilderApproval FlowsTeams IntegrationSharePoint TriggersScheduled FlowsBusiness Process FlowsFlow AnalyticsOn-Premises GatewayEnvironment Governance

Fit

Best For & Not For

Activepieces

✅ Best For

✅Teams migrating off task-based platforms whose bills climbed unpredictably, since per-flow pricing makes costs flat and forecastable regardless of run volume

✅Engineering-comfortable organisations that need data to stay on their own infrastructure for compliance, residency or security reasons

✅Startups embedding automation inside their own product, because the MIT licence and embedded offering permit commercial white-labelling without restriction

✅Developers who want to write custom pieces in TypeScript when no existing connector covers their internal tooling

❌ Not For

❌Teams needing the longest tail of niche SaaS connectors, since 700+ pieces is far short of Zapier's 9,000+

❌Non-technical users choosing self-hosting, because Docker deployment, updates, backups and SSL renewal fall on you

❌Organisations that need mature enterprise governance out of the box on the free tier, as SSO, SCIM, audit logs and RBAC sit behind the paid plan

❌Workflows that demand extremely low-latency execution, since per-task process isolation adds overhead compared to lighter engines

Microsoft Power Automate

✅ Best For

✅IT and operations teams inside Microsoft-centric organisations, where SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and Dataverse are already the systems of record

✅Enterprises that need to automate legacy Windows desktop applications with no API, which browser-based and API-first tools simply cannot reach

✅Companies wanting approval workflows embedded natively in Teams and Outlook rather than bolted on through a third-party tool

✅Organisations running structured document processing at scale, where AI Builder can extract fields from invoices, forms and receipts inside the same platform

❌ Not For

❌Small teams outside the Microsoft ecosystem, since much of the value comes from bundled M365 entitlements you would not otherwise be paying for

❌Anyone budgeting for unattended RPA casually, because pricing jumps from per-user to per-bot and four concurrent processes alone run into hundreds of dollars monthly

❌Teams wanting simple self-serve setup, as licensing, environments, Dataverse and gateway configuration all demand real administrative effort

❌Users needing the long tail of consumer and indie SaaS connectors, which Zapier and Make cover far more comprehensively

Availability

Platform & Accessibility

Activepieces

web-baseddesktopapi

Microsoft Power Automate

web-baseddesktopmobileapi

Use & Audience

Tasks & Who It's For

Activepieces

Tasks

ai-coding ai-productivity ai-data

Who it's for

developer small-business solopreneur

Microsoft Power Automate

Tasks

ai-productivity ai-data ai-email

Who it's for

developer small-business marketer

Integrations

Activepieces

Communication

SlackDiscord

Development

GitHub

Data & Spreadsheets

Google Sheets

Other

OpenAIAnthropic

Writing & Docs

Notion

Database

AirtableSupabase

CRM

HubSpot

Project Management

Linear

Webhooks & API

HTTP

Microsoft Power Automate

Storage

SharePointOneDrive

Communication

Microsoft TeamsOutlook

Data & Spreadsheets

Excel

Database

DataverseSQL Server

CRM

SalesforceDynamics 365

Other

SAPAzure

Customer Support

ServiceNow

Use Cases

Real-world Use Cases

Activepieces

Dinesh runs platform engineering at a 40-person SaaS company and moved 22 high-frequency automations off a task-billed tool onto self-hosted Activepieces, taking a $410 monthly automation bill down to the cost of one small server.

Klara works in compliance at a European insurer where customer data cannot touch third-party clouds. Self-hosted Activepieces let her team finally automate claims triage that legal had blocked for two years.

Nathan, an indie hacker, embedded Activepieces inside his own SaaS product so his customers can build their own integrations, and it became the feature that won him three enterprise deals.

Microsoft Power Automate

Ravi manages IT for a 400-person engineering firm and built an approval flow that routes purchase requests through Teams, replacing an email chain that regularly lost requests and cutting approval time from five days to under one.

Helen runs finance at a manufacturer where invoices arrive as scanned PDFs. Her AI Builder flow extracts vendor, amount and date fields and writes them to Dataverse, removing roughly 30 hours of monthly keying from her team.

Tomasz automates operations at a logistics company using a legacy Windows dispatch system with no API. A desktop flow now logs in nightly and reconciles delivery records, ending a two-hour manual routine nobody wanted to own.

Keep Exploring