Compare Microsoft Power Automate vs Relay.app

Microsoft Power Automate

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

0 upvotesintermediate

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Relay.app

AI Workflow AutomationFreemium

Human-in-the-loop automation where approvals, reviews and AI steps sit inside the workflow, with every integration included on every plan.

0 upvotesbeginner

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Pricing

Pricing Comparison

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

Relay.app

Free$0

200 steps/month, 500 AI credits, 1 user, all integrations unlocked

Professional$19/mo

750 steps/month, 5,000 AI credits, 1 user, all features

Team$59/mo

2,000 steps/month, up to 10 users, shared workflows and app connections

Enterprise$Custom

Custom usage limits, custom integrations, automation consulting, dedicated Slack channel

Features

Feature Comparison

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

Relay.app

Human-in-the-Loop StepsApproval WorkflowsAI Chat BuilderVisual Workflow EditorAll Integrations IncludedAI AgentsMulti-Step WorkflowsConditional PathsWeb ScrapingAI Content GenerationShared App ConnectionsTeam WorkspacesWebhooksError DetectionData EnrichmentSlack ApprovalsWorkflow TemplatesSOC 2 Compliance

Fit

Best For & Not For

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

Relay.app

✅ Best For

✅Operations and finance teams automating processes with real consequences, such as refunds, discounts or contract sends, where a human must approve before execution

✅Customer support leads who want AI to draft replies at scale while a person reviews tone and accuracy before anything reaches a customer

✅Small teams that want every integration unlocked from day one instead of discovering their key connector is behind a premium tier

✅Managers introducing automation into a risk-averse organisation, where visible approval gates are what make adoption politically possible

❌ Not For

❌High-volume automation users, since step limits are modest compared to competitors and heavy workloads outgrow the plans quickly

❌Teams needing the broadest connector library, because Relay covers roughly 100+ integrations versus thousands elsewhere

❌Anyone running credit-heavy AI workloads like image or video generation, which consume credits at a rate that makes budgeting difficult

❌Developers who want self-hosting, source access or deep custom code execution inside workflow steps

Availability

Platform & Accessibility

Microsoft Power Automate

web-baseddesktopmobileapi

Relay.app

web-basedapi

Use & Audience

Tasks & Who It's For

Microsoft Power Automate

Tasks

ai-productivity ai-data ai-email

Who it's for

developer small-business marketer

Relay.app

Tasks

ai-productivity ai-customer-support ai-email

Who it's for

small-business solopreneur marketer

Integrations

Microsoft Power Automate

Storage

SharePointOneDrive

Communication

Microsoft TeamsOutlook

Data & Spreadsheets

Excel

Database

DataverseSQL Server

CRM

SalesforceDynamics 365

Other

SAPAzure

Customer Support

ServiceNow

Relay.app

Communication

SlackGmail

CRM

HubSpotSalesforce

Writing & Docs

Notion

Database

Airtable

Data & Spreadsheets

Google Sheets

E-commerce

Stripe

Project Management

Linear

Other

OpenAIAnthropic

Webhooks & API

Webhooks

Use Cases

Real-world Use Cases

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.

Relay.app

Ines heads finance ops at a 60-person SaaS company. Her Relay workflow drafts every refund over $200, pings her in Slack for one-click approval, then executes it in Stripe, cutting refund turnaround from four days to under an hour with zero unauthorised payouts.

Bram runs customer support at an online marketplace. AI drafts replies to routine tickets and his agents approve or edit them in Relay, letting a team of three handle the ticket volume that previously needed five.

Chidi manages content at a B2B agency. His workflow generates draft LinkedIn posts from published blog articles and holds them for the client's sign-off, which ended the endless email threads about approving copy.

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