ActivepiecesAI Workflow Automation
Freemium
MIT-licensed open-source automation with per-flow pricing instead of per-task, plus AI agents, MCP support and free unlimited self-hosting.
Visit Website →Microsoft Power Automate
FreemiumMicrosoft's automation platform combining cloud flows, desktop RPA, AI Builder and 1,000+ connectors inside the Microsoft 365 estate.
What is Microsoft Power Automate?
Power Automate is Microsoft's workflow automation and robotic process automation platform, and its single biggest advantage is that most organisations already own part of it. Basic cloud flows using standard connectors such as SharePoint, Outlook, Teams and OneDrive come bundled with Microsoft 365 licences, which means the barrier to a first automation is often zero. From there the platform splits into distinct capabilities: cloud flows for API-driven automation across 1,000+ connectors, desktop flows for RPA that clicks through legacy Windows applications with no API at all, AI Builder for document processing and prediction models, and process mining to discover which processes are worth automating in the first place. The licensing is genuinely complex and is where most budgets go wrong. Attended automation is per user at a modest rate, but unattended RPA switches to per-bot pricing that is an order of magnitude higher, priced per concurrent bot rather than per person. Power Automate is the obvious choice inside a Microsoft-centric organisation and an awkward one outside it.
Key Features
Cloud FlowsDesktop FlowsAttended RPAUnattended RPA1,000+ ConnectorsAI BuilderProcess MiningTask MiningDataverse StorageCopilot BuilderApproval FlowsTeams IntegrationSharePoint TriggersScheduled FlowsBusiness Process FlowsFlow AnalyticsOn-Premises GatewayEnvironment Governance
Integrations
Storage
SharePointOneDrive
Communication
Microsoft TeamsOutlook
Data & Spreadsheets
Excel
Database
DataverseSQL Server
CRM
SalesforceDynamics 365
Other
SAPAzure
Customer Support
ServiceNow
How to Use Microsoft Power Automate
1Confirm what your Microsoft 365 licence already includes
2Sign in to the Power Automate portal
3Choose a template or start a blank cloud flow
4Pick a trigger and connect your Microsoft or third-party accounts
5Add actions, conditions and approval steps
6Test the flow and review the run history
7Add Premium or Process licensing if you need premium connectors or unattended bots
✅ 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
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to review Microsoft Power Automate!
Pricing
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
Prompts to Try
Create a flow that saves Outlook attachments to SharePoint and posts a Teams message
Build an approval flow that routes purchase requests over $500 to a manager
Set up a desktop flow that logs into a legacy ERP and copies order data into Excel
Use AI Builder to extract invoice fields from PDFs and write them to Dataverse
Use Cases
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.
Grace leads HR at a professional services firm and built a flow that triggers on a new SharePoint list entry to provision accounts, send a welcome pack and schedule onboarding meetings, so day-one setup happens before the new hire arrives.
Daniel handles compliance at a bank and used process mining to discover that a claims process had 14 undocumented variants, which let his team target automation at the three that accounted for most of the delay.
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