Microsoft Power Automate
Power Automate is the Microsoft 365-native automation layer: $15/user/mo for cloud and attended desktop flows, $150/bot/mo for unattended RPA, and per-user or per-bot licensing instead of usage metering.
Verified against: powerautomate.microsoft.commicrosoft.com as of 2026-09-25
Quick verdict: Power Automate is the enterprise and Microsoft-native answer, scoring 4.3/5 with the class's best localisation (5/5), collaboration (5/5) and stability (5/5). Premium is $15/user/mo paid yearly for cloud and attended desktop flows, Process is $150/bot/mo for unattended RPA and Hosted Process $215/bot/mo with a Microsoft-hosted machine. The decisive advantage is the billing model: per-user and per-bot, not per task, per credit or per execution, so cost is predictable regardless of volume — the exact opposite failure mode to Zapier's task overages. The trade-offs are real: there is no free plan, the licensing surface is the most complex of the five, and the connector depth that matters most is concentrated in Microsoft's own estate. Choose it when your identity, data and governance already live in Microsoft 365; choose Make or n8n when the workflow spans a heterogeneous SaaS stack. Prices re-checked 2026-09-25 against official pricing pages.
- Our rating: 4.3/5
- Strongest dimension: Stability (5/5, verified against official sources)
- Weakest dimension: Usability (3/5, verified against official sources)
- Pricing: 30-day free trial · $15/user/mo (Premium, paid yearly)
- Verification: Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-09-25. Sources: powerautomate.microsoft.com, microsoft.com
Microsoft Power Automate pricing details
- 30-day free trial
- paid plans from $15/user/mo (Premium, paid yearly)
- premium $15/user/mo · Process $150/bot/mo · Hosted Process $215/bot/mo (paid yearly)
- prices shown are the paid-yearly rates; Power Automate per flow is $100/flow/mo (minimum 5 licenses)
Per-user and per-bot licensing rather than usage metering. Premium ($15/user/mo) covers cloud flows, attended desktop flows (RPA) and process mining with 50MB of stored data, plus 250MB Dataverse database and 2GB file capacity. Process ($150/bot/mo) licenses an unattended bot for a core business process that unlimited users in the organisation can access; Hosted Process ($215/bot/mo) adds a Microsoft-hosted virtual machine on Azure. The Process Mining add-on is $5,000/tenant/mo per 100GB. Limited cloud-flow use rights are bundled with select Microsoft 365 licences. There is no free plan - only a 30-day trial.
In our index: No free plan (30-day trial); Premium $15/user/mo paid yearly; Process $150/bot/mo
How Microsoft Power Automate scores across our 6 index dimensions
- Functionality: 4/5 (verified against official sources)
- Usability: 3/5 (verified against official sources)
- Stability: 5/5 (verified against official sources)
- Collaboration: 5/5 (verified against official sources)
- Localization: 5/5 (verified against official sources)
- Value: 4/5 (verified against official sources)
Score rationale: Research-only, vendor pages: strongest localisation and enterprise governance in the class and per-user licensing that does not spike with volume; core and ease docked because deep capability is concentrated in the Microsoft estate.
What Microsoft Power Automate does well
- Per-user and per-bot licensing rather than usage metering, so a busy month does not generate a surprise invoice.
- Best localisation and enterprise governance of the five: tenant-level admin, DLP policies, managed environments, broad language coverage.
- Attended and unattended RPA in the same product as cloud flows — $15/user/mo covers attended desktop flows, $150/bot/mo unattended.
- Limited cloud-flow use rights are bundled with select Microsoft 365 licences, so existing estates may already own part of it.
Where Microsoft Power Automate falls short
- No free plan — only a 30-day trial, which makes it the least accessible option for solo evaluation.
- Steepest conceptual surface of the five: licensing SKUs, environments, Dataverse capacity and connectors all interact.
- Deepest capability sits inside the Microsoft estate; non-Microsoft SaaS coverage trails Zapier and Make.
How Microsoft Power Automate compares to other Workflow Automation tools
Our index tracks 5 Workflow Automation tools. Microsoft Power Automate sits at 4.3/5, with prices shown are the paid-yearly rates; power automate per flow is $100/flow/mo (minimum 5 licenses). Here are the 4 closest alternatives we hold pricing and scoring evidence for.
- Zapier — 4.2/5 · Free plan · $19.99/mo (Professional, annual)
Zapier connects 9,000+ apps with the shallowest learning curve in the class — free for 100 tasks a month, paid from $19.99/mo, and priced per completed task rather than per step or per seat. - Make — 4.0/5 · Free plan · $12/mo (Core, 10k credits)
Make trades Zapier's linear steps for a visual canvas with routers, iterators and error routes — free for 1,000 operations a month, paid from $12/mo, and the best price per unit of work for complex branching. - n8n — 4.0/5 · Free plan · €20/mo (Starter, annual)
n8n is the only tool in the class you can self-host free with unlimited workflows, executions and users — and on cloud it bills per complete workflow execution, not per step, with JavaScript and Python anywhere in the flow. - Workato — 3.7/5 · Trial and developer sandbox (no free plan) · Quote-only (no published self-serve price)
Workato is the enterprise iPaaS of the class — 1,200+ connectors including SAP, Workday and ServiceNow, recipe lifecycle management and on-prem agents, sold entirely on a sales quote with no published price.
Frequently asked questions about Microsoft Power Automate
How much does Microsoft Power Automate cost?
30-day free trial; paid plans from $15/user/mo (Premium, paid yearly); premium $15/user/mo · Process $150/bot/mo · Hosted Process $215/bot/mo (paid yearly); prices shown are the paid-yearly rates; Power Automate per flow is $100/flow/mo (minimum 5 licenses). Billing detail: Per-user and per-bot licensing rather than usage metering. Premium ($15/user/mo) covers cloud flows, attended desktop flows (RPA) and process mining with 50MB of stored data, plus 250MB Dataverse database and 2GB file capacity. Process ($150/bot/mo) licenses an unattended bot for a core business process that unlimited users in the organisation can access; Hosted Process ($215/bot/mo) adds a Microsoft-hosted virtual machine on Azure. The Process Mining add-on is $5,000/tenant/mo per 100GB. Limited cloud-flow use rights are bundled with select Microsoft 365 licences. There is no free plan - only a 30-day trial. Figures verified 2026-09-25.
Does Microsoft Power Automate have a free plan?
No free plan is listed for Microsoft Power Automate, but a trial is offered (30-day free trial). Paid plans start at $15/user/mo (Premium, paid yearly).
What is Microsoft Power Automate rated in our index?
Microsoft Power Automate sits at 4.3/5 in our index, strongest on stability (5/5, verified against official sources) and weakest on usability (3/5, verified against official sources). Power Automate is the enterprise and Microsoft-native answer, scoring 4.3/5 with the class's best localisation (5/5), collaboration (5/5) and stability (5/5). Premium is $15/user/mo paid yearly for cloud and attended desktop flows, Process is $150/bot/mo for unattended RPA and Hosted Process $215/bot/mo with a Microsoft-hosted machine. The decisive advantage is the billing model: per-user and per-bot, not per task, per credit or per execution, so cost is predictable regardless of volume — the exact opposite failure mode to Zapier's task overages. The trade-offs are real: there is no free plan, the licensing surface is the most complex of the five, and the connector depth that matters most is concentrated in Microsoft's own estate. Choose it when your identity, data and governance already live in Microsoft 365; choose Make or n8n when the workflow spans a heterogeneous SaaS stack. Prices re-checked 2026-09-25 against official pricing pages.
What are the drawbacks of Microsoft Power Automate?
No free plan — only a 30-day trial, which makes it the least accessible option for solo evaluation Steepest conceptual surface of the five: licensing SKUs, environments, Dataverse capacity and connectors all interact Deepest capability sits inside the Microsoft estate; non-Microsoft SaaS coverage trails Zapier and Make.
What does Microsoft Power Automate do well?
Per-user and per-bot licensing rather than usage metering, so a busy month does not generate a surprise invoice Best localisation and enterprise governance of the five: tenant-level admin, DLP policies, managed environments, broad language coverage Attended and unattended RPA in the same product as cloud flows — $15/user/mo covers attended desktop flows, $150/bot/mo unattended Limited cloud-flow use rights are bundled with select Microsoft 365 licences, so existing estates may already own part of it.
How was Microsoft Power Automate verified?
Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-09-25. Sources: powerautomate.microsoft.com, microsoft.com.
What are the alternatives to Microsoft Power Automate?
We track Zapier, Make, n8n, Workato as the closest alternatives in our Workflow Automation index, and 4 head-to-head comparisons against Microsoft Power Automate are available.