Microsoft reveals PowerApps Portals pricing and licensing approach

Microsoft revealed new pricing and licensing for PowerApps Portals, the next generation of the Dynamics 365 Portal product that provides browser-based portals for people inside and outside of an organization.

PowerApps Portals will allow for both authenticated and anonymous access by external users and will offer pricing for both scenarios. And because it is a part of PowerApps, internal users will gain access following the same guidance they would for PowerApps canvas and model-driven apps.

Licensing for #PowerAppsPortals: $200 per month for 100 logins. pic.twitter.com/wGpYqR486I

— Tommi Oksanen (@tommioksanen) July 16, 2019

The pricing was revealed at Inspire 2019, and Dynamics 365 consultant Tommi Oksanen snapped the screenshot above that explains the three levels of access to Portals. For external users, Microsoft will differentiate between anonymous and authenticated users. Access by authenticated users will be charged on a "per log-in" basis that has raised some confusion among people on Twitter. A log-in is defined as a twenty-four hour period of access by a single authenticated user, and one hundred such log-ins will cost $200 and will be charged on a monthly basis.

Microsoft has not posted a recording of the session at Inspire in which this information was explained.

According to Dynamics professionals who have Portals customer experience, the number of authenticated external logins to Dynamics 365 portals today can range from hundreds to tens of thousands per month. They all believed, given the limited information available so far on the pricing, that the new approach for PowerApps Portals will create a more expensive model that will force customers to scale down their use of Portals.

At last months' Business Applications Summit, Microsoft shared some metrics for portals from the last six months including: