Microsoft Power Automate Reviews & Product Details

What i like best about power automate is the flow chart format the trigger and actions are presented in, the ability to connect with various connectors within and outside the 365 packages, the ability to generate and create flows with copilot and the email notifications on weekly flow failures. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I dislike the expression formulas. They are easy to mess up and the syntax isn't really clear. Some actions aren't available for e.g there's a start of month variable but there's none for the end of the month. The expression formulas aren't user friendly but it's a vital part of all flows. Additionally, the limited run history of only 28 days hinders the ability to review past runs and troubleshoot issues effectively. Also, some performance issues such as failures and timeouts occur without clear reasons or guidance for debugging especially the "get a PDF of a signed aggreement" action with the adobe sign integration Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the ability to automate tasks that envolve the use of Microsoft 365 suite. It is easy to implement, due to it's intuitive user interface, templates, catalog and flows editor. I like the option of testing the flow with manual triggers, and it is easy to debug the executions. It has ease of integration with Microsoft Surveys, Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Planner, etc. Regarding its frequency of use, it is something that you use anytime you need to create or edit a flow. Once all flows are in production, there is no point in accessing the tool, since it is doing its automated taks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The lack of integrations outside of the Microsoft 365 suite. Since there are many tools for analytics, surveys, data collection and integration (including tag managers and real-time data platforms), it would be great to have connectors from other vendors. Many of the connectors are in preview state and/or require additional licenses/payments to accomplish tasks that are not natively available in the power platform. Regarding customer support, it lacks training material, and many features required in Microsoft blog take much time to be implemented. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The part I liked best is more than likely the user interface and ability to sift through automation options which is really the differentiator for Power Automate, in my opinion. It's so easy to just integrate with your machine and whatever applications/interfaces you may be using, and the implementation really just is as easy as having a Microsoft account and downloading the application - it's that powerful. I used the application everyday for about six months and had few problems the whole time; when the small problems did arise (Legacy software not cooperating or Bad code in web apps), Microsoft support answered my questions and provided the best feedback they could. With their help and just a bunch of troubleshooting, which goes fast with the way the UI is setup, I was able to work thru most of my problems. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Overall, I disliked Power Automate's ability to decipher any software; I really struggled to work with some legacy software. Although these software were generating questionable code, I wish there was a way for Power Automate to process what is happening even if the code is constantly changing. I think it could do this via AI if it can guess what I'm trying to capture. Also, the difference in desktop and web apps are confusing and unnecessary, but that is a small gripe. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is a low-code tool, so anyone who dedicates some time can easily learn it. Various tasks can be automated through using the Power Automate on the web, for example sending emails/warnings. Another thing that I like about it is that it can be used to keep data integration & synchronization. For example, if I have a Power App that uses data from a SharePoint list (because in Power Apps using SharePoint lists is way better than connection/using an Excel), I can still provide the users who will keep the data up-to-date an Excel file that they will update, then Power Automate will pick up those changes and update the SharePoint list, keep both the SP list and Excel in sync. And if the reverse needs to be done, if after using the Power App the SP list is updated and updates need to reflect on the Excel, Power Automate can do that Sync.

Power automate for Desktop is also good, I've used it a few times to automate some tasks and it seems to work well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I dislike the most about it is that sometimes it seems clucky in the way that triggers (except manual triggers) seem to take too long to trigger, sometimes it can take up to 5 minutes to trigger and run the flow.

In power automate desktop I am not sure why but things seem to stop working sometimes, for example if I run a daily flow in desktop it works like 90% of the time, but those 10% fail for some random reason, and if I don't fix it right away since I am focused on working on something else, the next day I come back and run it to then try to debug but it runs perfectly and doesn't fail. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ability to work with Excel and Word and other desktop applications, create and use arrays and variables, web scraping. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Power Automate Desktop is a bit confusing due to sharing the name of Power Automate for cloud flows, while not sharing a similar UI and a different expression language. I wish the ability to work with JSON arrays and objects were the same in both platforms.

I also wish there were more robust array maniuplation functions in both Power Automate Desktop and Cloud Flows, such as the ability to automatically index or ennumerate arrays, the ability to easily identify duplicates or the ability to create an array of items that are not shared between two or more other arrays, that sort of thing.

I would also like more mathematical and statistical functions in both Power Automate and Power FX, such as a MODE() function.

Also, something like the Excel Lambda() function would be great.

Finally, I would the ability to easily parse and manipulate HTML content similar to JQuery Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Easy to Use: Even if you're not a tech whiz, you can usually figure out how to build workflows pretty quickly. It's like playing with digital building blocks.

Works with Loads of Stuff: You can connect Power Automate to a wide variety of different apps, which doesn't require you to stay within one tiny box.

Automation Templates: Do you want to automate common processes, such as an expense report or onboarding new employees? Templates are there to get you started in no time and save you tons of time.

also it is very to handle complex task with power automate. So, I can definitely recommend this for all above best things. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Can Get Expensive: Depending on how much usage you make from it, cost can quickly amass, most especially if used by many persons.

Sometimes Slow: If you work with a load of data or very complicated workflow, sometimes it may not perform optimally.

It may be tricky to debug: the case where anything goes wrong, you must have the pain in your head to determine what went wrong.

These are some of downside I feel while using it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As a senior data analyst for marketing agencies and large e-commerce stores, I appreciate how Microsoft Power Automate streamlines data workflows through its RPA capabilities and it is ease to implement. It is successful in automating repetitive tasks like ETL processes and email automation, reducing manual effort. Also I like the integration with other Microsoft tools such as SharePoint enhances our ability to consolidate data from various sources efficiently. I personally like the user-friendly interface, that enables team members with minimal coding experience to create and deploy automation flows.

Also I had no problens with custumer support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It has some limitations, like it can struggle with processing large datasets, leading to performance lags or timeouts. For me debugging complex RPA flows can be challenging due to limited debugging tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Microsoft PA from a process automation standpoint stands on par with the other big players in the RPA space, especially since the release of work queues, and work queue functions which enable cross-VM resource utilization (multi-bot architecture design) for solutions to take on greater workloads, manage exception scenarios, and create additional nuanced triggers and actions. Prior to the release of work queues this was PA's biggest weakness in the product offering.

Three significant differentiators that organizations need consider are: event based triggers, advanced scenarios requiring M/L integration, and how all of these solutions integrate within their existing productivity suites.

Microsoft stands alone in its ability to deliver on event based triggers that can kick off a cloud flow when a new email arrives, data is updated to Dataverse, a new form is submitted, etc. This is powerful since organizations are not tied to scheduling a solution to run at a set time, but rather can rely on immediate event-based automations.

Microsoft's solution though is Power Automate Cloud's connectors and ability to utilize Microsoft Cognitive Services to extend the rules-based automation to include M/L capabilities for more complex business scenarios, which can reduce human judgement and decision making in a solution.

Lastly, all of the above can integrate with Microsoft's productivity suite (word, excel, teams, outlook, etc.) to create a holistic business solution that not only is automating work, but now is capable of integrating with a human workforce- picking up actions from a team member, and executing it on their behalf, or delivering an insights report to them on a regularly scheduled basis, or when specific information (triggers) occur and teams need to be notified. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Organizations will need to understand their business use cases before stepping out and beginning to purchase PA licenses. The nuance between Power Automate Desktop, and Power Automate Cloud can be confusing.

This is not entirely uncommon in the RPA space (UiPath has a complex license SKU as well), but some companies have an all in one pre-packaged license SKU approach that reduces the burden for organizations determining what they need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In my overall 4 years of experience as an RPA Developer, what I personally like best in Power Automate is the low-code or no-code approach. This makes users of all technical levels to understand the platform and concept easily to automate the processes and increase productivity without needing extensive developer skills. I liked both the Desktop and Cloud versions but when compared, cloud version is faster with interactions.

Power Automate works well with Excel and Sharepoint which makes it easy to integrate. Easy to implement the Attended automations/RDA process flows with Desktop version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Being a power automate developer, using it frequently I have noticed there are lot many performance issues. Also we have limited debugging tools as debugging issues in flows can be hard to identify the root cause of it. The error messages are usually generic, which makes it hard to understand where the exact issue is. Also there is restricted flexibility in desktop automations. Need more Customer Support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Microsoft Power Automate works really well with other Microsoft tools like Excel, Teams, and SharePoint. It’s super helpful for automating stuff across different apps. The connectors are great too, so you can even use it with non-Microsoft services. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Power Automate is powerful, but it’s kinda hard to learn for beginners. The navigation isn’t very user-friendly, especially for non-tech people. Debugging is also a bit tricky, and it could really use better error handling options. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.