PowerApps – Replacement for InfoPath?

• June 7, 2019
• Sameer Mohammed
• no comments

InfoPath is Microsoft’s software application that allows users to design, distribute, fill, and submit electronic forms that contain structured data. Till 2015, InfoPath forms were heavily used by most organizations, especially in SharePoint on-premises environment. But, with the involvement of cloud, InfoPath becomes out-dated, and even Microsoft indicated this by discontinuing its services in 2014. However, there is a better alternative available to InfoPath – PowerApps!

So, here we will discuss what the issues with InfoPath are? What is PowerApps? Key advantages of PowerApps, and is PowerApps replacing InfoPath Forms?

Issues with InfoPath Forms

There were many reasons behind the discontinuity of InfoPath. Here we have tried to highlight some of them.

• The last version of InfoPath was released in 2013, which will no longer be supported by
Microsoft after 2026. And in Office 365, it will no longer be supported after 2023
• Microsoft also announced that there would be no new development with InfoPath
• Desktop client for InfoPath form will only be available till 2026
• It is challenging to use InfoPath forms in SharePoint online
• Coded InfoPath forms are no longer supported in SharePoint online
• Migrating InfoPath forms is a bit complicated, as they cannot be migrated easily and
directly. It requires efforts and time to migrate them and make them workable
• InfoPath browser forms don’t work on mobile devices
• It is not easy to maintain InfoPath forms

But, don’t worry! You can still access all the features of InfoPath Forms with PowerApps. Let’s know a bit about PowerApps.

What is PowerApps?

PowerApps is part of the Office 365 ecosystem that allows users to create business apps quickly without writing any code. These apps can run on almost every device and browser. Here are some other benefits of PowerApps:

1. Apps created by PowerApps can easily be deployed to Dynamics 365, SharePoint, Teams,
PowerBI, Web or any mobile device
2. PowerApps enable power users (non-technical users) to create apps quickly as it doesn’t
require any coding or visual studio
3. PowerApps almost (Not fully) replaced InfoPath and Access forms
4. Users can create simple apps directly from their browser via – https://web.powerapps.com as shown below:

5. The drag-drop UI of PowerApps enables users to add different controls, images, videos,
forms, etc.
6. There are many OOB templates available to get started, such as:

Key advantages of PowerApps over InfoPath forms

Some key benefits that make PowerApps better than InfoPath Forms are:

1. Working with different data sources in InfoPath forms is a bit complex as developers need
to check the code behind the option mostly. However, working with PowerApps is easier because it works with multiple data sources and service connections in one app.
2. PowerApps supports more than 200 connectors.
3. With PowerApps, users can connect with third-party services as well, such as Dropbox,
Google, Salesforce, Slack, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, GitHub, etc.
Now, the primary concern of most users is – how they can access PowerApps?

How to Avail PowerApps?

Well, PowerApps is not free to use. As it is a part of O365, so it is only available with Office 365 subscription.

1. Organizations having Office 365 Enterprise E1 or above plans can access PowerApps
2. It is available on per-user license basis, which means every user need a personal license
to run apps
3. There are also two standalone plans for PowerApps:
a) PowerApps Plan1 – With this plan, users can create apps to store and
manage data and do the following things:
• Create canvas and model-driven apps
• Run canvas apps
• Connect with Office 365 data
• Connect data using standard connectors and premium connectors
• Access on-premises data with an on-premises gateway, etc.
b) PowerApps Plan2 – Users can run model-driven apps with code plugin and real-time workflows
To know more about pricing visit Power Pricing. Also, you can download the PowerApps studio from here.

Conclusion
With the above points, we can say that PowerApps is more powerful than InfoPath. Though it doesn’t provide all the features of InfoPath, it is still faster than InfoPath. However, replacing InfoPath with PowerApps entirely depends on organizations. If businesses start adopting PowerApps for their every need, then InfoPath will soon be replaced by it.