# Microsoft Power Apps

11 Hacker News commenters recommended Microsoft Power Apps and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Low-code app builder that people recommend for quick, cheap apps on simple use cases. Critics say it is hard to use and falls short for complex or professional work.

## Why people recommend it

- Good for new, simple apps (2 comments): "If your use case is limited enough, it makes lazy developers very productive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46198897)) "If you are building a new application you're better off using Power Apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49809370))
- Cheap, cost-effective process management (2 comments): "provides an easy, cost-effective, and scalable way to manage this process" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47285669)) "I can have them build on powerapps and have zero new opex" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46198968))

## What people warn about

- Hard to use, unfriendly experience (3 comments): "the PowerApps experience was so unfriendly that even they were afraid to make changes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402931)) "PowerApps experience was so unfriendly that even they were afraid to make changes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46403042)) "I just remember it being very annoying" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46646450))
- Weak code generator and developer experience (2 comments): "The Power Apps code generator isn't particularly great, it's not fun to work in that sort of "started as low code and ejected to real code" codebase" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46164256)) "The professional development experience is lacking, however enterprise users can create many applications based on Excel files." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46288215))
- Falls short beyond simple apps (2 comments): "they allow building apps fairly quickly and cheaply... as long as you stick to simple apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49282883)) "Microsoft's sharepoint and power apps still cannot compete in terms of capabilities." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49633113))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Retool](https://hackerapproved.com/p/retool.md): 8 recommend
- [FileMaker Pro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/filemaker.md): 8 recommend
- [Breadboard](https://hackerapproved.com/p/breadboard.md): 7 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-apps)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Microsoft Power Apps", https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-power-apps/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).