Microsoft Power Automate
Ranked 6 of 7 workflow automation tools by recommenders
Recommended for automating workflows across Microsoft cloud services, often combined with Power Apps and custom tools. Critics most often call it buggy, hard to maintain and unreliable.
Recommended for automating workflows across Microsoft cloud services, often combined with Power Apps and custom tools. Critics most often call it buggy, hard to maintain and unreliable.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 15
- approval share
- 29%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Pairs well with other tools
“You really need to create higher level tools in Power Automate and call them from Studio.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft lowers AI software growth targets” “you're better off using Power Apps, Dataverse, SharePoint, Power Automate, etc.”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived” “Combo'ing it with Power Automate can get a lot of things done.”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “We Automated Federal Retirements”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Unreliable, buggy workflows
“Theoretically a neat tool that is well integrated into the cloud landscape. Practically you cannot implement reliable workflows with it”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Decisions that eroded trust in Azure – by a former Azure Core engineer” “But it is a beta version at best for years. There are two version of editors that frequently break.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control” “It is just painful. And buggy as well, even integration with their own services.”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Microsoft's Satya Nadella: We Can't Let AI Giants Eat the Economy” Clunky setup and maintenance
“It's messier to set and maintain but it works as intended”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “OpenAI Should Build Slack” “Which to me seems a bit clunkier in initial setup and perhaps even in maintenance/durability.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “MS Sharepoint sunset of "Alert me" (on folder changes) completes next month” Frustrating and painful to use
“I'm having flashbacks to writing Power Automate expressions to reconcile Dates passed from Outlook metadata to Excel”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Date is out, Temporal is in” “It is just painful. And buggy as well, even integration with their own services.”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Microsoft's Satya Nadella: We Can't Let AI Giants Eat the Economy” “all the powerautomate etc = frustrations to the max”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “WinClaw: Windows-native AI assistant with Office automation and skills” Cannot forward chat content
“MS Power Automate sadly does not enable forwarding the content of chats.”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “OpenClaw Is a Security Nightmare Dressed Up as a Daydream” “MS Power Automate sadly does not enable forwarding the content of chats”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “OpenClaw Is a Security Nightmare Dressed Up as a Daydream”
Other workflow automation tools people recommend
The four most recommended other workflow automation tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 7 workflow automation tools, rankedWhat people said
21 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I don't personally like using low code solutions”
“you're better off using Power Apps, Dataverse, SharePoint, Power Automate, etc.”
“Write power automate flows that send me chasing errors?”
“It is just painful. And buggy as well, even integration with their own services.”
“Which to me seems a bit clunkier in initial setup and perhaps even in maintenance/durability.”
“I cringe at my old boss's handiwork in Claude and power automate sometimes”
“Theoretically a neat tool that is well integrated into the cloud landscape. Practically you cannot implement reliable workflows with it”
“Scary Power Automate crap getting injected on updates”
“MS Power Automate sadly does not enable forwarding the content of chats.”
“MS Power Automate sadly does not enable forwarding the content of chats”
“It's messier to set and maintain but it works as intended”
“all the powerautomate etc = frustrations to the max”
“My company recently decided to move away from Power Automate after having trained lots of people on this 'no code' platform”
“irrational push away from python into Microsoft Power Automate”
“I'm having flashbacks to writing Power Automate expressions to reconcile Dates passed from Outlook metadata to Excel”
“Combo'ing it with Power Automate can get a lot of things done.”
“there is no time to think about those things during the chillest of times either, as any user of Power Automate can concur”
“You really need to create higher level tools in Power Automate and call them from Studio.”
“which introduced a whole bunch of permissions and ownership issues”
“it was folded into Power Automate, which in turn was made a part of Office 365”
“But it is a beta version at best for years. There are two version of editors that frequently break.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.