Updated October 2026. Written by Power Platform MS. Product features and prices change, so check current details with each provider.
The short answer
Choose Power Automate when business users need to build or understand the automation, when it lives in Microsoft 365 (approvals, Teams, Outlook, SharePoint) and when per-user or per-flow licensing fits. Choose Azure Logic Apps when the integration is system to system, high volume, deployed through Azure DevOps or GitHub as infrastructure as code, or must run inside a virtual network. Both use the same workflow engine and much of the same connector library, so the decision is mostly about ownership, governance and billing.
Side-by-side comparison
| Factor | Power Automate | Azure Logic Apps |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Business process automation by makers and specialists | Enterprise integration by developers and IT |
| Where it is managed | Power Platform environments and admin center | Azure subscriptions and resource groups |
| Billing | Per user, per flow or pay-as-you-go; standard connectors in many Microsoft 365 plans | Consumption: per action run. Standard: hosting plan based |
| Approvals in Teams and Outlook | Built in | Possible, but more work |
| Desktop automation (RPA) | Yes, desktop flows | No |
| Deployment and ALM | Solutions, pipelines and environment variables | ARM or Bicep templates, Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions |
| Networking | Public cloud service, on-premises data gateway for local systems | Standard plan supports virtual network integration and private endpoints |
| Monitoring | Run history, admin analytics, failure alerts | Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and Application Insights |
Same engine, different products
Power Automate cloud flows run on the same workflow engine as Azure Logic Apps, which is why their designers and connectors look familiar. The difference is packaging. Power Automate is a Microsoft 365 and Power Platform product licensed per user or per flow and governed through environments. Logic Apps is an Azure service billed through your Azure subscription and governed like any other Azure resource.
Logic Apps comes in two main hosting models. Consumption runs in multi-tenant Azure and bills per action executed, which is very cheap for low volumes. Standard runs on a dedicated hosting plan, supports multiple workflows per app, stateless workflows for speed, local development in Visual Studio Code and virtual network integration.
Who builds and who owns it
Power Automate is designed so that people close to the process can build and maintain flows, with a specialist for anything complex. That makes it the natural home for approvals, notifications, document handling and Microsoft 365 automation. See Power Automate consultancy for how we build these properly.
Logic Apps assumes a developer or integration team. Workflows are defined as JSON, deployed through pipelines and monitored in Azure. That suits integrations between line-of-business systems, such as an ERP sending orders to a warehouse system, where business users should not be editing the logic.
Scale, performance and limits
Power Automate has request limits tied to licences and throughput limits per flow, which are generous for business processes but need designing around for heavy data movement. Logic Apps has its own limits but scales with Azure resources, and Standard can be sized for sustained high volumes.
If a flow processes thousands of records an hour, calls APIs continuously or needs private network access to databases, it is usually a sign that it belongs in Logic Apps or Azure Functions. If it handles tens or hundreds of business events a day with people in the loop, Power Automate is usually simpler and cheaper.
Which should you choose?
Choose Power Automate when
- The workflow involves people: approvals, notifications, Teams and Outlook
- Business teams need to understand or adjust it
- It uses standard connectors already covered by Microsoft 365
- You want desktop automation for legacy applications
Choose Azure Logic Apps when
- It is system-to-system integration with no people in the loop
- Volumes are high or continuous
- You need virtual network integration or private endpoints
- Your team deploys everything through Azure DevOps or GitHub as code
Cost considerations
The billing models are different enough that the cheaper option depends on volume and users. Check current Microsoft pricing for both.
- Power Automate: flows with standard connectors are covered by many Microsoft 365 plans. Premium connectors need a premium licence per user, a per-flow (process) licence or pay-as-you-go billing through Azure.
- Logic Apps Consumption: pay for each trigger and action run, with connector calls priced by type. Very low volumes can cost pennies; very high volumes add up.
- Logic Apps Standard: a monthly hosting plan cost regardless of volume, which becomes predictable and often cheaper at sustained high volumes.
- People cost: Logic Apps usually needs developer skills to build and support, which matters more than the platform fee for most small and medium organisations.
Our Automation Opportunity Sprint from £1,750 maps your candidate processes and recommends the right home for each, with a fixed-price quote for the first build. For premium licensing questions, a licensing review from £395 gives a written answer.
Moving between Power Automate and Logic Apps
Because they share an engine, moving is easier than with most tools, but it is still a rebuild of connections and deployment:
- Power Automate to Logic Apps: Power Automate has offered an export to a Logic Apps template for some cloud flows. Expect to recreate connections, replace approvals and Microsoft 365 user-context actions, and add Azure monitoring.
- Logic Apps to Power Automate: rebuild the workflow in a solution, map connections to service accounts or connection references, and check whether any connectors used are premium.
- Hybrid is fine: a common pattern is a Power Automate flow for the approval and human steps, which calls a Logic App or Azure Function for heavy integration work.
A good scoping call should be willing to tell you the other option is the better fit. If it is, you will hear that on the first call.