# Microsoft Power Automate — Workflow Management

Microsoft Power Automate by Microsoft Corporation holds a panel rating of 1/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2/5), as of 2026-10-15. Provenance: Rest of world; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Microsoft Corporation (https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/power-platform/products/power-automate)
- Category: [Workflow Management](https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): Rest of world
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/microsoft-power-automate
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/microsoft-power-automate/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/microsoft-power-automate/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-20 · evaluated 2026-10-15 · oldest source captured 2026-10-01

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Microsoft Corporation
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026

## The panel's verdict

Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft's cloud-only workflow service, drew uneven scoring. Its strength is integrations and connectors at 4-6: more than 1,400 certified connectors naming SAP, Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, and an on-premises data gateway reaching local data without moving it, with access control per data source. Pricing transparency follows at 3-4 — Premium at 13,00 € Benutzer/Monat and Process at 130,00 € Bot/Monat, each annually billed with prices excluding VAT, plus a 30-day free trial including premium features — though the flow allowance is given only as depending on the license type. Process design and governance and audit sit at 2-3 on approvals and managed environments, with no published detail on forms, escalation or audit logs. Weakest are run reliability and hosting and portability, both 0-1: no public information appears on what happens when a run fails, and the FAQ answers the on-premises question with 'Nein, Power Automate ist ein Clouddienst'. On sovereignty the judges split — the data protection officer 3, the operations analyst 1, the remaining four 0 — over Copilot's unstated model providers, no subprocessor list and unconfirmed execution location.

**Speaks for it:**
- More than 1,400 predefined certified connectors are offered, with SAP, Dynamics 365 and Salesforce named.
- Custom connectors can be built for any cloud application.
- A downloadable on-premises data gateway connects local data sources without moving the data, with access control per data source in standard mode.
- Approval processes can be created, managed and shared, and employees or groups can be added as flow owners.
- Premium is publicly priced at 13,00 € Benutzer/Monat and Process at 130,00 € Bot/Monat with unlimited users per bot, each annually billed with prices excluding VAT, and a 30-day free trial includes premium features.

**Held against it:**
- We found no public information on retries, error paths, alerting or searchable execution history when a run fails.
- The FAQ states Power Automate is a cloud service, and we found no public information on a selectable hosting region, a self-hosted edition or export of workflow definitions.
- The captured pages confirm neither where workflows execute nor any subprocessor list, and Copilot's model providers are unstated.
- The flow allowance is stated only as depending on the license type, with no public prices for premium connectors or AI steps.
- We found no public information on an audit log, where connection credentials are stored, SSO, or retention of execution payloads.

**Best for:**
- You need to connect workflows to SAP, Dynamics 365 or Salesforce and reach internal databases through a gateway rather than a firewall opening.
- Your team works in Microsoft 365 and wants to automate in Excel, OneDrive or Teams without switching applications.
- You want to evaluate before committing, since a 30-day free trial includes premium features and both tier prices are public.

**Avoid if:**
- You need documented failure behaviour for unattended overnight processes — run reliability scored 0-1, and the only hours shown are sales and support, Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 17:00.
- You must run the engine on your own infrastructure or keep a documented exit path for workflow definitions — the FAQ states Power Automate is a cloud service, and hosting and portability scored 0-1.
- You must evidence where employees' approval data executes and which subprocessors are involved before a works council review — the judges found no public information on either, and sovereignty scores range 0-3.
- You need to compute the full monthly invoice before signing — the pages state only that the flow count depends on the license type.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price.

| Criterion | The Process Owner | The Integration Engineer | The Operations Analyst | The Head of IT | The Data Protection Officer | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Process design, forms & approvals | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Connectors, API & on-premise reach | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 |
| Execution, error handling & monitoring | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 |
| Governance, credentials & audit trail | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Hosting options & portability | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 |
| European sovereignty | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 1.5/5 | 0/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **1/5** | **1/5** | **1/5** | **1/5** | **1.5/5** | **1/5** |

### The judges

- **The Process Owner** (v1.0): Runs purchase approvals and invoice release for a 400-person Mittelstand company. Wants approvers set by role rather than by name, a substitute when someone is on holiday, deadlines that escalate, and a process change that does not break the forty requests already in flight.
- **The Integration Engineer** (v1.0): Wires the ERP to the shop, the shop to DATEV and the CRM to everything else. Wants connectors documented by action rather than counted in logos, a generic HTTP step for the rest, an on-premise agent that reaches the SQL server without a hole in the firewall, and a failed run replayable from the step that failed.
- **The Operations Analyst** (v1.0): Is asked every Monday why invoices took eleven days. Wants a searchable execution history, cycle times per step, alerts that reach a channel rather than an unread mailbox, runtime and throughput limits published before the month-end run hits them — and to know what a loop over 5,000 rows costs in tasks.
- **The Head of IT** (v1.0): Answers for every automation a department builds without asking. Wants SSO, separate test and production, an inventory of workflows with their owners — and an exit: definitions exportable as BPMN or documented JSON, a self-hosted edition, and an engine licence that will still apply in five years.
- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): Reads every workflow as a chain of transfers. Asks where the execution log keeps its copy of the payload and for how long, which subprocessors and AI model providers a step sends data to, whether payloads can be masked, and what the approval trail records about employees before the works council asks.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Knows that "7,000 integrations" counts connectors nobody maintains, that "unlimited workflows" says nothing about the tasks each run consumes, and that "no-code" ends at the first API without a connector. Reads for what counts as a task, how long failed runs are kept, which model an "AI agent" step sends data to, and whether the workflows can leave the platform at all.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Ownership | Not determined | — | — |
| Data residency | Not determined | — | — |
| Subprocessors | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Children consent age: 13 · yes [S2]
- Credential encryption: Anmeldeinformationen werden verschlüsselt und nur auf dem Gatewaycomputer entschlüsselt [S4]
- Dpf: yes · yes · yes [S2]
- Encryption transport: Datenübertragung zwischen Power BI und dem lokalen Datengateway wird über Azure Service Bus gesichert [S4]
- Enterprise agreements precedence: yes [S2]

**Data**
- Cookie consent withdrawal: Cookies verwalten link on website [S2]
- Gpc signal: yes [S2]
- Rights tools: Microsoft-Datenschutzdashboard [S2]

**Hosting**
- Purchasing note: Microsoft 365 Admin Center access as Global Administrator or Billing Administrator [S1]

**Integrations**
- Connectors: Dynamics 365 · SAP · Salesforce · yes · 1400 [S1]

**Legal**
- Germany not provider: no [S3]
- Imprint scope: microsoft.com incl. all subdomains and sites/services linking to this imprint [S3]
- Juschg receiving agent: SKW Schwarz Rechtsanwälte · Wittelsbacher Platz 1, 80333 München · Empfangsbevollmächtigter nach § 24a JuSchG [S3]
- Provider: Microsoft Corporation · One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399, USA · § 5 DDG [S3]
- Report metrics: yes [S2]
- Ubi: 600 413 485 [S3]
- Update date: September 2026 [S2]
- Usk member: Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited · Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) [S3]

**Pricing**
- Free trial: 30 · yes · yes [S1]
- Premium: annual · yes · 13 [S1]
- Process bot: annual · yes · yes · 130 [S1]

**Product**
- Approvals: approval processes [S1]
- Approvals: Approval process creation, management and sharing [S1]
- Capabilities: AI features · Desktopflows (RPA) · Cloud-Flows (DPA) · Task and Process Mining · Orchestrierung [S1]
- Cloud flows: Cloud-Flows (DPA) [S1]
- Copilot: Copilot available in Power Automate [S1]
- Copilot time savings: customer reference Nsure · 50 · 60 [S1]
- Deployment model: yes · yes [S1]
- Document automation: document processing with Power Automate, Power Apps and Dataverse [S1]
- Document automation: Document processing with Power Automate, Power Apps and Microsoft Dataverse [S1]
- Faq onprem question: FAQ addresses on-premises availability [S1]
- Flow count licensing: flow count depends on license type [S1]
- Flow sharing: yes [S1]
- Gateway modes download: Gateway ist als Standardmodus und persönlicher Modus herunterladbar [S4]
- Gateway purpose: Power BI Gateway verbindet Cloud-Dashboards/Berichte mit lokalen Datenquellen, ohne die Daten zu verschieben [S4]
- Gateway setup: Download-Installation mit Anmeldung über Organisationskonto zur Gateway-Registrierung [S4]
- Gateway shared services: Ein installiertes Gateway kann Verbindungen für Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate und Azure Logic Apps bereitstellen [S4]
- Governance: Managed environments for governance at scale [S1]
- M365 interop: yes · Excel · OneDrive · Teams [S1]
- Managed environments: Managed environments for governance at scale [S1]
- Microsoft365 interop: Excel · OneDrive · Teams [S1]
- Personal mode cloud services: Power BI [S4]
- Power bi free trial: Power BI kostenlos in Microsoft Fabric testen [S4]
- Powerbi integration: Power BI connection triggering downstream workflows on KPI thresholds [S1]
- Powerbi integration: Connect to Power BI and trigger downstream workflows on KPI thresholds [S1]
- Process mining: Task und Process Mining [S1]
- Requirements: web browser and email address required [S1]
- Rpa: RPA supported, powered by low-code and AI [S1]
- Rpa desktop flows: Desktopflows (RPA) [S1]
- Sap template: SAP procurement solution template [S1]
- Sap template: SAP procurement solution template [S1]
- Standard mode analysis services live: Dynamische Verbindungen mit Analysis Services [S4]
- Standard mode cloud services: Power BI · Power Apps · Azure Logic Apps · Power Automate · Azure Analysis Services · Dataflows [S4]
- Standard mode directquery: DirectQuery-Unterstützung im Standardmodus [S4]
- Standard mode multi user: Standardmodus: Nutzung durch mehrere Benutzer mit Zugriffskontrolle pro Datenquelle [S4]
- Standard mode scheduled refresh: Import von Daten und geplante Aktualisierung [S4]
- Supported browsers desktop: Microsoft Edge · Safari · Chrome · Firefox · Windows 10 · Windows 11 [S1]
- Templates: predefined flows for common scenarios [S1]
- Windows scope: Windows 10 and Windows 11 [S2]

**Support**
- Chat hours: 0800 8088014 · Deutschland/Luxemburg · Mo-Fr 8:00-17:00 [S1]
- Hours: yes · Mo-Fr 8:00-17:00 · (0)800 8088014 [S1]
- Partner marketplace: partner network available for implementation help [S1]
- Process license admin note: Process plan purchase requires Global Administrator or Billing Administrator role in Microsoft 365 Admin Center [S1]
- Sales phone: Mo-Fr von 8 bis 17:00 Uhr · (0)800 8088014 · chat · phone [S4]

## Questions

### Is Microsoft Power Automate European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Microsoft Power Automate as Rest of world.

### Where does Microsoft Power Automate store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### Does Microsoft Power Automate have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Microsoft Power Automate?

As of 15 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Tray.ai (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/tray-ai), [n8n (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/n8n) and [Camunda (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/camunda) highest among the other 16 Workflow Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [n8n](https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/n8n) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Microsoft Power Automate alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/microsoft-power-automate/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 5 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 4 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 data fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 legal fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are shown as unknown.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor product page: https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/power-platform/products/power-automate (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Privacy policy: https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/privacy/privacystatement (checked 2026-10-01)
- [S3] Legal notice: https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/rechtliche-hinweise/impressum (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Connectors, API & on-premise reach — found from sitemap: https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/power-platform/products/power-bi/gateway (checked 2026-10-13)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Microsoft Power Automate — Workflow Management", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-20. https://whats-best.ai/software/workflow-management/microsoft-power-automate

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/558?target=page