How Azure Logic Apps Differs From Power Automate [Comparison]

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Logic Apps is a powerful business automation tool embedded directly within Azure, but there’s also Office 365’s Power Automate (ex Flow) to consider depending on your use case.

As an IT professional, it may be immediately obvious to use Logic Apps for your workflows but there are things that Power Automate can do which may fit the bill as well.

» LEARN MORE: Bring Office 365 & Azure Together with Powerful Business Solutions Made To Improve Your Workflows

In this “vs” comparison, find all the details which could go in favor of Power Automate or Logic Apps depending on your needs, and how you can bring them together.

Brief Overview of Logic Apps & Power Automate

Logic Apps and Power Automate are similar in nature but different in application. With Logic Apps, you’re working within the realm of Azure, making it ideal for IT professionals.

On the other hand, Power Automate is perfect for end-users looking to streamline their business operations from a high-level point of view rather than low-level processes.

When Should You Use Azure Logic Apps?

Azure Logic Apps is great for complex business processes such as transforming files into XML for further processing down a pipeline, or syncing data between enterprise platforms.

While the templates on Logic Apps are limited to just a few examples (some of which are shown in the image above), the configurations are practically endless thanks to:

1. Infrastructure-level triggers going down to the business logic
2. “Connectors” for major enterprise platforms such as SAP
3. The ability to edit JSON code within the interface

Unlike Power Automate, these allow for fine-tuned control over what happens at the infrastructure level, giving technical users the power they need to get things done.

When Should You Use Power Automate (ex Flow)?

Power Automate, which most people still refer to as Microsoft Flow, is an end-user application similar to services like Zapier, but built from Microsoft for the Office 365 ecosystem.

From an end-user perspective, Power Automate is more “powerful” than Logic Apps because it allows more out-of-the-box connections with a seemingly never-ending way of templates.

(Although JSON code editing isn’t permitted)

Power Automate triggers offer primarily:

1. Calling various third-party APIs over HTTP
2. Using custom WebHooks if necessary
3. Manual or scheduled HTTP calls

With Power Automate, everything goes through the open internet either via APIs, HTTP calls, or WebHooks. It’s a good solution for high-level tasks, not business-critical infrastructure.

On the other hand, Azure Logic Apps can trigger automated actions via the triggers above plus infrastructure-level events managed through the Azure Event Grid.

This means that, while powerful in its own right, Power Automate can only port some data from a high-level API into Azure rather than work directly on the business logic itself.

Power Automate vs Logic Apps: 3 Major Differences

Because of their target audience, Logic Apps and Power Automate are very different both in the way they are presented as well as in the way they are operated day-to-day.

One thing that remains similar is the web-based design environment which, in both cases, is shown as a trigger at the top and a flow of actions based on that trigger.

The flows can be as simple or complex as you want them to be:

With a few action step omissions for simplicity’s sake, the flow above allows to compare and add members from a source to a target group in Azure Active Directory on a recurring basis.

This means that a conditional statement (if/then) is used to check whether there are any new members to add. If not, nothing happens. If yes, the flow keeps going.

This works the same exact way on Azure Logic Apps, but it can also be edited directly via JSON code. In Power Automate, you can only “peek” at code for troubleshooting purposes:

Whereas with Azure Logic Apps, you can edit code for the entire flow:

With this out of the way, let’s look at 5 more comparison items between Power Automate and Logic Apps. Then, I’ll show you how to bring them together for maximum effectiveness.

Difference #1: Made with Different Platforms & Target Audience in Mind

If you’re an IT professional, you start with Logic Apps. If you’re an Office 365 end-user, you start with Power Automate. It’s really that simple when it comes to a bird’s eye view of the platforms.

With Logic Apps, IT pros can:

• Port data from one enterprise platform to Azure
• Develop event-driven business logic automations
• Use instant, scheduled or manual HTTP call triggers 

… and a lot more.

Whereas with Power Platform, end-users can:

• Automate repetitive business tasks such as issuing invoices
• Bring data from one Office app into another automatically
• Connect any number of third-party applications easily

Again, both platforms have their pros and cons. If you’re the technical guru in your organization, don’t rely on Power Platform as it will only restrict your usage of custom code.

Difference #2: More Technical vs More User-Friendly

Shown in the first item above, Logic Apps’ flow creation interface is more “crude” than Power Automate’s user-friendly UI, and it’s because of the target audience.

Business users that aren’t technical will not want to deal with an Azure-like interface, it will only lead to frustration. Whereas IT professionals will be just fine with Logic Apps’ UI.

The “easier-to-use” theme doesn’t end at just the interface with Power Platform though; it trickles all the way down to the single triggers, actions, and manuals.

When starting from scratch, you will be given several options:

This is far simpler than Logic App’s take:

Everything is guided in Power Automate, whereas most features in Logic Apps will leave the heavy lifting to the user which should have studied their configuration beforehand.

Difference #3: Various Trigger Types Available

With Power Automate, you can only use triggers through HTTP and WebHooks, whereas Logic Apps allows you to work with infrastructure-level events as well.

This is the primary difference between the two platforms. The good news is that you can create custom connectors on Power Automate to use any WebHook you want:

This requires you to have a Premium account with Microsoft, not just your standard Office 365 license. If you’re unsure about how this works, check out our Power Automate licensing guide.

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Although Power Automate is limited in functionality due to its end-user approach, things that are automated via the first platform can be picked up again by Logic Apps.

How To Bring Logic Apps & Power Automate Together

While both platforms are great on their own, they don’t have to be confined to just Office 365 or Azure. The way processes are handled on each end can be combined when designed well.

Based on Power Automate’s current state, you have various actions that can help with porting data into Azure services for further processing via Logic Apps:

Almost all of them are premium connectors (with the exception of Active Directory), meaning that you have to purchase a separate Power Automate license to use them.

But with the Azure Event Grid Publish connector, the possibilities become innumerable as you can port data into Azure and then create a further trigger from within Logic Apps.

If this is all new to you and you’re looking to gain some further insights into how to bring both platforms together, check out what LogicV has to offer by clicking on the image below.

Originally published Feb 22 2021

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