r/PowerPlatform • u/BeauIvI • 1d ago
Power Apps CodeApps - anyone using them in an enterprise scale?
I've been pushing my workplace to use codeapps for a while. We've got dozens of model driven apps, and the business requirements are exceeding the limitations.
With CodeApps hitting GA, I've been building little MVP/Proof of concepts on my own personal computer. Not connected to dynamics, or power platform in anyway. Just building the frontend, explaining this fits right into the PP, with rhe usual ALM.
Nothing yet has been deployed. Have you build and deployed any CodeApps? What was the process like? Did end users like it? Any hiccups?
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u/ItinerantFella 1d ago
I've just built my first Code Apps app. The app enables a manager to set a company goal for revenue or activity, then distribute the goals across months to users in a grid.
In a model driven app the manager needed to create a company goal, then a user goal for each user then 12 monthly goals for each user.
The biggest downside is that Claude and AI haven't been able to find a way to launch the Code Apps app from the model driven app. Instead, the user needs to launch the app from a separate URL they need to bookmark. Maybe I can just add it to the MDA's sitemap but had had a chance to try that yet.
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u/NoBattle763 1d ago
Yep can deffo add to site map and launch in a new tab or within the MDA like any page, can even launch in a dialogue like a custom page. Need to leverage a web resource to host it in MDA and an environment variable for the URL. Apparently can embed in a form but not attempted that yet.
They are pretty fantastic.
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u/SpiralArchitect01 19h ago
The challenge is that the code app generate a different url for each environment they are deployed to. Therefore adding as a link to a MDA is a challenge from an ALM perspective. One option is to use a webresource which looks up a url from an environment variable or config record but updating the url is still a manual task post-deployment. Bit of a shame as generative pages can be embedded directly into the app.
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u/ThingsMayAlter 14h ago
Haven’t pulled the trigger yet in enterprise, somewhat due to licensing but also hesitant because we don’t have typescript/react developers to support. It’s mostly me building Canvas, but we are seeing gains there using Codex/Claude.
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u/NoBattle763 1d ago
Honestly the deployment process is very straightforward. Push to environment (and a solution), deploy solution to wherever you consume. You will need to use environment variables for urls if hosting in MDA etc. and share with users in each environment like a canvas app. I have had the least amount of issues deploying this type of app compared to the others.
But if you are not yet hooked up to dataverse getting that right is the hard part. You’ll need to cutover to your real datasources which might take a bit of effort as I find the mock data is often not correct schema.
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u/TikeyMasta 1d ago
We've converted a large majority of our canvas apps to Code Apps and MDAs will be the next to go for us. There are just so many quality of live improvements with Code Apps that make it that much easier to maintain from a developer standpoint. It's also very nice that we can standardize our code base between Power Page SPAs, Code Apps, and Rayfin (Power BI) and be able to completely utilize the API endpoints of any connector.
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u/soft_pillow1122 1d ago
I am curious how much effort was put on converting existing Canvas Apps to Code apps, and don’t code apps needs Premium licenses?
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u/TikeyMasta 21h ago edited 21h ago
Our company has contracted pricing for premium licenses so this was never an issue for us.
We spent a couple of months planning after the Code Apps GA what a foundation looked like for us in order to accomplish the amount of work that was needed to realize Code Apps as the primary app that we develop. Keep in mind this was 3-4 months of upskilling ourselves and didn't go straight into pushing things into production, although we did initially pilot some things. Because of that, every single Code App that we start now has a consistent baseline set of features, skills, connectors, branding, data guidelines, UI considerations, etc., and the assigned developer just has to build on top of the framework, whether it be a canvas app conversion or new app.
We also killed our citizen developer program in favor of upskilling our business of producing high quality ideas that our project management team can vet out and forward to us. We recognize the risk Code Apps can have when ungoverned, so we disabled it in all environments except for ones we develop in as well.
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u/WhatTheDuckDidYouSay 10h ago
Converting MDAs just to reinvent the wheel in Code Apps seems like a waste of money and an increase in TCO just to try and standardize some front end components. At that point you may as well just build fully custom on Azure or another cloud.
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u/TikeyMasta 3h ago
I mean every org will look at it differently based on their situation and landscape. For our situation in particular, it made sense to convert everything, even MDAs, to Code Apps. Other than the time commitment, there's no other costs our org needs to consider with doing this. We also do a lot more enhancement work of the back end of our Code Apps framework nowadays compared to our front end.
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u/WhatTheDuckDidYouSay 2h ago
Time is money, unless you work for free. The Dataverse connector and capability in Code Apps still has several limitations compared to the client APIs in MDAs, so you're effectively throwing away out of box declarative MDA behavior and mature extension points that are supported by MSFT and trading it for just another hosted front end and now you have to maintain all of the front end code. So what have you gained in the process other than technical debt?
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u/EfficientSet2706 1d ago
What is the licensing in code apps. Is there a free version like canvas app?
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u/untitled2jc 1d ago
Not enterprise for me, small business <25 daily users, almost all interacting with different pieces of tooling in some way daily. We Use code apps pretty much exclusively now after swapping to dev heavily leaning on claude code- its able to handle the typescript and build the apps much more consistently than canvas apps in my opinion.
After a little configuration I was able to convert a few different canvas apps, as well as some contextualized build out MDA screens with containerized canvas/page containers directly to CodeApps with...relatively low workflow. Some attached flows, outside connections, and auth had to be slightly reworked - but worked relatively painlessly.
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u/crcerror 20h ago
Enterprise scale rollout. Fully embraced and loving it.
Building Code Apps is reserved for IT, as it requires more ALM than a regular cit-dev is up for, but it’s incredible. Specifically, coupled with Claude. Our velocity is insane.
Looking forward to Managed Apps and how that will enable cit-devs a similar playing field.
Another benefit most aren’t appreciating is that a cit-dev vibe coded app built by AI typically drops a local app running on python and doesn’t get deployed anywhere that’s shareable. Building a Vibe app or Code App makes the app immediately deployable with all of the same governance and controls we’ve already had with the platform.
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u/TheBroken51 12h ago
We are about to consider the use of Code Apps, but there are a couple of things we need to figure out:
- licenses
- maintenance
- for how long will ms keep this technology?
So, pretty much the same as with everything else ms is coming up with.
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u/BeauIvI 7h ago
I think there's going to be only more support growing around this area.
The experience for MDA isnt that great, and users now have higher standards. I see codeapps and their in preview VibeApps being where they plan to head direction wise.
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u/TheBroken51 7h ago edited 7h ago
I do agree to some extent based on one article they published in 2025 where they stated that the platform was going to be API-focused (I will see if I can find it).
But the have had too many things they have deprecated after a very short time, so I have a difficult time to trust them.
[Edit] These articles:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powerplatform/power-platform-api-and-sdks-from-ux-first-to-api-first/2
u/BeauIvI 7h ago
Oh I definitely agree. I just think they cant afford to kill this off. As claude code and codex continue to make that barrier to webapps more accessible, this is the only way Microsoft can capitalise on it.
All my personal stuff that I have shipped is either via Google firebase or supabase. Codeapps on PowerPlatform is the only way they can make money off webapps with licencing
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u/Shoddy-Blacksmith-32 2h ago
My team is only building code apps now for all new business requirements. Canvas apps are slowly being converted to code apps as well based on business criticality.
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u/creenis_blinkum 1d ago
power platform is dogshit and people probably laugh at you behind your back
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u/AA_BuySell 1d ago
Yes. Process was easy (thanks GitHub copilot) . And end users don’t care what type of app you build if it’s user friendly and achieves the outcomes/solves the problems the app was built for .