App Maker and PowerApps recently entered the arena of low-code and no-code app development. Here’s a first look at how they compare.
Both Google App Maker and Microsoft PowerApps seek to offer their enterprise customers an alternative to mobile app development through traditional programming. Microsoft was first through the gate with its PowerApps product, released to general availability at the end of October. One month later, Google announced its App Maker in limited availability to its G Suite customers.
Microsoft and Google are new arrivals to a market that has been around for a while. Gartner and Forrester both began tracking essentially the same category in 2014. Gartner‘s term is ‘rapid mobile application development tools’ (RMAD) while Forrester prefers ‘low-code development platform’. Neither analyst firm has yet included Microsoft PowerApps or Google App Maker in their respective reports.
View from 10,000 feet
We have not yet spent enough time hands-on with PowerApps and App Maker to compare their capabilities in detail – watch for that in future posts. But we can offer our perspective on how these products compare at a high level, both to each other and to our own Formotus no-code mobility solution.
Google App Maker
Microsoft PowerApps
Formotus
Since 20081
For internal users of G Suite
For internal users of Office 365, Dynamics, SharePoint2
For internal and external users3
Create in browser
Create in Windows desktop or browser4
Create in browser or InfoPath5
Use in browser only
Use in mobile app only6
Use in mobile app only
Connect to Google Cloud SQL or Google Drive table7
Connect to SharePoint list, others8
Connect to SharePoint lists & libraries, Google Sheets, web services
Submit data fields only
Submit data fields only
Submit data fields, editable XML file, and PDF document
Works online only
Works online only
Notes
1 InfoPath-based solutions have been in production since 2008. The Formotus creator was released July 2016.
2 Not all Office 365 plans support PowerApps, and not all PowerApps features are supported by the Office 365 or Dynamics licenses.
3 Formotus offers two licensing models: per user for unlimited usage, and per form for anonymous usage. Learn more.
4 The Windows desktop PowerApps designer came first, and the Web-based version is still in preview.
5 InfoPath-based forms and browser-based forms run side-by-side in the same Formotus apps. See: Formotus for InfoPath Users.
6 Microsoft is promising that PowerApps can be embedded in SharePoint browser pages in the future.
7 Connecting to Cloud SQL can be complicated, and Google Drive tables is a simple alternative with significant limitations.
8 PowerApps can connect to SharePoint lists but not libraries. There are a number of other connectors as well, some ‘premium’.
