Power Automate migration to Azure Logic Apps (Standard)
Applies to: Azure Logic Apps (Standard)
Many development teams increasingly need to build scalable, secure, and efficient automation solutions. Perhaps your team also faces the strategic choice whether to migrate your flows in Microsoft Power Automate to Standard workflows in Azure Logic Apps. Both Power Automate and Azure Logic Apps provide powerful automation platforms and tools. However, for enterprises that run complex, high-volume, and security-sensitive workloads, Azure Logic Apps (Standard) offers many key advantages.
This guide outlines the advantages gained from transitioning to Azure Logic Apps (Standard).
Migration benefits
Azure Logic Apps (Standard) provides the following benefits by providing capabilities that support enterprise-level scenarios and needs. The following table lists some high-level examples:
| Benefits | Capabilities |
|---|---|
| Flexible integration and development tools | - Browser-based development using the Azure portal - Local development, debugging, and testing with Visual Studio Code - 1,400+ connectors for Microsoft, Azure, and other services, systems, apps, and data For more information, see Integration and development. |
| Enhanced security and compliance | - Virtual network integration - Private endpoints - Managed identity authentication - Microsoft Entra ID - Role-based access control (RBAC) For more information, see Security and compliance first. |
| Improved performance and scalability | - Dedicated compute resources - Elastic scaling - Parallel processing - Low latency For more information, see Performance and scalability. |
| Robust business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) capabilities | - Automated backups - Geo-redundancy - High availability with built-in redundancy For more information, see Business continuity and disaster recovery. |
| Version control with CI/CD (continuous integration and deployment) |
- Seamless integration with Git repositories, which provide change tracking, branching, and team collaboration in Azure DevOps or GitHub - Automate deployment with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code (ARM templates and Bicep templates) For more information, see Version control with CI/CD. |
For more detailed capability information and comparisons, see Compare capability details.
Integration and development
Azure Logic Apps excels at helping you integrate your workflows with an expansive range of services, systems, apps, and data and by supporting tools that help speed your development process.
Development tools and reusability
Visually build workflows using a browser-based designer that includes an expression editor, or use the JSON code editor in the Azure portal.
Build modular, reusable components with logic app projects in Visual Studio Code when you use the Azure Logic Apps (Standard) extension. These components help you reduce development time and make sure that you have consistency across projects.
Locally create, debug, run, and manage workflows managed by your logic app project in Visual Studio Code when you use the Azure Logic Apps (Standard) extension.
Extensive connector library
Choose from over 1,400 Azure-hosted connectors to access cloud services, on-premises systems, apps, and other data sources. Connect even more securely to key services such as SQL Server and Azure Key Vault and in more scalable ways by using built-in operations powered by the Azure Logic Apps runtime.
For more information, see the following documentation:
Workflow templates gallery
Create workflows even faster by starting with prebuilt templates for commonly used workload patterns, including ones that support AI data processing and chat completion scenarios.
Add and run your own code snippets
Write and run .NET code, C# scripts, or PowerShell scripts from Standard workflows. For more information, see the following resources:
Security and compliance first
Enterprises consider security a top priority, so Azure Logic Apps (Standard) provides security features that differ from the capabilities in Power Automate, for example:
Virtual network integration and private endpoints
Run Standard workflows inside secure Azure virtual networks, which reduce exposure to the public internet through private endpoints and enhance data security.
Managed identity authentication
Eliminate the need to manually manage user credentials, while allowing your workflows to securely access and interact with other Azure services or resources.
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Minimize the risks from unauthorized access or changes by assigning granular permissions to your logic app workflows with precisely defined role-based access controls. In Azure Logic Apps, RBAC works at the resource level where you assign role-based access to a specific resource. So, if the workflow creator leaves, you don't lose access to their workflows. For more information, see Secure access and data for workflows and What is Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)?.
In Power Automate, RBAC works at the user level. For more information, see Manage security for Power Automate.
Logging and auditing capabilities
In Azure Logic Apps, you can use audit trails to track changes and ensure compliance with security standards.
Performance and scalability
Azure Logic Apps (Standard) is designed and built for high performance and scalable automation, which makes the platform ideal for large-scale workflows with following capabilities:
Dedicated compute resources
A Standard logic app resource can use one of the following hosting options:
- Single-tenant Azure Logic Apps
- App Service Environment (ASE) v3
- Your own infrastructure (hybrid deployment)
These dedicated compute resources make sure that your workflows experience stable and consistent performance.
Elastic scaling makes on-demand automatic scaling possible for logic app workflow-related resources and capacity. This scaling optimizes costs and maintains performance even during peak loads.
Optimized workflow execution
By default, workflow instances run in parallel or concurrently, which reduces processing time for complex tasks. Performance optimizations for the Azure Logic Apps platform provide lower latency and faster response times.
High throughput
Azure Logic Apps efficiently handles high transaction volume without degrading performance as a result from having access to Azure's infrastructure.
Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR)
To make sure that workflow operations run without interruption, Azure Logic Apps provides the following comprehensive BCDR capabilities:
Geo-redundancy
Multi-region deployment: You can distribute logic app instances across multiple regions to ensure availability even during regional outages, which minimize downtime.
Automated backups and restore
Automated regular backup processes make sure that you can quickly restore workflows if failures or accident deletions happen.
High availability
Azure Logic Apps (Standard) includes built-in redundancy, which provides high availability to keep your workflows operational even during infrastructure failures.
Version control with continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD)
Azure Logic Apps supports robust version control and automated deployment processes through CI/CD pipelines.
Version control integration
Full Git integration for Visual Studio Code projects helps your team work seamlessly with Git repositories, collaborate more easily, and track changes to workflows, manage branches, and so on. Change tracking includes full version history so you can revert to previous workflow versions if necessary.
CI/CD pipelines for safe deployment practices
Azure Logic Apps supports automated deployments and integrates with CI/CD tools such as Azure DevOps, which facilitate consistent and less error-prone deployments across environments.
Define and deploy your logic app workflows with Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates or Bicep templates (infrastructure as code) by using Azure DevOps, which provides scalable, repeatable deployments that align with DevOps practices.
Zero downtime deployments
For mission-critical logic apps that require continues availability and responsiveness, Azure Logic Apps supports zero downtime deployment when you set up deployment slots.
Migration testing and validation
To make sure that your converted flow works with the expected continuity and performance, your migration process requires thorough testing and validation:
| Quality assurance activity | Description |
|---|---|
| Functional testing | Make sure that migrated flows retain their original logic and produce consistent outputs. |
| Connection testing | Manually recreate connections. Follow with rigorous security and functionality testing, especially for services such as SQL Server and Azure Key Vault. |
| Security validation | Comprehensively confirm that workflows meet corporate security policies and Azure's enhanced security standards. |
| Performance testing | Make sure that high-throughput workflows exceed the performance standards for Power Automate. |
Compare capability details
The following table provides an in-depth comparison between Azure Logic Apps (Standard), Azure Logic Apps (Consumption), and Power Automate:
Note
This information is only a guide and doesn't include pricing information. Make sure that you review the pricing or license plan information for each service.
| Area or scenario | Azure Logic Apps - Standard | Azure Logic Apps - Consumption | Power Automate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Workflow automation with advanced features for enterprise developers | Same as Standard | Workflow automation for citizen developers and business users |
| Users | Professional integrators and developers, IT professionals, administrators who use Office 365 and Azure services | Same as Standard | Citizen developers, business users, office workers, Power Platform solution creators, SharePoint administrators, Office 365 users and makers |
| Pricing or licensing model | Fixed pricing - Azure subscription | Consumption (Pay per execution) - Azure subscription | Microsoft 365 per user license |
| Development environment | Visual designer and JSON code view in the following locations: - Browser-based Azure portal - Locally installed Visual Studio Code |
Visual designer and JSON code view in the following locations: - Browser-based Azure portal - Locally installed Visual Studio Code |
Browser-based visual designer and mobile app with UI only |
| Integration | - 1,400+ connectors for Microsoft, Azure, and non-Microsoft services, apps, and data. Includes more built-in operation types, which offer greater throughput than Consumption along with direct access to virtual network integration - On-premises systems support - B2B capabilities - Create your own connectors - Integrate with hybrid solutions |
Same as Standard but with fewer built-in operation types, less throughput capacity, no virtual network direct access, and no hybrid deployment option | 1,400+ connectors for Microsoft and non-Microsoft services, apps, systems, and data, such as SharePoint, Dynamics 365, and others |
| Trigger types | - Schedule-driven or polling, such as Recurrence and many service-based triggers, such as When a new email arrives - Event-driven or push, such as Request (inbound) and some service-based triggers, such as Event Grid - HTTP call (outbound), such as HTTP |
Same as Standard | - Schedule-driven or polling, such as Recurrence and many service-based triggers, such as When a new email arrives - Event-driven or push, such as Request (inbound) and some service-based triggers, such as Event Grid - User activity-based, such as Flow button or specific connectors Instant, UI Flow, Business Process |
| Custom integration | Complex logic support through Azure Functions, custom APIs, and integration with external code repositories | Same as Standard | Limited to mostly no code or low code |
| Security | - Managed identity - OAuth 2.0 with Microsoft Entra ID - Granular role-based access control (RBAC) with Microsoft Entra ID - Virtual network integration and private endpoints - Compliance certifications - Data encryption at rest - Data encryption in transit - Azure Policy definitions - Azure security audit logs |
- Managed identity - OAuth 2.0 with Microsoft Entra ID - Role-based access control (RBAC) with Microsoft Entra ID - Compliance certifications - Restricted connectors - Data encryption at rest - Data encryption in transit - Azure Policy definitions - Azure security audit logs |
- Basic user roles and permissions with Microsoft Entra ID - Microsoft 365 security audit logs - Data loss prevention (DLP) - Data encryption at rest - Data encryption in transit |
| Scalability | Large scale workflows with high throughput and low latency | Small to medium scale workflows | Small to medium scale workflows |
| Performance | Dedicated resources single-tenant Azure Logic Apps or App Service Environment (ASE), faster execution, parallel processing, and better performance optimization | High throughput for actions, otherwise limited by shared resources in multitenant Azure Logic Apps | Suitable for lower-scale automation, limited by shared resources in Power Automate |
| Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) | Built-in geo-redundancy, multiregion deployment, high availability with automated failover | Built-in geo-redundancy, multiregion deployment, high availability with automated failover | Limited regional deployment options |
| Monitoring and diagnostics | - Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and custom alerts - Monitor with Microsoft Defender for Cloud - Health Check - Enhanced telemetry |
Same as Standard except for Health Check and enhanced telemetry | - Basic monitoring through the Power Automate portal - Custom injection into Application Insights |
| Version control | Full Git integration using CI/CD pipelines with Azure DevOps, GitHub, or other tools | Version management in the Azure portal | Limited versioning |
| Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) | Azure DevOps: source control, testing, support, automation, and manageability in Azure Resource Manager | Power Platform tools that integrate with DevOps and GitHub Actions so you can build automated pipelines for the ALM cycle. | |
| Admin experience | Manage resource groups, connections, access management, and logging: Azure portal | Same as Standard | Manage Power Automate environments and data loss prevention (DLP) policies, track licensing: Admin center |
| Error handling | Save Failed - Error notifications | Same as Standard | Flow Checker - Lists of errors within the flow |