AppSheet vs Power Apps: Licensing, AI and Data Compared

AppSheet vs Power Apps is rarely a feature fight. Most teams pick the one that matches the office suite they already pay for. Google says AppSheet Core is included at no cost with most Google Workspace editions. Microsoft 365 includes only limited Power Apps rights, and a real Power Apps rollout usually means a Power Apps Premium licence or pay-as-you-go billing on top.

Here's the quick answer:

• Your company runs on Google Workspace and the data is in Sheets: AppSheet. You probably already own it.
• Your company runs on Microsoft 365 and the data is in SharePoint, Excel or Dataverse: Power Apps.
• You need deep business logic, model-driven apps, or pro developers writing React: Power Apps.
• You want field workers capturing photos, signatures and barcodes offline with the least setup: AppSheet.

Every licensing and feature claim below was checked on Google's and Microsoft's own pages this week. Start with the side-by-side.

Quick comparison

Licensing: what you already own vs what you'll buy

This is the section that decides most comparisons, so it gets the most space.

AppSheet: often already paid for

Google's admin help on managing AppSheet in your organization says AppSheet Core licences are included at no cost for each domain-verified user on most Workspace editions. The list covers Business Starter through Business Plus, the Enterprise editions, Education Standard and Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, the Frontline editions and Workspace for Nonprofits.

Core lets you build apps on Workspace data and share them with anyone in your organization. If you need more, you buy AppSheet Enterprise Plus as an add-on. That's the tier for cloud databases, APIs, Salesforce, BigQuery and OData, plus team governance and sharing with external users.

The AppSheet pricing page adds three useful details:

• Building is free. You can use the editor and invite up to 10 test users at no cost, for as long as you like.
• Guests count. AppSheet counts signed-in users and guest users, and guest users are typically counted per device. Plan licences for everyone who'll open the app.
• Public apps have their own plan. Publisher Pro covers apps with no sign-in and no sensitive data, priced per app with unlimited users.

You don't strictly need Workspace, either. Individuals can buy AppSheet directly, and organizations can use Cloud Identity Free to buy Core or Enterprise Plus.

Power Apps: licensed per user, with a Microsoft 365 trap

Microsoft's licensing overview says Power Platform is licensed through standalone licences, use rights in other Microsoft products, capacity add-ons, or pay-as-you-go meters. For Power Apps that means, in practice:

1. Power Apps Premium, per user. It's the standalone licence for premium capabilities, and Microsoft says product licences like it can include Dataverse capacity entitlements. The Power Apps licensing FAQ covers the details, and current prices are on Microsoft's own pricing page.
2. Pay-as-you-go, which links an environment to an Azure subscription and bills usage through Azure meters. Good for seasonal or unpredictable apps.
3. Developer Plan, free, for building and testing. Microsoft's Developer Plan docs are blunt: it's for development and test only, and a paid plan is required to run solutions in production. Note too that Microsoft is deprecating unmanaged developer environments, including the ones created when you sign up for the plan, so turn on Managed Environments or move your solutions if you want to keep your work.

Two 2026 details matter:

• Per app licensing is winding down. Microsoft says that effective January 2, 2026, the Power Apps per app SKU is no longer available to new customers through some purchasing channels. If your plan was "license one app cheaply for a big group," check that it's still open to you.
• Microsoft 365 rights are narrow. Some Microsoft 365 licences include limited Power Apps rights, intended for apps using Microsoft 365 data and standard connectors. The moment an app needs a premium connector or a standalone Dataverse database, its users need a standalone licence. Lots of teams discover this after the app is already popular.

Licensing side by side

Data: Sheets and AppSheet database vs Dataverse

AppSheet starts from spreadsheets. Its sweet spot is a Google Sheet or Excel file that's grown too messy for one person to manage. It also connects to Drive, Calendar, Forms, Dropbox, Box, Airtable and Smartsheet, and on Enterprise Plus to Cloud SQL, BigQuery, Salesforce, OpenAPI and REST services. If you don't have a spreadsheet yet, the built-in AppSheet database gives you somewhere to put the data.

Power Apps starts from Dataverse. Microsoft describes Dataverse as secure, cloud-based storage for business apps, with relationships, business rules and logic, role-based security, and direct access to your Dynamics 365 data. Canvas apps can also sit on SharePoint, Excel and SQL Server through connectors. But most of Microsoft's newest features, including Copilot app creation and generative pages, expect a Dataverse database.

The practical difference: AppSheet is quicker when your data is already a spreadsheet and the app is simple. Power Apps is stronger when the data has many related tables, approval rules and security roles, which is what Dataverse is built for.

AI app building: Gemini vs Copilot

Both vendors now let you describe an app in plain English and get a working first draft.

Gemini in AppSheet

Google's help page on Gemini for App Creation says it's available to all AppSheet paid accounts, including Workspace customers with Core or Enterprise Plus. You choose Create, then App, then Start with Gemini, describe a process such as facility inspections, and Gemini proposes the tables and columns. You review and edit that structure before it builds the app. Admins can turn the feature off.

AppSheet also uses AI inside apps and automations, including document processing and OCR for reading scanned forms.

Copilot in Power Apps

Microsoft goes further, with several AI building paths:

• Build apps through conversation. Describe what you want to track, and Copilot in Power Apps generates Dataverse tables and a canvas app on top. It needs a Dataverse database in the environment, and availability varies by region.
• Plan designer. A copilot-first tool where you describe a business use case, even adding screenshots of a legacy app or a process diagram, and get a fuller solution.
• Generative pages for model-driven apps. You describe a page and the system writes React code for it. Microsoft's docs recommend building them from AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot CLI; the in-browser version is limited to environments in the United States, Great Britain, Australia and Singapore.

One thing to know for governance: Microsoft says generally available Copilot features are on by default and can only be turned off through Microsoft Support. Preview features can be switched off by an admin.

Verdict on AI: Gemini in AppSheet is the simpler "describe it, review the tables, done" experience. Copilot in Power Apps offers more, especially for developers, but most of it assumes Dataverse and some of it depends on where your environment is hosted.

Building, mobile and governance

Who can build

AppSheet is genuinely no-code. You configure views, forms, actions and automations, and formulas look like spreadsheet expressions. That makes it a good fit for operations staff who already live in Sheets.

Power Apps is low-code. Canvas apps use Power Fx, an Excel-like formula language, and the designer feels a bit like building slides. Model-driven apps are generated from your Dataverse data model. For engineers, Power Apps code apps let you build in React, Vue or other frameworks in your own IDE, with access to 1,500+ connectors from JavaScript. End users of code apps still need a Premium licence or pay-as-you-go.

Mobile and offline

Both run on phones. AppSheet makes field work easy: forms, checklists, locations, signatures, photos and offline use with background sync are basic features on its pricing page, and barcode and NFC scanning come with the advanced feature set on Core and above. Power Apps supports offline-first canvas apps too, but its offline docs describe that for Dataverse-based apps.

Governance

Power Apps inherits Microsoft's admin stack: environments, the Power Platform admin center, data policies and Dataverse security roles. That's a major reason IT teams in Microsoft shops prefer it.

AppSheet's governance lives mostly in Enterprise Plus: audit logs, version history, restricting who can create apps, governance policies and exporting audit logs to BigQuery. On Core, admins get basic security settings and can view users and apps.

AppSheet or Power Apps: how to decide

Run through these in order. The first one that clearly applies usually settles it.

1. Which suite does your company pay for? Google Workspace points to AppSheet. Microsoft 365 points to Power Apps. Fighting your identity provider is rarely worth it.
2. Where does the data live? Sheets and simple tables favour AppSheet. Related tables with business rules favour Dataverse and Power Apps.
3. Who builds and maintains it? Ops people with spreadsheet skills suit AppSheet. A team with an IT department or developers suits Power Apps.
4. What will the licences cost at full rollout? Count every user, including guests on AppSheet and anyone who'll hit a premium connector on Power Apps.
5. Will outsiders use it? AppSheet needs Enterprise Plus to share with external users, or Publisher Pro for public apps. On the Microsoft side, Power Pages is the product built for external sites.

If neither fits, our AppSheet alternatives and Power Apps alternatives guides cover the next options, and Glide alternatives is useful if you mainly want a polished app on spreadsheet data.

Where Taku fits

AppSheet and Power Apps are for apps your whole team uses, with sign-in, roles and governance. Sometimes the real job is smaller: you want AI to do something useful with a spreadsheet on your own machine. Taku is an AI-native desktop workspace where you can mirror an AI app or workflow someone already got working, run it on your files and keep it. It isn't a replacement for a governed internal app. Taku is in Beta, and the Mac app is available now.

FAQ

Is AppSheet free with Google Workspace?

AppSheet Core is included at no cost for domain-verified users on most Google Workspace editions, according to Google's admin help. Enterprise Plus, for databases, APIs and advanced governance, is a paid add-on.

Is Power Apps included in Microsoft 365?

Partly. Some Microsoft 365 licences include limited Power Apps rights for apps that use Microsoft 365 data and standard connectors. Premium connectors or a standalone Dataverse database require Power Apps Premium or pay-as-you-go.

Which is easier to learn, AppSheet or Power Apps?

AppSheet, for most non-developers. It's fully no-code and feels like an extension of a spreadsheet. Power Apps uses Power Fx formulas and Dataverse concepts, which take longer to learn but give you more control.

Can AppSheet connect to Microsoft Excel and Power Apps to Google Sheets?

AppSheet's pricing page lists Excel connectors for Office 365 on its basic feature set. Power Apps reaches many non-Microsoft services through its connector catalogue, but whether a connector is standard or premium affects which licence your users need, so check before you build.

Does Power Apps still have per app licensing?

Microsoft says the per app SKU is no longer available to new customers through some purchasing channels since January 2, 2026. Availability for existing customers and Cloud Solution Provider partners varies, so check with your reseller.

Which has better AI, Gemini in AppSheet or Copilot in Power Apps?

Copilot in Power Apps has more AI building paths, including generative pages that write React code. Gemini in AppSheet is simpler and works on any paid AppSheet account. If your data isn't in Dataverse, AppSheet's AI is easier to use today.