Comparing alternative Dynamics 365 license types: Team Members vs. PowerApps Plan 1 vs. PowerApps Plan 2

Heads-up: This is outdated information – This article describes Dynamics 365 and PowerApps licenses as they are before October 2019.

The standard Dynamics 365 user licenses are the most feature rich and best fit for broad covering implementations what a user works with one of the standard Customer Engagement workloads, such as Dynamics 365 for Sales, Dynamics 356 for Customer Service, etc.

When it comes to licencing users for alternative or custom processes, that are not covered by any of the standard Customer Engagement workloads, it can be beneficial to use an alternative user license type, to match the required functionality, rather than using a standard Dynamics 365 user license, which might cover too much.

In this article:

1. Full user licences: Dynamics 365 for XYZ and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Plan
2. Team Members
3. PowerApps Plan 2
4. PowerApps Plan 1
5. Side-by-side comparison

Full user licences: Dynamics 365 for XYZ and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Plan

The ‘full user license types’ give a user full entitlement to use all functionality covered by that license. (Security roles and privileges can still restrict functionality but, the user is at least entitled to use them)

There are two main types for Customer Engagement, the single workload (or single app) licenses and the Customer Engagement Plan. The single workload licenses give a user access to one of the Customer Engagement workloads/apps, such as Dynamics 365 for Sales, Dynamics 365 for Customer Service, etc. The Customer Engagement Plan license gives a user full entitlement for all functionality of all workflows/apps in the Customer Engagement family: Sales, Customer Service, Project Service and Field Service.

When you have a user that requires to use one of the standard Dynamics 365 workloads (for example Dynamics 365 for Sales) it is a best fit to assign that specific single workload license.

When you have a user that requires to use multiple of the standard Dynamics 365 workloads (for example Sales and Field Service) it is quickly cost effective to assign that user a Customer Engagement Plan as it is priced at roughly 1.3 times the price of a single workload.

Team Members

Users with a Team Member license are entitled to access all workloads/apps in the Customer Engagement family (Sales, Customer Service, Project Service and Field Service) with limitations on their actual functionality.

A Team Member can primarily interact with their own data and has read-only access to workload specific entities, which are referred to as restricted entities.
For example, a Team Member has read-only access to Accounts, Cases, Knowledge Articles, Projects and Work Orders.

A Team Member is by far the most restrictive license type for users and is only recommended to be used as a read-only, self-service user, when it comes to standard Customer Engagement workload. An alternate use is in a custom workload/app scenario that does not impact (or limits it’s impact) to any of the standard Customer Engagement workloads.

Team Member restrictions:

1. Read-only access to Accounts
2. Read-only access to restricted entities (see: full list of restricted entities)
3. No access to entities with complex business logic (Not allowed to trigger plug-ins, real-time workflows)
   Meaning: Team Member users are not allowed to trigger registered plug-ins (custom code) or real-time workflows. Asynchronous (background) workflows are still allowed
   Read more on this: Complex entities and licensing
4. Maximum access to 15 custom entities per app
   While a Team Member is entitled to access all workloads/apps, for each of the apps, they are limited to accessing (reading or writing) a maximum of 15 custom entities
5. No access to system settings, system configuration, Solutions, customizations, creating workflows, etc.
   Can still create personal views and share these

PowerApps Plan 2

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement is built on the foundation of the Power platform, using the Common Data Service for App (internally known as the XRM Platform). The Power platform allows their customers to build custom workloads/apps, using the same tools and infrastructure as Customer Engagement.

For scenarios where you want to build a custom workload/app that stands apart from any of the standard Customer Engagement workloads, a PowerApps user license could be more appropriate. A PowerApps user license entitles a user to access to your custom workload and can include limited overlap to Customer Engagement workloads as well.

A PowerApps Plan 2 user license (also referred to as PowerApps P2) entitles its user to have access to any custom workloads/apps without limitations on functionality. The Plan 2 user license is almost equal to a Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Plan user license with only 1 restriction as difference, the user has read-only access to the  restricted entities (see: full list of restricted entities), no other restrictions apply. The Plan 2 user license is quite a lot cheaper than a full Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Plan user license, which makes it a good fit for users that primarily need access to a custom workload/app and limited access to the standard Customer Engagement workloads.

From a Power platform perspective the PowerApps Plan 2 user license also has the same entitlements as a Dynamics 365 user, including the use of premium and custom connectors for Flow and PowerApps and access to both Canvas and Model-driven apps.

PowerApps Plan 1

The PowerApps Plan 1 (also referred to as PowerApps P1) user license is much more restrictive than a Plan 2, it only entitles a user to access Canvas Apps and the Common Data Service for Apps. It is a best fit for users that only have to access a custom workload that has been made available through a Canvas App. This is not a good user license to use for Customer Engagement access as users are not allowed to access Model-driven apps and can not interact with the restricted entities at all (not even read-only)

The PowerApps Plan 1 restrictions:

1. No access to Model-driven apps, only Canvas apps
2. No access to restricted entities at all, including no read access (see: full list of restricted entities)
3. No access to entities with complex business logic (Not allowed to trigger plug-ins, real-time workflows)
   Meaning: Plan 1 users are not allowed to trigger registered plug-ins (custom code) or real-time workflows. Asynchronous (background) workflows are still allowed
   Read more on this: Complex entities and licensing

Side-by-side comparison