Microsoft Power Automate vs Tines
We give Microsoft Power Automate and Tines the same GPA: 3.2 out of 4.0. They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Microsoft Power Automate
Cloud workflows and desktop RPA in the Microsoft Power Platform
How we grade them
| 3.2GPAMicrosoft Power AutomateVery good | 3.2GPATinesVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPremium is $15 a user a month, paid yearly. That's about the going rate, and it covers cloud flows, premium connectors and attended desktop flows. It climbs fast after that: an unattended bot is $150 a month, or $215 if Microsoft hosts the machine. | BNo paid prices are published. The pricing page only offers a quote request, and plans are sold as platform licences sized in Tines units, from 100K a month on Core. With nothing to weigh, it stops at a B. Model costs go to your own AI provider on top. |
| Free plan and trial | BThe free licence covers cloud flows on standard connectors and desktop flows you run yourself, and Microsoft 365 licences include the same cloud flows. But there are no premium or custom connectors and no sharing. The pricing page also offers a 30-day trial. | BThe free Explore edition of Tines 3B has unlimited users, spaces and connectors, which is generous. But it stops at 3 live workflows and 5,000 Tines units a month, with a one-time $50 AI allowance. Tines Stories has its own free Community Edition. |
| Features | ACloud flows with more than 1,400 certified connectors, desktop flows that record and replay clicks in Windows and web apps, Copilot to draft a flow from a description, process mining and admin controls. Both halves of automation, in one product. | AA storyboard of webhooks, HTTP requests, conditions and AI agents, plus Cases for incidents. Tines 3B writes a workflow as code from a prompt, with tests, Git branching and a sandbox for every step, and keeps credentials away from the builder and the AI. |
| Ease of use | BCopilot drafts a flow from a plain description, and you can build from inside Teams, Excel or SharePoint. Working out which licence each flow needs is the harder part. No rating on record, so a B. | BTines Stories is drag-and-drop, and 3B builds from a plain-language description. It's made with security and IT teams in mind, though, and there are two products to pick between. No rating on record, so a B. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web portal plus a Windows desktop app, with 1,400+ connectors and custom ones on Premium. But the desktop app doesn't run on ARM devices, and the standalone iPhone and Android app reached end of support on August 31, 2026. | BA web platform that connects to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Okta, CrowdStrike, ServiceNow and Splunk, and coding assistants such as Claude Code can plug into 3B. The listing shows no phone or desktop app. |
| Best for | automation for companies already on Microsoft 365 | security and IT teams automating alerts and tickets |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Microsoft Power Automate and Tines. How we grade
Where they differ
- Only Microsoft Power Automate lists a Windows app.
- Tines is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Tines also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| Microsoft Power Automate | Tines | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $15 per user / month, paid yearly | Not published |
| Free plan | Power Automate Free license: create and run cloud flows with standard connectors only, without sharing them, plus desktop flows authored and run locally in attended mode. | Explore edition of Tines 3B: unlimited users, spaces and connectors, 3 live workflows, 5,000 Tines units a month and a one-time $50 AI allowance. Tines Stories has its own free Community Edition. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial per the pricing page; Microsoft's licensing docs describe a 90-day self-service trial license | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Windows | ||
| Made by | Microsoft | Tines |
| Price read from | microsoft.com | tines.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Microsoft Power Automate
- Organizations already licensed for Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365
- Automating older Windows applications that have no API
- Approval processes that run through Teams and SharePoint
Tines
- Security teams automating alert intake, triage and remediation
- IT teams that must govern workflows other departments build with AI
- Organizations that need a self-hosted, on-prem or hybrid deployment
Worth knowing
Microsoft Power Automate
- The free license and Microsoft 365 licenses cover standard connectors only; premium and custom connectors need Premium at $15 per user / month.
- Unattended desktop flows need a Process license at $150 per bot / month, and the machine must be registered by a Premium user.
- The desktop app runs only on Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server, and devices with ARM processors are not supported.
- The standalone iOS and Android app reached end of support on August 31, 2026; Microsoft points mobile users to the browser portal and Teams.
Tines
- Paid prices are not published: the pricing page only offers a quote request, and plans are sold as platform licenses.
- The free Explore edition stops at 3 live workflows and 5,000 Tines units a month, and does not allow public website URLs.
- Paid plans use a bring-your-own-model approach, so LLM token costs are paid to your own AI provider.
- Tines units used beyond the plan allowance are billed as overage, after a one-month grace period for new customers.
Key features
Microsoft Power Automate
- Cloud flows
- Automated, scheduled and instant flows connect cloud apps, and on-premises services through a data gateway. Microsoft cites more than 1,400 prebuilt, certified connectors, and custom connectors can be built.
- Desktop flows (RPA)
- Power Automate for desktop builds or records flows that operate Windows and web applications through their interfaces. Attended runs happen with a person present; unattended runs need a Process license.
- Copilot authoring
- Copilot in Power Automate creates, edits and extends flows from a natural-language description, in both the cloud designer and the desktop app.
- Process and task mining
- Analyzes how a process actually runs to find steps worth automating. Premium includes 50 MB of mining data per user, and a tenant-wide add-on provides 100 GB.
- Microsoft 365 integration
- Flows can be built and run from inside Teams, Excel, SharePoint and OneDrive. Microsoft 365 licenses include the right to create and run cloud flows with standard connectors.
- Governance and hosted machines
- Managed Environments and data loss prevention policies give admins control over flows. Hosted Process runs unattended bots on virtual machines that Microsoft manages.
Tines
- Storyboard
- In Tines Stories, workflows are assembled by placing and connecting actions on a canvas: Webhook, HTTP request, Receive email, Send email, Event Transform, Condition and AI Agent.
- Prompt-to-code building in Tines 3B
- You describe a process in plain language and 3B writes the workflow as code, proposing tests as it goes. Git integration and branching are standard, and coding assistants such as Claude Code can connect.
- Isolated runs and hidden credentials
- Each step of a 3B workflow runs in its own sandbox, and credentials are injected through a proxy so that secrets are never shown to the builder or the AI, or stored in the code.
- Cases and Workbench
- Tines Stories includes Cases for case and incident management and Workbench, an AI copilot. The free Community Edition allows up to 20 Workbench messages a day across the tenant.
- Autofix and Autotune
- Autofix suggests repairs for anomalies and likely breaks in a workflow. Autotune proposes reliability, performance and clarity improvements on a branch you review before it goes live.
- Monitoring and AI spend
- Dashboards show workflow performance, spend across LLM providers and models, who has access to which connectors and spaces, duplicate workflows and estimated savings.
Plans
Microsoft Power Automate
Power Automate Free$0
Free license described in Microsoft's licensing docs: cloud flows with standard connectors only, no sharing, and desktop flows run locally in attended mode.
Power Automate Premium$15
per user / month, paid yearly
Cloud flows with standard, premium and custom connectors, attended desktop flows, process and task mining with 50 MB of data, and 250 MB of Dataverse database capacity.
Power Automate Process$150
per bot / month, paid yearly
One bot for unattended desktop flows, or a license for a cloud flow that any number of users can run, with up to 250,000 actions a day.
Power Automate Hosted Process$215
per bot / month, paid yearly
Unattended desktop flows on a virtual machine that Microsoft manages and hosts on Azure, so there is no machine of your own to maintain.
Process Mining add-on$5,000
per tenant / month, paid yearly
Add-on for the Premium plan only: 100 GB of process mining data, with 2 GB of Dataverse database and 1 TB of file capacity.
Tines
Explore$0
Free edition of Tines 3B: unlimited users, spaces and connectors, 3 live workflows, 5,000 Tines units a month and a one-time $50 AI allowance.
CoreCustom
Paid Tines 3B license on a multi-tenant stack with 100K Tines units a month, unlimited workflows and your own AI model.
ScaleCustom
A dedicated stack for larger deployments, with 300K Tines units a month.
PowerCustom
A premium dedicated stack for the highest volumes, with 900K Tines units a month.
Ways to pay less
Microsoft Power Automate
No public discounts listed.
Tines
- Startups
Startup Program for Tines Stories
Tines offers a heavily discounted, fully featured Tines Stories tenant to startups with under 100 employees, under 5 years old and under $50M raised. Services companies are excluded.
