What is Microsoft Power Pages [How to Create a Site]

I recently worked with a manufacturing client who had one primary need: to easily communicate with their external users, such as vendors and partners.

They already used Microsoft tools internally, so I suggested something secure and straightforward, such as Microsoft Power Pages.

Power Pages is part of the Microsoft Power Platform. It enables you to create websites that integrate with tools like Dataverse or SharePoint. And the best part? You don’t need to be a developer to build one.

In this tutorial, I will explain what Microsoft Power Pages is and why it’s useful. Also, I will cover:

• The lifecycle of Power Pages environments.
• Steps to create a Power Pages site using:
  • Copilot
  • Templates
  • A Blank canvas
• Power Pages pricing and licensing options

What is Microsoft Power Pages

Microsoft Power Pages is a low-code website builder that enables you to create secure, data-driven websites for users within and outside your organization, even if you have little to no coding experience.

It’s part of the Microsoft Power Platform, which includes Power Automate, Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents. It is designed to enable businesses to securely and easily share data and services with customers, partners, or vendors over the web.

With Power Pages, you can:

• Design responsive websites using a visual, drag-and-drop interface
• Use ready-made templates to launch faster
• Connect to Dataverse, SharePoint, and other Microsoft services to manage data
• Control who sees what with role-based security
• Automate tasks using Power Automate flows

The new and enhanced design studio provides five workspaces:

• Pages workspace for creating, designing, and arranging webpages
• Styling workspace for applying styles and themes to your site
• Data workspace for creating and modifying Microsoft Dataverse tables used in data-driven web applications
• Set up a workspace for administration and site management
• Security workspace for identifying and addressing security vulnerabilities

Power Pages Lifecycle

Before you start building your Power Pages site, it’s important to understand the lifecycle of a Power Pages environment and site.

The lifecycle refers to how long your Power Pages environment and site stay active and accessible, and what happens when they are not used.

1. Developer Environment: This is a free personal environment for learning and testing. Your Power Pages site here stays active as long as you use it. If there’s no activity for 28 days, Microsoft will automatically delete the environment and all related sites to save resources.
2. Trial Environment: When you start a Power Pages trial, you are given a temporary environment that lasts 30 days by default. After this period, the trial environment and sites are deleted unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
3. Sandbox and Production Environments: These environments are more permanent and are used for real projects (sandbox for testing, production for live sites). They don’t have automatic expiration like developer or trial environments.
4. Default Environment: Power Pages cannot be created in the default environment that exists by default in every tenant.

Create a Site With Power Pages (Step By Step)

As I told you, Power Pages cannot be created in the default environment. If you’re jumping in and clicking around, you might be surprised to find that the “Start from blank” button is disabled.

To get started, I created a Developer environment. However, you can use other environments, such as a Sandbox or Trial Environment.

When creating a Power Pages site, you have three ways to get started:

• Using Copilot
• Using a Template
• Starting from Blank

Follow the steps below to create a site:

Create a Power Pages Site Using Copilot

1. Go to powerpages.microsoft.com and sign in with your Microsoft account.

2. You can see the Start building your website with Copilot on the Home page. Describe the site you want to create. For example:
   • I want to create a showcase website for our organization where visitors can view our completed products, learn about our services, and contact us. The site should have a home page, project gallery, services page, about us section, and a contact form.

3. Then, it will suggest the site name and web address. You can also change them. After that, click Next.

4. Then, it will take some time to create the page. In my case, it created the pages below. It may be different if you have the same description. You can also change the Page by clicking the “Try again” button until you like one.

5. Then it will ask to add common pages, like the screenshot below. Choose any one you want to add and click Done.

5. Once created, use the Power Pages design studio to edit your site further if needed.

Create a Power Pages Site Using a Template

Templates provide a fast way to launch a site with pre-built pages, layouts, and data models.

1. In the Power Page site, Select Start with a template. The templates below are available.

2. After you find the best template for your business needs, select Choose this template.
3. Next, Power Pages will ask you to name your site and provide a web address. After giving the Side name and web address, click Done.
   • Site name: Enter a friendly, meaningful name for your site.
   • Web address: This is the URL on which your site will be published. You can enter a short and unique name.

4. Then, creating a page like the one below will take some time. After that, you can use the design studio to customize pages, styles, and data as required.

Create a Power Pages Site From Blank

In this example, I will show you how to create a Power page site starting from a Blank. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Power Pages site. Select Start from blank.
2. Enter a Site name and Web address (URL). Click Create.

3. The site will be provisioned with a blank canvas. It will create a home page with one header and footer.

4. Use the Pages workspace to create: Here you can add new webpages such as Home, About Us, Contact, or any custom page. You can also use Copilot to describe a page (Create a contact form page), and Power Pages will generate the layout for you automatically.

5. Use the Styling workspace to design the site: This is where you choose themes, colors, fonts, and layouts. You can maintain brand consistency and ensure your website looks professional and responsive across devices.

6. Use the Data workspace to connect to Microsoft Dataverse: You can create new Dataverse tables or link to existing ones. This allows your site to display or collect data, customer records, registrations, or service requests.

7. Use the Setup workspace to manage site settings: If needed, set our website’s default language, regional settings, identity provider (for sign-in), and custom domain configuration.

8. Use the Security workspace to configure access control: Assign user roles, set permissions, and define who can view or interact with certain parts of your site ( authenticated users, administrators, or anonymous visitors).

Here I created a Simple page using Power Pages:

Once you have completed your design, send the development environment to the test environment, then move to your production environment.

Microsoft Power Pages Pricing & Licensing

Power Pages offers flexible pricing based on how your site is used. Microsoft provides two main licensing models:

Plan	Pricing	Includes	Best For	Example Cost
Authenticated Users	$200 USD for up to 100 users/site/month	– Access to 1 Power Pages site – Full Dataverse integration – Secure user authentication – Role-based access control	Secure sites for signed-in users (customers, partners, employees)	500 users = $1,000/month
Anonymous Users	$75 USD for up to 500 users/site/month	– Access to 1 Power Pages site – Public-facing pages – Basic data collection (e.g., anonymous form submissions)	Public websites without sign-in (forms, info pages)	1,500 users = $225/month
Developer Plan	Free	– Access to development environment – Site creation & testing – Personal learning use only – Deleted after 28 days of inactivity	Learning, exploration, and testing	Free

You can also click on this MSDN link to get more details about the pricing part.

If you’re exploring, the Developer environment is a great way to test things out for free. You can easily scale up to sandbox or production environments for real-world projects.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful.

Also, you may like some of the blog posts:

• Create A Form In Power Pages
• Count Rows From Dataverse Table Using Power Automate
• Create SharePoint List View Using REST API
• Export Dataverse Table to Excel Using Power Automate
• Get a Row By ID From Dataverse Using Power Automate
• Power Apps Camera Control