What is the difference between a solution and an app in Power Platform?
By Emil Björk · Microsoft business apps consultant, Gothenburg
A solution is the deployment and packaging container — the unit you export from one environment and import into another, holding tables, flows, apps, and other components together with their dependencies. An app (canvas or model-driven) is one specific thing a user opens and interacts with. A solution commonly contains one or more apps, plus everything those apps depend on; an app on its own is not something you move between environments — its containing solution is.
This distinction trips up people new to the platform because both are visible in similar-looking lists in the maker portal. The mental model that works: apps are what end users see and click into; solutions are what a maker or admin manages, versions, and deploys — the ALM unit, not the end-user unit.
In practice, every serious Power Platform project organises its apps, tables, flows, and other components inside one or more solutions from day one, specifically so the whole set can move together through dev, test, and production as a coherent package rather than as loose, individually-exported pieces.
Go deeper
- Solution import / export pipelines for DataverseHow to automate Dataverse solution promotion through dev / test / prod — Power Platform CLI, Build Tools, GitHub Actions, and Power Platform Pipelines.
- Power Platform ALM with managed solutionsApplication lifecycle management on the Power Platform — solutions, managed vs unmanaged, environments, pipelines, and source control.
- Solution patches vs solution upgradesHow patches and upgrades differ in Power Platform solution lifecycle — what each does, when to use which, and the trade-offs across layers.