Getting Started with Power Platform dev environment

Power Platform is a suite of low-code/no-code tools that enable you to build PowerApps, Power Automate workflows, and analyze data PowerBI. This post will guide you through the process of setting up your Power Platform developer environment. I’ll walk you through the steps of signing up for a Power Platform developer environment and creating your first environment(s). This will provide you with a sandbox where you can create, test, and share your apps, workflows, dashboards, and chatbots before publishing them.

Let’s get started!

Why do you need a developer environment?

• A developer environment is a place where you can create and test your apps, workflows, dashboards, and chatbots before publishing them to your organization or customers.
• A developer environment lets you experiment with different features and functionalities of Power Platform without affecting your production environment.
• A developer environment also lets you collaborate with other developers and share your work with them. You can have up to 3 developer environments for different purposes and projects.

How to get a developer environment?

Follow these steps to sign up for the Power Apps Community Plan:

• Go to Power Apps Developer Plan website and click on the “Start free” button.
• Enter your work or school email address or your Microsoft account and click on “Get started”.
• If you are using a work or school email address, you may need to verify your identity and consent to the terms and conditions.
• Wait for a few minutes while your account is being created and your developer environment is being provisioned. You will see your new developer environment in the list of environments. Click on the name of your new developer environment to access it.

You can also create additional developer environments from the Power Platform admin center.

Follow these steps to create additional developer environments:

• Go to Power Platform Admin Center and sign in with your work account.
• Click on the “Environments” tab on the left sidebar.
• Click on the “+ New” button on the top right corner.
• Enter a name and a region for your new developer environment.
• Select “Developer” as the type of environment.
• Click on the “Next” button.
• Review the summary and click on the “Save” button. Wait for a few minutes while your new developer environment is being created. You will see your new developer environment in the list of environments. Click on the name of your new developer environment to access it.

Next Steps

With your developer environments set up, you’re ready to start exploring and creating. Build PowerApps, Power Automate workflows, and harness the power of Dataverse to manage data—all within your sandbox.

Here are some resources to help you get started:

• Power Apps documentation
• Power Automate documentation
• Youtube Channel of Reza Dorrani
• Youtube Channel of Shane Young
• Youtube Channel of April Dunnam
• Youtube Channel of Daniel Christian

Happy developing!

learn more

About the Power Apps Developer Plan