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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Apps - GCC, GCCH, DoD - Federal App Maker... / Best approach: Canvas ...
Power Apps - GCC, GCCH, DoD - Federal App Maker...
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Best approach: Canvas vs Model-Driven for large-scale, integrated enterprise solution?

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Posted on by AamirMehmood 4

Hi everyone,

 

I’m currently leading the architecture of a Power Platform solution and would appreciate advice from the community. The app we’re designing has an enterprise-grade scope—with over 200 Dataverse tables, complex relationships, SAP and third-party integrations, and must support a bilingual interface. The user base includes 2,500 internal users, 500 partner users, and around 150 external users.

 

While we recognize the strengths of both Canvas and Model-Driven apps, the business is particularly focused on a flexible and polished UI/UX, which leans us toward Canvas. However, we are cautious about performance, security, scalability, and development effort at this scale.

 

Given these constraints, would you recommend a Canvas-only, Model-Driven, or hybrid (MDA + embedded Canvas page) approach? What trade-offs should we consider from your experience?

 

Thanks in advance for your insights, looking forward to hearing how others have approached similar challenges.

Best regards,

Aamir

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  • AamirMehmood Profile Picture
    AamirMehmood 4 on at
    Best approach: Canvas vs Model-Driven for large-scale, integrated enterprise solution?
    Thanks so much, Robu1 for your input, really appreciate it.

    I’d also welcome any additional feedback from others in the community. It would be great to have more eyes on this scenario and hear your suggestions. Thank you.
     
    Regards
    Aamir
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    Robu1 Profile Picture
    Robu1 1,272 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at
    Best approach: Canvas vs Model-Driven for large-scale, integrated enterprise solution?
     
    Thank your for choosing Power Platform Community.
     
    This is a fantastic and thoughtfully scoped challenge—your architectural instincts are clearly sharp. Given the scale, complexity, and UI/UX expectations, a hybrid approach using Model-Driven Apps (MDA) with embedded Canvas pages or custom pages seems like the most strategic path forward.
     
    Here’s how the trade-offs stack up:
    🔷 Model-Driven Strengths
    Data integrity & scalability: With 200+ Dataverse tables and complex relationships, MDA’s data-first architecture ensures consistency and performance.
    Security: Role-based access control and field-level security are native strengths.
    ALM & governance: Easier to manage in enterprise environments with built-in support for solutions and environments.
     
    🔶 Canvas App Advantages
    UI/UX flexibility: Ideal for crafting pixel-perfect, bilingual interfaces and tailoring experiences for different user personas.
    Custom logic: Power Fx and connectors allow for rich interactivity and integration with SAP and third-party APIs.
     
    🌐 Why Hybrid?
    Custom Pages in MDA: These allow you to embed Canvas-like experiences directly into Model-Driven Apps, offering the best of both worlds—structured data handling with flexible UI where it matters most.
    Performance: You avoid overloading Canvas with large datasets and complex relationships, which can degrade performance at scale.
    Maintainability: You can isolate Canvas pages for specific tasks (e.g., onboarding, dashboards) while keeping core processes in MDA.
     
     
    If this fixes the issue, please mark as resolved to help others with find it.
     
    Happy to help 
    Robu1
    SuperUser| Moderator

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