One of the first decisions in any Power Apps project is also one of the easiest to get wrong: canvas or model-driven. Pick the wrong one and you can spend weeks fighting the platform, or rebuild the app once it grows. The good news is that a few questions usually make the answer obvious.
What canvas apps are good at
Canvas apps give you a blank screen and pixel-level control. They shine when the experience matters: a tablet app for technicians in the field, a guided task with a specific flow, something that needs to look and feel exactly the way you designed it.
What model-driven apps are good at
Model-driven apps are generated from your Dataverse data model. They are the right call when the data and its relationships are the heart of the app: case management, complex records, role-based access, lots of related tables. You trade fine visual control for structure, consistency and speed.
A quick way to decide
- Is it about a focused task and a specific look? Lean canvas.
- Is it about managing rich, related data at scale? Lean model-driven.
- Do you need both? They can live side by side on the same Dataverse.
When we are not sure, we map the data model first. If the data is complex, model-driven almost always wins. If the data is simple but the experience is specific, canvas wins. Deciding this on purpose, up front, is what keeps a small app from becoming a rebuild six months later.