The first thing I fell in love with in the Power Platform was Power Automate. Flows felt like a superpower. You could connect systems, automate processes, and feel like an absolute wizard doing it.
Then I kept hitting walls.
Bottlenecks. Limitations. That frustrating moment where you realise flows can do a lot, but they cannot do everything. So what do you do when flows are not enough?
Let me introduce you to my second love: plugins.
I will be honest, I was late to the party. Like a lot of Power Platform developers, I had written plugins off as outdated. Something for the old-school Dynamics crowd. Something that had been superseded. I was completely wrong.
Custom plugins give you instant trigger actions, full control over business logic, and none of the constraints you run into with Power Automate. The only real limitation is your own knowledge of code. But that is the fun part, at least for me.
What We Actually Use Them For
At ThriveTribe, we have settled into a clear pattern: flows handle automations that are external to Dynamics, and plugins handle everything internal. Switching Business Process Flows based on conditions and criteria, reworking form display logic based on referral source. All plugins. And honestly, we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible.
That separation matters. When a behaviour needs to fire reliably inside Dataverse, tight to the transaction, without the overhead or unpredictability of an external trigger, plugins are the right tool. Flows were never built for that.
The One Limitation That Is Actually Fine
The limitations of Power Automate do not exist with custom plugins. Except for the human limitation of learning code. But here is the thing: that is not a blocker. That is a challenge. And if you have made it this far in the Power Platform world, you are not the kind of person who backs down from a challenge. (kinda cringe but let it slide)
If you have been sleeping on plugins, this might be your sign to wake up.
Built with C# plugin development, Dataverse business logic, and a healthy dose of curiosity.