The latest addition to the Power Platform is Microsoft Power Pages. At the annual Build conference, the company announced the preview of Microsoft Power Pages as a stand-alone Software as a Service (SaaS) platform product for anyone, regardless of technical background, to create data-powered, modern, and secure websites.
Previously, Power Pages existed as a feature within Power Apps called Power Apps Portals, which enabled users to create and customize external portals simply, including editing pages, layouts, and content. As a standalone platform product, it offers low-code capabilities such as a design studio to allow users to style, configure, and publish business websites.
Srinath Pega, a Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Solution Architect, wrote in a blog post:
Power Pages extends far beyond Power Apps Portals capabilities to enable organizations of any size to securely build websites with exciting new features and advanced capabilities for customization with pro-developer extensibility.
In addition, users can design their site pages with text, video, images, business data forms, lists, and so on, or use one of the templates Microsoft offers to get started. While it's designed for users without coding skills, it integrates with Visual Studio Code, Azure DevOps, and GitHub, allowing developers to leverage these code-first tools for more complex features.
Lastly, Power Pages allows users to implement role-based access controls and web app firewalls via Azure and collect and share business info with site visitors via Microsoft’s Dataverse platform.
Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-pages/difference-portals
With Power Pages, Microsoft will compete with other website offerings requiring no code skills like Wix and Squarespace. Furthermore, by expanding its low-code portfolio with Power Pages, the company will try to stay ahead of its public cloud rivals AWS and Google and several vendors like Salesforce, Mendix, and Outsystem with their low-code products.
In a Microsoft Power Pages blog post, Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president, Business Applications & Platform, stated:
People often think of low-code web development as useful for basic projects like a site to showcase a company profile or use as an e-commerce platform for other content. But with Power Pages, you can do that and so much more, like supporting enterprise-wide, professional solutions at scale.
More details of Microsoft Power Pages are available on the website, including the option to try out the new platform and the documentation landing page.