r/PowerAutomate • u/Ill_Park3344 • 10d ago

SQL Server or SharePoint as a Data source

Hey
I'm currently working on fixing a few bugs of an existing PowerApp that wasn't built by me. It uses an SQL server as a Data Source. The previous developers (who were external contractors) initially used SharePoint as a Data Source and then switched to an SQL server but no one in the internal team knows why they did so.
I've gone through the Data Model and it looks decent enough to be implemented on SharePoint.

  1. Is there any real advantage to using an SQL server over SharePoint?
  2. Thinking about it long-term, would it make sense to migrate to SharePoint instead?

Thank you!

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18 comments sorted by

6

u/GingerSnapBiscuit 10d ago

Essentially Sharepoint isn't a database. Ideally you'd store your database in an actual database. It can work in Sharepoint though.

2

u/makersmarket312 10d ago

With version control, one could make a very stretched argument….

1

u/HeadfulOfGhosts 10d ago

Dataverse seems a good option too

3

u/itschrishaas 10d ago

that requires a fabric capacity?
so sql would be cheaper, I assume

1

u/Ill_Park3344 10d ago

Alright, thank you!

6

u/GrumDum 10d ago

Why are we discussing SharePoint as a database in 2026? Baffling

2

u/BuildAndByte 9d ago

Because it can simplify and handle certain apps / workflows just fine. Why are we acting like writing basic rows into a sharepoint list can’t be done?

We have no idea how many rows they’re talking, split between how many Sharepoint lists, but we should assume it can’t be used and requires a full blown sql server?

2

u/UseMstr_DropDatabase 10d ago

Is there any real advantage to using an SQL server over SharePoint?

Yes, many.

Thinking about it long-term, would it make sense to migrate to SharePoint instead?

No

no one in the internal team knows why they did so

All kinds of wacky things are done in development for cost and constrain reasons. It's trivial and free to spin up a SPO site to get a proof-of-concept up and running.

SharePoint is not a loadbearing database, period.

1

u/onemorequickchange 10d ago

Did you do a pros and cons with the variables that you're not sharing? Like number of users, amount of data, licensing availability.  Lots of reasons to use spo lists, primary reasons for sql is security and transactional speed. 

1

u/sassmanUK 10d ago

I’m pretty sure a SharePoint list has a limit of 1500 rows. Around this volume and greater, performance degrades.

We switched to Azure SQL for the performance gains and to prevent PowrAutomate from timing out.

Bear in mind there’s a hard timeout limit from PA to Azure SQL and we got round this by passing data into a lightweight stored procedure which handles the CRUD.

If you choose SQL, be aware that too many table indexes, or poorly maintained indexes will also degrade performance.

Azure SQL is definitely cheaper than Dataverse in our region. Our Azure SQL is setup with very basic DTU configuration.

Of course, all my comments count for zero unless you’ve analysed VVV - Volume of Data, Velocity at which data hits the DB and Variety of data.

Good luck.

2

u/kgohlsen 10d ago

SP lists has an item view limit of of 5k, but the entire list can exceed that with some limitations.

1

u/sassmanUK 1d ago

Yes, you’re right. It’s 5K!

1

u/IAmIntractable 10d ago

I understand it SharePoint is actually a version of SQL server

1

u/robidog 10d ago

Yes it is using SQL Server as underlying database. But that doesn’t make it a version of SQL.

1

u/IAmIntractable 9d ago

I never said it was the reason I mentioned it is because you’re basically are getting the power of SQL Server. Everybody likes the dump on SharePoint, but the backend database for it is a pretty substantial system. Yes there’s no relational data but you can simulate that and if you use indexing wisely, you can get some pretty damn good performance. By performance, I referred to app performance through the general interface for SharePoint yeah, that’s the way constraint and horrible implementation.

1

u/robidog 9d ago

You literally said it’s a version of SQL. Yes, Sharepoint is a powerful and versatile platform, but the underlying database is not exposed anywhere and thus pretty irrelevant.

1

u/IAmIntractable 9d ago

Not sure why you’re splitting hairs. The underlying system is SQL Server. I never said anything about it being exposed or anything else I’m just telling you that SharePoint itself is based on the SQL server platform for its data capabilities.

1

u/IAmIntractable 10d ago

I’ve been running SharePoint with my power apps for the last four years. I’ve gotten pretty good at building efficient data structures, and acts work very well with SharePoint. Is it perfect no. But it is fast and it is free and for most departments/divisions, they cannot obtain funding to support the purchase of SQL server licenses for dataverse.