Why Is My Power App So Slow?

This question usually comes up after the app has gone live.

During development, everything felt fine.
Screens loaded quickly.
Data responded instantly.

Then real users started using it.

Suddenly:

• Screens take longer to load
• Searches feel sluggish
• Data refreshes aren’t instant
• Users start saying “The app feels slow”

After reviewing many live Power Apps implementations — often during performance reviews or post-deployment fixes — one thing becomes clear:

Power Apps rarely becomes slow because of one single issue.
It slows down because of design patterns that repeat across real projects.

A Very Common Real-World Scenario

This pattern shows up again and again:

• The app is built using sample or limited test data
• It works perfectly during development
• The app goes live
• Real data volume increases
• More users start accessing it

Nothing breaks.
But performance gradually degrades.

Most teams don’t realise that Power Apps behaves very differently at production scale.

1. Too Much Data Is Loaded Upfront

One of the most common reasons Power Apps feels slow is loading far more data than the app actually needs.

Typical examples:

• Loading entire tables on app start
• Pulling thousands of records “just in case”
• Using large ClearCollect() operations
• Not filtering data early

This usually happens because:
“It worked fine during testing.”

What teams realise later:
Reducing data early almost always delivers the biggest performance improvement.

2. Delegation Issues Quietly Hurt Performance

Delegation is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Power Apps.

In many slow apps:

• Filters look correct
• Results appear fine initially
• But Power Apps is not delegating the query

As a result:

• Only part of the data is queried
• Power Apps processes more data locally
• Performance drops as data grows

Often, delegation warnings were ignored because:
“The app still worked.”

What teams learn later:
Delegation problems don’t always break apps immediately — they break them at scale.

3. Data Source Choice Starts to Matter

Another recurring pattern is performance changing once real data arrives.

Apps connected to:

• Large SharePoint lists
• Poorly indexed SQL tables
• Overly complex data structures

often feel responsive early on and then slow down unexpectedly.

This leads to questions like:

• Should we be using Dataverse?
• Is SQL the issue?
• Is Power Apps the limitation?

In reality, performance depends less on which data source you choose — and more on how that data is designed and accessed.

4. Logic Runs More Often Than You Think

Power Apps recalculates logic frequently.

Common patterns that slow apps over time:

• Queries running on every screen load
• Heavy formulas in OnVisible
• Rebuilding collections repeatedly
• Nested logic evaluated many times

These issues are rarely obvious during early testing but become noticeable as the app grows.

What teams discover later:
Small inefficiencies repeated many times feel like “slowness”.

5. Too Much Logic Lives Inside the App

In many slow apps, Power Apps ends up doing work better suited elsewhere.

Examples include:

• Complex filtering handled entirely in the app
• Business rules duplicated across screens
• Repeated calculations scattered throughout the app

This makes:

• Performance unpredictable
• Maintenance harder
• Troubleshooting slower

This separation between Power Apps and the data layer is where many real projects either stabilise — or slowly accumulate performance issues. For readers interested in understanding how Power Apps, data sources, and automation work together in real solutions, this Microsoft Power Apps approach is explained here: 
Microsoft Power Apps & Power Automate

6. Performance Issues Appear Gradually

One reason Power Apps performance issues are hard to diagnose is that they:

• Appear slowly
• Affect users differently
• Depend on data volume and usage patterns

The app doesn’t suddenly fail.
It simply becomes less pleasant to use.

By the time complaints surface, the original design decisions are already baked in.

What Actually Improves Performance (In Practice)

Across real projects, the most effective fixes are usually simple:

• Filter data as early as possible
• Reduce collection sizes
• Fix delegation issues
• Move logic closer to the data source
• Simplify screen-level formulas

These changes consistently outperform dramatic redesigns.

Final Thought

When a Power App feels slow, the problem is rarely:

“Power Apps is slow.”

It’s usually:

• Too much data
• Too much logic
• Logic in the wrong place
• Early design decisions that didn’t account for scale

Power Apps performs best when it’s:

• Given only the data it needs
• Allowed to delegate work properly
• Used as an interface — not a processing engine

Learning Power Apps the Right Way

For those looking to understand how Power Apps performs in real business environments — including data handling, delegation, performance, and automation — the Microsoft Power Apps Course by ExcelGoodies focuses on practical, real-world scenarios rather than tool walkthroughs.

Check the Upcoming batch details

Editor’s Note

This article curates recurring performance-related patterns observed across live Power Apps implementations, typically identified during post-deployment reviews and optimisation discussions. The scenarios described here reflect common behaviours rather than isolated cases.

Insights compiled with inputs from the ExcelGoodies Trainers & Power Users Community.
 

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