Unmanaged solutions in Power Platform: what and when to use them

Introduction

Unmanaged solutions in Power Platform are a key concept that anyone working on developing, customizing, or running business apps in the Microsoft ecosystem should get familiar with. It’s important to know that understanding how and when to use unmanaged solutions can make a real difference in keeping your development process smooth and ensuring your application lifecycle management stays on track. In Power Platform, you’ll find two main types of solutions: unmanaged and managed. Each one plays a unique role throughout the app development journey. Unmanaged solutions are mainly designed for development and testing, giving users the freedom to create, modify, and refine solution components before they’re finalized and rolled out as managed solutions to production environments.

For organizations using Microsoft Power Platform—whether that’s Power Apps, Power Automate, or Microsoft Dataverse—knowing the right moment and way to use unmanaged solutions is crucial. This is especially true if you want to stick to best practices for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). Having this knowledge doesn’t just help technical teams do their jobs—it also helps ensure that your company stays compliant with governance and security frameworks. This is particularly important if you work in a regulated field or in a company with strict IT policies.

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Understanding Unmanaged Solutions Fundamentals

Definition and Core Characteristics

Unmanaged solutions are like flexible containers that let developers make direct changes to solution components, including entities, apps, flows, and dashboards. They really shine in development environments where things are constantly evolving and you need to tweak and customize on the fly. The main thing to keep in mind is that everything inside an unmanaged solution remains fully editable, so your development work never hits a wall.

The whole idea behind unmanaged solutions is to give your development team the ability to adjust and improve solution components as they go. Whether you need to add, update, or remove something, you’re free to do so—making it much easier to test new features, fix issues, and collaborate with others working on the same project. This kind of flexibility is what sets unmanaged solutions apart from managed ones, which become locked down after they’re moved into production.

This flexibility is especially helpful for teams working in agile environments, where changes can happen quickly and frequent iterations are just part of the process. For example, if your team is building a new customer service app in Power Apps, you can use an unmanaged solution to quickly prototype features, gather feedback, and improve the user experience before you’re ready to launch it more broadly.

How Unmanaged Solutions Work

Unmanaged solutions act as containers that keep all your solution components organized within Power Platform. Each piece—whether it’s a canvas app or a flow—is stored inside, making it easy to manage and update everything in one place. You can start an unmanaged solution from scratch or create one by pulling components from the default solution, which holds all the customizations in your environment.

Something you should keep in mind is the relationship between unmanaged solutions and the default solution. Unmanaged solutions often serve as focused packages for specific development tasks, rather than trying to capture everything in your environment. In Power Platform, solution layers decide the order in which customizations are applied. Unmanaged solutions live in the unmanaged layer, which sits above any managed layers and lets you edit and test components freely during development.

If a developer deletes an unmanaged solution, only the container goes away—the actual components, like tables or flows, stay put in the environment. This is different from managed solutions, where deleting the solution also removes its components. Knowing this difference helps avoid accidental data loss and makes managing your environment a lot easier. Plus, solution layering lets your team roll out changes in a controlled way, making it possible to roll back or selectively deploy updates as needed.

Key Features and Benefits

Development Flexibility

Unmanaged solutions make it possible to edit things in real time, so developers can see the impact of their changes right away—there’s no waiting around for deployment cycles. This is a big help for teams that want to experiment, test, and fine-tune components quickly. The freedom to customize is especially valuable for projects that are moving fast or need constant improvements.

This kind of flexibility also opens the door for citizen developers—business users who might not be professional coders—to get involved in app development. By using unmanaged solutions, these users can pitch new ideas, automate tasks with Power Automate, or build dashboards in Power BI, while still working alongside professional developers for the more technical parts.

Testing and Prototyping Advantages

When it comes to testing and prototyping, unmanaged solutions help speed things up. Developers can put together new features, test them in a safe environment, and make changes based on feedback—all at a rapid pace. Being able to see changes immediately helps solve problems faster and supports teamwork, since several people can work on different parts of the solution at once.

For example, a sales team asks for a new lead qualification workflow. Developers can prototype the process in an unmanaged solution, get feedback from stakeholders, and keep improving the design before packaging it as a managed solution for production. This way, you cut down on delays and make sure the final result actually fits what the business needs.

Unmanaged vs Managed Solutions Comparison

Functionality Differences

Managed solutions can have managed properties, so publishers decide what can be changed after deployment. This level of control is important in larger organizations that need to keep things standardized and compliant. Unmanaged solutions don’t provide that kind of restriction, which is why you shouldn’t use them in production.

Environment restrictions are another important difference. Unmanaged solutions should stay out of production environments to avoid accidental changes, while managed solutions are designed to keep production stable and secure.

Use Case Scenarios

• Unmanaged solutions are best for:

  • Building new apps
  • Adding features
  • Proof of concept projects

• Managed solutions are best for:

  • Production deployment
  • Ensuring stability and security

For instance, a development team might create a new inventory management module in an unmanaged solution, test it thoroughly, and then export it as a managed solution for production. This approach lines up with Microsoft’s ALM guidelines and helps companies meet regulatory requirements, including those from SOX or HIPAA, which require strict controls over changes in production systems.

Risk and security are big factors here. Unmanaged solutions are flexible but put your environment at higher risk if used in the wrong context. Managed solutions help lower those risks by locking down edits and making sure deployments are consistent.

When to Use Unmanaged Solutions

Ideal Development Scenarios

Unmanaged solutions are the top choice at the start of app development, when you expect to make frequent changes or improvements. New projects benefit from their flexibility, letting teams move quickly and adapt to feedback. The same goes for adding new features or creating proofs of concept—unmanaged solutions help you test and validate ideas before you make them official for production.

If your organization is using DevOps practices, unmanaged solutions are a great fit for continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. Keeping all development work in unmanaged solutions lets teams automate testing and make sure only well-tested components get promoted to managed solutions for production.

Environment Considerations

• Keep unmanaged solutions in development environments to avoid accidental changes in live systems.
• Use a single or multiple environments (development, UAT, production) depending on project needs.
• Unmanaged solutions are used in development and UAT; managed solutions go to production.
• This approach supports compliance with IT governance frameworks like ITIL.

Collaboration is another factor. Unmanaged solutions make it easier for multiple developers to contribute and share changes, but you’ll still need good communication and coordination to avoid conflicts and keep component management consistent.

Best Practices for Unmanaged Solutions

Development Workflow Optimization

• Group related components logically in unmanaged solutions.
• Assign clear ownership and maintain good documentation.
• Use naming conventions for all solution components.
• Integrate version control tools like Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions for collaboration and change history.
• Version control supports automated deployments and rollbacks.

Conversion and Deployment Planning

• Test all components thoroughly before converting to a managed solution.
• Plan the transition with clear documentation of changes and dependencies.
• Use checklists or SOPs for peer reviews, regression testing, and approvals.
• Validate solution integrity and coordinate deployment with stakeholders.
• Structured deployment plans lower risk and smooth the transition to production.

Common Challenges and Solutions

Development Phase Issues

• Managing dependencies between components can be tricky.
• Customization conflicts can occur if multiple people edit the same component.
• Use tools like Microsoft’s Solution Checker or automated build/validation processes to catch issues.
• Assign unique publisher prefixes to each solution to avoid naming conflicts.

Migration and Conversion Challenges

• Plan for compatibility issues when moving from unmanaged to managed solutions.
• Check dependencies, resolve conflicts, and ensure compatibility with the new environment.
• Back up and restore data as part of your migration workflow.
• Test managed solutions in a staging environment that matches production to catch surprises before going live.

Advanced Implementation Strategies

ALM Integration

• Bring Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) practices into your workflow.
• Set up DevOps automation for continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD).
• Use tools like Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or Microsoft Power Platform Build Tools to automate solution export, import, and deployment.
• CI/CD pipelines enable automated testing, validation, and deployment.
• Follow source control best practices: regular commits and branching strategies.

Enterprise Deployment Considerations

• Establish a governance framework with clear policies, roles, and responsibilities.
• Restrict access to production environments and enforce managed solution deployment.
• Align solution management with standards like ISO 27001 or NIST SP 800-53 for regulated industries.
• Ensure good communication, shared documentation, and clear conflict resolution processes for multi-team development.

If you stick to these advanced strategies, your organization can get the most out of Power Platform, reduce operational risks, and make sure digital transformation efforts are both sustainable and compliant with all necessary requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an unmanaged solution in Power Platform?

An unmanaged solution is a flexible, editable container for developing and customizing apps, flows, and other components in Power Platform, mainly used in development and testing environments.

When should I use unmanaged solutions instead of managed solutions?

Use unmanaged solutions during development, prototyping, or when you need to make frequent changes. Switch to managed solutions for production deployment to ensure stability and security.

Can I convert an unmanaged solution to a managed solution?

Yes, after thorough testing, you can export an unmanaged solution as a managed solution for deployment in production environments.

What are the risks of using unmanaged solutions in production?

Using unmanaged solutions in production can lead to accidental changes, loss of version control, and non-compliance with regulatory requirements. Managed solutions are recommended for production to mitigate these risks.

How do unmanaged solutions support team collaboration?

Unmanaged solutions allow multiple developers or citizen developers to work together, make changes in real time, and iterate quickly, making them ideal for collaborative development environments.