Databricks Apps vs Power Apps -/ which to use when you need a UI for business rules? (cost-sensitive)
Hi everyone,
I’m deciding between Databricks Apps and Microsoft Power Apps for a simple but important need and I’d love your experience/advice.
Context:
• I have models and data processing in Databricks (already built a demo + deployment using Databricks).
• Need a small UI so business users can edit/add rules (stored in a table) that our models use.
• I care a lot about cost. I don’t have an easy way right now to start/stop Databricks compute to save money.
• I already run regression tests and understand Databricks workflows, but I don’t fully know the real benefits of Databricks Apps vs Power Apps for this use case.
Questions:
1. For a rules-editing UI (CRUD for a rules table) what worked better for you: Databricks Apps or Power Apps?
2. Cost-wise, which is cheaper to build/run for low-traffic business users?
3. Any recommended patterns to connect a low-code UI (Power Apps) to Databricks compute securely and cheaply?
4. If you chose Databricks Apps, how do you reduce runtime cost — do you use job clusters, serverless endpoints, or something else?
I have this decision tree (WIP).