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What is Dynamics 365?

Dynamics 365 is Microsoft's family of business applications that helps you run your entire business. This guide covers which apps it includes, its cloud and on-premises editions and how it relates to Power Platform.

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Which apps make up Dynamics 365?

Dynamics 365 is not one product but a set of apps you can license separately. Organizations use only the apps they need.

AreaApps
Sales and customer relationships (CRM)Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Customer Insights
Finance and operations (ERP)Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce, Project Operations, Human Resources
Small and mid-sized businessesBusiness Central

Does Dynamics 365 run in the cloud or on-premises?

Dynamics 365 apps run in the cloud. The on-premises counterpart for sales and customer service is Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) 9.1. Microsoft supports it with mainstream support until 13 January 2029 and extended support until 10 January 2031.

Older on-premises versions are known as Dynamics CRM; support for Dynamics CRM 2016 ended on 13 January 2026.

How does Dynamics 365 relate to Power Platform?

Dynamics 365 apps such as Sales and Customer Service store their data in Microsoft Dataverse. Power Apps uses the same Dataverse. So Dynamics 365 can be extended directly with Power Apps, Power Automate and Power BI.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between Dynamics 365 and Dynamics CRM?

Dynamics CRM is the name Microsoft's CRM product had before Dynamics 365. The sales and customer service apps are offered today under the Dynamics 365 name.

Do we need every Dynamics 365 app?

No. The apps can be used separately; you can start with Sales alone, for example.

Can we move to Dynamics 365 from another CRM?

Yes. Records and history are moved by mapping them to Dynamics' standard record types, such as accounts, contacts and opportunities.

  • Cloud · On-premises

    Dynamics 365

    Sales and customer service; migrations from other CRMs and integrations.

  • Power Apps · Power Automate · Power BI

    Power Platform

    Business apps, automated flows and reports.

  • SLA

    Managed services

    Ongoing, SLA-backed support for your Microsoft environment.

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