Microsoft Dynamics 365 Plugins Vs Workflows

Work-Flow vs Plug-Ins

Work-Flow	Plug-in
Can be created by Users in  the web client	Always created by the developer
Always run in the context of owner of  workflow	Flexible can run in context of user, system or specific.
Can run for long time	Can only run for 2 minutes
Can run on demand	Only run as result of event
User can track progress	User don’t know they exist unless they throw an error
Security filters which record workflows run against	Plug-Ins run for all records for the registered events
Can’t run offline	Can run offline

 

Asynchronous Plug-Ins vs Synchronous Plug-Ins

Asynchronous Plug-In	Synchronous Plug-In
Doesn’t block user from seeing the result of operation.	Block user until completed
Modifications happened after operation so update call is required	Can modify data before Dynamics 365 persists
Has extra overhead to track  queued async operation	Ha minimal overhead to manage call
Limited to 2 minutes in Sandbox	Limited to 2 minutes in Sandbox
Can run only post operation	Can run post operation and pre operation
Not Part of transaction	Included in transaction

Background Work-Flow vs Real-Time Workflow

Back Ground Workflow	Real Time Workflow
Results not need right away	Results needed right away
Wait conditions are needed	Workflow is really simple
Workflow contains long operations like wait	Need transaction support
	Need to see before values
	No ability to wait
Execute as Workflow Owner	Execute as calling User or Workflow Owner

 

Real-Time Workflow   Before vs Plug-In Before

Real Time Workflow- Before	Plug-In Before
Can’t run for before create	Can register before on most messages
Values are as before change occurred	Can see before and updated records
No ability see changed value	Can update request in memory
	No ability for pre create for images Post create can have post image

 

 

Asynchronous Plug-Ins vs Custom Workflow

 

The key difference is Images that you can use in Asynchronous Plugin, but not in workflow and also you cannot make an Asynchronous Plug-in on demand like the way we can do it in workflows.
A Synchronous Plugins are lighter weight than workflow process.