Forum Discussion

DSP's avatar
DSP
Frequent Visitor
8 years ago

Differences between Desktop and Service - is there a list?

Immensely frustrating that so much MS material on Power BI refers to features available only on the cloud version, and not on Desktop, without making this clear.   Is there a page somewhere that li...
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Catcheson's avatar
Catcheson
Frequent Visitor
8 years ago

Same issue here - very confusing!

 

i wouldn’t mind someone confirming my thinking here or correcting me if i’m wrong...

 

i’m developing Reports in Power BI Desktop and making them available to users in Report Server so I’m bypassing Power BI Service altogether.  All my reading implies that I need Power BI Service but it seems I don’t!

 

Am I missing something?  I think the reason we’re not using Service is that you pay for it!  The rest is free!

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

dkay84_PowerBI's avatar
dkay84_PowerBI
Microsoft Employee
8 years ago

Report Server is an on-prem delivery mechanism, so yes you are correct you don't need to worry about Power BI Service (cloud).  However, Report Server is DEFINITELY not free!  If you have SQL Server EA with SA then PBI Report Server is included as part of your license, so maybe it is "free" in that regard.