Power BI Workspace vs App: Build in One and Share from Another

[ajaybabuinturi]

If you are working on Power BI and Fabric, probably you came across the items like Workspace and App many times. These two are seems to sound similar, you publish a report then publish it again as an App. So, what is the real difference between them?

What is a Power BI Workspace?

Think of a Workspace is like a shared place where our analytics team builds and manages everything related to data.

It is the area your teammates (Admin / Member) can add datasets, create reports, build dashboards, manage dataflows & semantic models and control permissions for who can edit / view the reports.  

Example:

Imagine your organisation has one main workspace called Corporate Analytics Workspace. It has every department (HR, Finance, Sales and Operations) reports in it.

So, this workspace becomes your backstage area where full of semantic models/datasets, reports in progress and experimenting new features. Not everyone should have access here because it is work zone not final stage.

“A workspace is your development area where content is built, edited and manged by creators.”

What is a Power BI App?

Once report is created, you will want to share those approved/certified reports with each department or business teams without giving edit access. In this point Workspace App will comes in.

Imagine Workspace App is like a digital dashboard centre, where all finalized reports are neatly organised, easy to navigate and easy to explore.

Example:

You have below mentioned reports each department wise in the Corporate Analytics Workspace:

• HR (Employee Head Count, Hiring Trends and Attrition)
• Finance (Revenue, Spend and Margin)
• Sales (Performance, Pipeline and Targets)
• Operations (Inventory, Delivery and Productivity)

Now, you publish all these reports into a single App called Corporate Insights App. You can create different sections inside this App:

• Create a different sections for each department/business team
• Add only their respective reports in each section.
• Assign security / email groups (HR, Finance, Sales and Operations) to the respective department/business team.

By having these security / email groups, they can see only their respective reports inside the App. Let’s say a HR user can see only HR reports, can’t see Finance / other department reports.

“A Power BI App is the front end, where we can provide approved / certified reports and create a secure view for end users / business teams.”

Key Differences:

Feature	Power BI Workspace	Power BI App
Purpose	Build and collaborate	Share finalised reports with users
Users	Developes and Analysts	Viewers and Business teams
Access	Edit + View	View only
Content	All sematic models, reports and dashboards	Selected content for sharing
Sharing	Limited to workspace members	Broad and secure distribution
Use Case	Creation zone	Consumption zone

Why Both Are Needed?

You may ask, “why not give everyone access to the Workspace itself?

Here is why that is not great idea:

1. Too Much Access: Workspace members can accidently edit/modify or delete the reports.
2.  Work in Progress: Workspace often contain test reports, temporary data and drafts.
3. Clarity for Business Users: Apps give a clean, organised view with only the final content.

So, by keeping Workspace for creators and App for consumers, you can maintain both control and clarity.

By following above, you can build the reports in one workspace but consumes through the one well structured App. It ensures that Centralised governance, Cleaner data management and Simpler access control.

[NagaSuresh]

@ajaybabuinturi 

Thanks for Sharing Knowledge 

[suparnababu8]

Great Information!

[satya__6]

Good info @ajaybabuinturi 

[Olayemi_Awofe]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge 

[ketanTiwariAa]

Crystal clear explanation Ajay. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on topic with us.

[Aala_Ali]

Very helpful @ajaybabuinturi thanks for sharing this in such a clear and easy to follow way.

[RAVIKANTH_RK]

Great Job 

[Abhilash_P]

Informative @ajaybabuinturi 

[Vikranth426]

Use full information 

[Presi]

Nice explanation 👏

[eltonoak]

Thank you, it is clear now.

[Magudeswaran_MR]

@ajaybabuinturi 
The clarity in explaining how each component fits into the broader data ecosystem and when to use them is incredibly helpful for both beginners and seasoned professionals. Kudos to you for sharing this excellent blog