Forum Discussion
Free license questions
Q1. I'm using free version of Power BI. So far I'm able to publish my reports online from Power BI Desktop to app.powerbi.com. Am right thinking that this URL is Power BI Server?
app.powerbi.com is known as the Power BI Service, it is a SaaS application (Software as a Service) that runs on Azure.
Q2. Can anyone except me sign in to this URL and see my reports? No
Or what are the ways for others to see them? You share your reports or dashboards with them from the Service. This can be done from your own workspace, or a different App workspace which would allow others to have edit ability on the reports.
I need several people in my company to be able to see them daily. Is it possible with Free version? No. Everyone consuming shared content must have a Pro license, or be covered by a license (other options for large scale deployment)
Q3. If it is possible how do I implement this? I've read instruction, intros, etc., but still missing smth probably really obvious.
There is nothing obvious, the licensing is tied to sharing. You get to test drive the entire product or use it for personal consumption for free... seriously, that's crazy. But if you want to share and productionize it, you have to pay a license. I recommend you pay for the licenses.
As a side note:
There is a method called "Publish to Web", but do NOT use this. It will expose your company data (I assume private) to anyone on the web and you would most likely be breaking your company security policies by doing it. I only mention it as others may recommend you could use this, and most of them must not like their jobs because if people found out you'd likely lose it.
Q1. I'm using free version of Power BI. So far I'm able to publish my reports online from Power BI Desktop to app.powerbi.com. Am right thinking that this URL is Power BI Server?
app.powerbi.com is known as the Power BI Service, it is a SaaS application (Software as a Service) that runs on Azure.
Q2. Can anyone except me sign in to this URL and see my reports? No
Or what are the ways for others to see them? You share your reports or dashboards with them from the Service. This can be done from your own workspace, or a different App workspace which would allow others to have edit ability on the reports.
I need several people in my company to be able to see them daily. Is it possible with Free version? No. Everyone consuming shared content must have a Pro license, or be covered by a license (other options for large scale deployment)
Q3. If it is possible how do I implement this? I've read instruction, intros, etc., but still missing smth probably really obvious.
There is nothing obvious, the licensing is tied to sharing. You get to test drive the entire product or use it for personal consumption for free... seriously, that's crazy. But if you want to share and productionize it, you have to pay a license. I recommend you pay for the licenses.
As a side note:
There is a method called "Publish to Web", but do NOT use this. It will expose your company data (I assume private) to anyone on the web and you would most likely be breaking your company security policies by doing it. I only mention it as others may recommend you could use this, and most of them must not like their jobs because if people found out you'd likely lose it.
Thank you for quick and detailed answer! It became quite clear now.
Btw, what is the difference between "Publish on web" and uploading my data to app.powerbi.com? And how then do I avoid Publishing on web?
I'm intending to by Pro licenses and assume that I will have to publish reports on Power BI service anyway in oder to then share them. Am I right?
"Publish to Web" is a feature you have to explicitly initiate in the Power BI Service.
Publishing your report to the Power BI Service is completely secure.
Yes, all sharing is done via the Power BI Service in this scenario.