Sharing without Pro license

[rdavis6]

I need to share dashboards and/or reports within my organization. I'd love to be able to post them to an Office 365 SharePoint site. We can't use "Publish to Web" because of security concerns. Apparently someone posted something to Facebook, so it's been turned off.  The only options I've seen in my research require everyone to have a Pro license. That's not really a workable option for alot of reasons. What are my options for low- or no-code sharing. I'm good with SharePoint, but I can barely spell API, let alone know how to use one. Thanks.

[MyraMa]

I have the same issue. But if you want to share with someone who is going to use it once or twice, there's a way to work around it. 

You can share with a different account (different domain) as regarding sharing externally. The user can view the dashboards and reports without a pro license as long as the user uses a different email address and register in Power BI server. However, the user can only access that dashboard or report from the email link you send through and it won't get updated unless you share a new link again. For more information, you can check this guy's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op_Q7YL8cd4 

Cheers

Myra

[Abenson]

Does anyone know if the E1 SKU for Premium will allow for reports to be embedded in SharePoint Online using the new modern page web part. This would be a cheaper option for those of use who don't/can't purchase Power BI Pro licenses for all users.

[sirui_sun]

Hello - 

I would suggest looking into Power BI Premium, which enables unlimited distribution of your content without the need for consumers to have Pro licenses. Premium works with a number of distribution options which do not require writing code - e.g. Power BI apps, SharePoint Online embed via web part, etc.

To learn more: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi-premium/

-Sirui

[Abenson]

Would the E1 SKU for Premium be sufficient for users without a PowerBI Pro license to access report content through the SharePoint online modern page web part?

[Anonymous]

Guy in a Cube youtube channel over the weekend just did an Unplugged episode where they touched upon Premium.  They mentioned that if you have Premium, you have all of the functionality that comes with the Embedded license.

[Anonymous]

Premium still requires at least eur 4500,- per month.

For 100-200 users this still isn't interesting to purchase.

It'll be only interesting with 500 users, well that's already a big company in a lot of countries. 🙂

[rdavis6]

Thanks. I looked at the link. While that would solve the problem, according to the calculator it would also increase our costs by about 5x. So it's not really an option.

I was hoping that PBI would have a tick box setting like SharePoint and OneDrive where you can simply disable external sharing. Does anyone know if PBI has a setting like that?

[Anonymous]

I have exactly the same issue!

Some great work Microsoft did on this application, even with free licenses.

Now... they break the complete license structure and we have to pay x times more.

I would totally agree for the developers to have a Pro account, however if you want to share simple graphs with sr management, you don't want them to login or anything like that.

The value of having simple users with this premium license is totally lost....

Also posted my concerns here because I don't see any solution yet:

Re: What happens with shared dashboards on 1st of June?

Please vote for my idea to make it free again:

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/19666702-free-license-for-sharing...

Such a great tool, just killed due to license. I don't expect this is MS strategy, right? 

[rdavis6]

@Anonymous, Microsoft has free sharing using the "publish to web" function.  Our problem is that we can't use it because it also allows people to share content on Google and Facebook. We can't let corporate data out into the wild like that.

What I'm looking for is a middle option where "publish to web" works WITHIN my firewall only.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

At this moment we are experiencing the same problem. We don't  seem to have the option to publisch the report to web althought the setting has been set live in the adminstrator mode.  Anyone any ideas how we should make use of this setting or is there another place where this option should be set live/be approved?

Thanks in advance for tips/advise.

Best Regads,

Bastiaan 

[Anonymous]

Yup, the publish to WWW is nice, for private use and maybe small business.

And also for short sharing,  however having reports which have a weekly update about status should be viewable by multi users for free.

Microsoft can take the license on the real developers, who consume most of the capacity.

[Anonymous]

It should be noted though, the use of Power BI involves Microsoft hardware performing the calculations and providing the bandwidth for all of the viewers.  This isn't 2nd rate hardware and considering Premium is basically leasing your own private equivelent hardware at a rate of $5000K per month, you can start to see what the costs of hardware provisioning.  It seems to me that Microsoft wants to offer service with a free component essentially paid for out of the pricing of the paid users.  A line in the sand has be to placed somewhere for this cloud service.  How fair is it if Free users are the majority of the user base and that cost burden is lumped on the Paid users?

Chances are, in the use case you are proposing, having 1 paid developer and many free consumers would be a system that would be a large cost burden.  Microsoft isn't a charity and it is reasonable that they look to a financial model that does have some amount of return.  Its also reasonable to expect that if a business is turning a profit in part due to a service they consume, that a cost is associated with that service.

[moone33]

Although I'm looking for an option that will cut cost but I cannot blame Microsoft for being intuitve and providing a great service that's affordable. 

For all you that are complaining why MS is not providing free access or service, how would you react or feel if you owned MS.  Would you allow such a free service?  I think not!  If you can't afford 9.99 a month, look for other solutions like MS Tabular, Crystal Reports or SQL Reporting.  This is where your IT abilities should be thinking outside the box.  Not whinning!

[rdavis6]

I don't have a problem with Microsoft needing to turn a profit. But I do have a problem with the fact that we adopted PBI as the corporate strategy under one pricing model and are now suddenly being told that model no longer applies. So we're in the process of adopting the technology, the business is throwing thousands and thousands of dollars into training people only to be told that to implement it the way it was originally promised will quadruple our monthly costs.

All I want is to be able to disable external sharing just like in SharePoint and OneDrive and everything else. Don't let people share stuff outside our tenant.

[Anonymous]

Consider a counter point, which i can't suggest is the real situation but a scenario that is plausible.  What is Microsoft supposed to do if they created a Power BI Software as a Service model, like they did originally, but found they had miscalculated how that model would be taken up by the community.  This miscalculation meant that the cost of running Power BI, as is, was at a tremendous loss.  Next, Microsoft was able to see that the platform was growing in popularity and thus the loss would only continue to grow.

So what options do they have in that situation? Do they just shut up shop or do they make changes to the licensing in a way that ensures the program can continue?

[Anonymous]

I agree with all of you and indeed; MSis not a charity 🙂

However; I am giving now access to viewers with full PRO access, that means all functions, but they don't use it.

I really would be OK with:

- Pro for developer (me) of a higer rate than 10,- p/m e.g. 50,- who is able to share for 100 users for free

- A very Light version for e.g. 2,- p/m even, however this should be veruy simple and not the complex premium approach.

The difference is too big and you know we're human, so resistance to change happens a lot 🙂

[Anonymous]

I agree with you.  I definately think there needs to be a license level between Free and Pro.  Personally i'd change Pro to be "Writer" and have a viewer level called "Consumer"

[Anonymous]

Great!
Let's all vote for it then! hahah

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/19666702-free-license-for-sharing...

[Anonymous]

I agree MS is not a charity 🙂

However, I don't like the fact to deliver first great service for free, get people a carrot in front of them and suddenly change this model.

And my idea contains a max of e.g. 100 free users and I also propose to increase the Pro license; that's manageable and the business case can be easier for lots of companies.

5000,- per month is a huge difference.

If the Pro user would be even 100,- per month I believe it's acceptable.

Or a model 100,- per month and above 100 free users you pay 200,- per month.

Give the choice to the customer, even better: Pro with higher license or indeed like it is now with the premium/pro.

This model is not fit for use as we can read in a lot of posts.