Power BI Desktop V/s Service

Differences between Power BI Desktop and Service

If you’re new to Power BI you might not be aware of the difference between Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service.

Let me distinguish between them through this article.

Power BI Desktop

• Power BI Desktop is a desktop application that you can use to develop reports.
• You can download it from Microsoft’s website for free.
• You will be connecting to various data sources, cleaning, modeling, and visualizing the data in this tool.
• After developing the reports in this tool you will be publishing the reports to Power BI service.

Power BI service

• Power BI service is a web application where the consumption and sharing of reports occur.
• Unlike Excel reports where you share the Excel file directly with users, you need to publish the Power BI reports to Power BI service and then provide access to users.
• This is a paid service (i.e) you will need licenses (Pro or Premium) to use this functionality.
• Using a free account you can access ‘My workspace’ where you can publish reports and but can share them publicly (not secure).
• Also, you will need a work/school email to create a Power BI service account.

In short, Power BI Desktop is used for report development while Power BI Service is used for report consumption.

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