Is a Power BI Pro license really required for publishing to Power BI Report Server? (more inside)

[pbiwork]

I need to estblish an installation of Power BI Report Server on my local network.   I have been researching what costs will come into play with a local installation like this and found this comparison chart: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/ 

Free users apparently cannot do these two things (these require a Pro account):

- Build dashboards that deliver a 360-degree, real-time view of the business.

- Keep data up-to-date automatically, including on-premises sources.

Here are my questions:

1) This seems to indicate that if I want a user to be able to create a dashboard or schedule automatic refreshes of report data, they will need a Pro acccount.  Is this correct?

2) What is your definition of a "dashboard" (Free users cannot make "dashboards")?

3) I have read on this forum that only Pro users can publish reports from Power BI Desktop to Power BI Report Server?  Is this correct?

[v-yulgu-msft]

Hi @pbiwork,

The features mentioned in your question 1) and 2) are related to Power BI service hosted on cloud which is different from on-premise PBI report server. You can have a look at below articles for details:

Dashboards in Power BI service

Configuring scheduled refresh

For question 3), a Pro license is required to publish .pbix report to Report Server. For end users that want to view these reports, they don't need a Pro account.

Regards,

Yuliana Gu

[CheenuSing]

Hi @v-yulgu-msft

From your statement

For question 3), a Pro license is required to publish .pbix report to Report Server. For end users that want to view these reports, they don't need a Pro account.

1. We need atleast one Power BI pro licence

2. For others to consume, what tool they should use. Is the PBI report to be embedded in an application.

3. Do other users have to get a Power BI Pro licence to view the PBI reports.

Can you please advice.

Cheers

CheenuSing

[Anonymous]

As I understand it currently.

1. We need atleast one Power BI pro licence

Yes that is correct, one for each person publishing reports 

2. For others to consume, what tool they should use. Is the PBI report to be embedded in an application.

They can view reports through your SSRS web portal using a web browser as long as you have suitable SQL Server user access licenses

3. Do other users have to get a Power BI Pro licence to view the PBI reports.

No. The users can view the reports through the SSRS web portal as part of your SQL Server Ent Edition License (requires SA software assurance) as long as the SQL Server license covers the users (I think you buy the SQL Server EE licesne by the core/pair of cores)

[Denismc]

Thanks for the reply. Not sure about our SQL licence. I know we do have a SQL server.

What about is you don't have a SQL sever is there any other way to publish reports for users to view?

[Denismc]

An old thread, but it seems any user viewing the reports or app needs  a pro licence, I have a pro licence in a small company and without getting everyone a pro licence, they can't view the reports!!! Any help on this would be very much appreciated. They can't view on sharepoint either!

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-how-to-collaborate-distribute-dashboards-reports

Distribute insights in an app

Say you want to distribute your dashboard to a broad audience in your organization. You and your coworkers have created a workspace, then created and refined dashboards, reports, and datasets in the workspace. Now you select the dashboards and reports you want and publish them as an app — either to a group or to your whole organization.

Apps are easy to find and install in the Power BI service (https://powerbi.com). You can send your business users a direct link to the app, or they can search for it in AppSource. If your Power BI administrator gives you permissions, you can install an app automatically in your coworkers' Power BI accounts. Read more about publishing your apps.

After they install an app, they can view it in their browser or mobile device.

For your users to view your app, either they need to have a Power BI Pro license, too, or the app needs to be stored in a Power BI Premium capacity. Read What is Power BI Premium? for details.

You can publish apps to those outside your organization, too. They can view and interact with the app content, but can’t share it with others. Now you can create template apps deploy them to any Power BI customer.