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sparker22
Frequent Visitor

How many user subscriptions do we need?

Hi all,

 

If our company requires 2 people to be able to create and share reports, and <10 people to share the reports with; am I correct in thinking that this is possible with just 2 PBI Premium accounts for the creators? With those only viewing reports able to use free accounts.

 

Many thanks.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
v-jayw-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @sparker22 ,

 

If the report or dashboard is not hosted in Premium capacity, you can still subscribe others using their individual email addresses, but they too must have Power BI Pro licenses.

So there's two plans.

Plan A: One pro license per user and no need to by Power BI Premium.

Plan B: Two pro license for the creators, and Power BI Premium to store the report and dashboard you want to share.

 

Best Regards,

Jay

Community Support Team _ Jay
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to help the other members find it.

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11 REPLIES 11
ESVAS
New Member

Hello. I would like to say a few words about the general strategy that Microsoft follows when it comes to the policy of licensing fees and the use of publication resources in Power BI.

Users, especially from small and medium-sized enterprises, are surprised that even though they have purchased a premium per user license, they do not really have access to premium resources when it comes to the ability to share reports created in Power BI.

Restrictions apply to many levels.
For example, if you want to publish your report to a small group of users using the API on your website, it turns out that even though you have purchased a premium Power BI user license, you also have to pay a lot of money to publish your report to, say, 10 users. This often means that small companies cannot afford to use Power BI. Microsoft's imperial policy is focused on maximum profit! You will pay for everything. Theoretically, you can use the capacity by buying more perium licenses per Power BI user, but the description of how it really works in practice is so vaguely written that a normal person is not able to understand this gibberish from Microsoft

aj1973
Community Champion
Community Champion

That's why premium is recommended for 500+ users in a company 

Regards
Amine Jerbi

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This has nothing to do with the problem.
A small company that wants to create reports in Power BI and make its work available to a small group of clients is forced to pay money inadequate to the profits to the Microsoft concern. This policy of imperial profit at any cost is not very fair to say the least.

Not only that, all the documentation you need to read to understand how the API works with Power BI premium for the user - it's one headache! And that's what Microsoft is all about, making people pay horrendous amounts of money

aj1973
Community Champion
Community Champion

Chosing Premium vs Pro should be part of a business analysis before engaging in either one.

At the end it should the user's decision regardless who is going to make money over what...

Sorry I am not defending MSFT, but that's how it is for all big companies when they have the monopole.

Regards
Amine Jerbi

If I answered your question, please mark this thread as accepted
and you can follow me on
My Website, LinkedIn and Facebook

v-jayw-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @sparker22 ,

 

If the report or dashboard is not hosted in Premium capacity, you can still subscribe others using their individual email addresses, but they too must have Power BI Pro licenses.

So there's two plans.

Plan A: One pro license per user and no need to by Power BI Premium.

Plan B: Two pro license for the creators, and Power BI Premium to store the report and dashboard you want to share.

 

Best Regards,

Jay

Community Support Team _ Jay
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution
to help the other members find it.
aj1973
Community Champion
Community Champion

@sparker22 

To answer your Question How many user subscriptions do we need?

If you don't have sensitive data to share with your users (just as viewers) then 2 Pro licenses for the developpers is enough and then you can share the report via a Public URL.

 

I think you can now do the math 🙂

 

Regards
Amine Jerbi

If I answered your question, please mark this thread as accepted
and you can follow me on
My Website, LinkedIn and Facebook

Shahfaisal
Solution Sage
Solution Sage

Power BI Premim is a 'per capacity' license and not a 'per user' license so you can have as many users as you want. However, each user publishing content to preimum capacity would require a Power BI Pro license.

To apply the above guideline to your case - you will need two Power BI pro licenses for the two users so they can publish content and a premium capacity license for the viewers.

This seems excessive for the amount of people we require it for.

On their pricing, there is a 'Per User' option for Premium, is this not standalone without the 'Per Capacity' option?

aj1973
Community Champion
Community Champion

Yes it is, PPU is like Pro license but with little more features

aj1973_0-1624141062203.png

 

No need for Premium Capacity for a PPU license.

I think a Pro license is good enough for your case and you can always upgrade as you go.

 

 

 

Regards
Amine Jerbi

If I answered your question, please mark this thread as accepted
and you can follow me on
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Oh...I thought you were talking about the standard capacity based Power BI premium model. The Power BI Premium per user is different and it is 'per user'. If you want to go with this licensing model, you will need as many licenses as the number of users. 

 

Note that you can also go with Power BI Pro licesning model which would still require each user to have a Pro license but it is less epxensive than Power BI Preimum per user model.

Hi @sparker22 

2 people to develop reports and less than 10 to share with, it can only be Pro license for each them and it is more than enough. Premium capacity is for big companies with more than 500+ users and is very expensive and not worth it for a samll group of users.   

Regards
Amine Jerbi

If I answered your question, please mark this thread as accepted
and you can follow me on
My Website, LinkedIn and Facebook

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