Sharing with users who don't have Pro

[freswood]

Hi there,

I currently have the Pro version of Power BI, and I've published several reports to a group workspace. I need to be able to share these reports with other users who don't have the Pro version. We have so many stakeholders for these reports that it's simply not feasible to buy the Pro version for each one.

From what I understand, Microsoft recently removed the functionality to share with non-Pro users. I've read lots of blog posts about this issue but haven't been able to find a solution.

Have any of you been able to find a workaround? I can see that it's possible to export reports to PowerPoint and PDF, and data for individual graphs can be exported to Excel. I'm really hoping to maintain the interactivity of the reports though, so hopefully someone has come up with something clever to allow for this.

Many thanks for your help!

[Anonymous]

I have a pro license and share with Non-Pro users quite often.  The factor that detiremines whether they can see the dashboard or not is based on the Power BI project that i am sharing.  If the project is not using any Pro features then I can share it without complications.  The Share screen will inform me if its Pro.

Does your dashboard make use of data coming from a Power BI project that makes use of pro features?

[freswood]

Hi Ross, that's interesting to hear. What sort of features are these?

I had a look at the pricing page, and it looks like the only features that differ between Free and Pro are collaboration, live data source, and the use of a gateway. I get most of my data via importing it (as opposed to DirectQuerying it) from a SAP HANA database using SQL. I believe I'm therefore not using any Pro features, other than the fact that I'm publishing the reports to a workspace? I'm still quite new to Power BI so hopefully that makes sense.

[ashishrj]

Hi @freswood I am not much aware about SAP HANA DB. But is it on-prem? So possibly you might require DMG as well for scheduling refresh going ahead. So ultimately this will be categorized as PRO feature.

Also if you do not wish to purchase license for all, think about Power BI 'Publish to Web' feature (URL is publicly exposed)

For more details on what classifies as Free Vs Pro click here 

[freswood]

Hi ashishrj, thanks for your reply. I assume the database itself is on-premises. Since it contains sentitive commercial information I'm unable to publish the data to web. I'm not sure that there is a gateway because when I've tried to use direct query, Power BI tells me that I'll need to set up a gateway to do that. I think it's using my ODBC connection to connect to the database.

In that case, does it sound like I'm using Pro features?

[Anonymous]

How are you refreshing the data?  Is there a scheduled refresh?  (Thats a pro feature)

[freswood]

Hi Ross, at the moment I'm just refreshing the data manually before publishing the data. However we are looking to set up an enterprise gateway. I guess given that's a pro feature, it sounds like report users would definitely need the Pro version once we set that up.

Am I out of luck?

[Anonymous]

I just glanced back at your original post and finally noticed the words "Group Workspace".  Group Workspaces are a pro feature.

[freswood]

Hi Ross, that's what I thought, except you mentioned that you share with non-Pro users. Is there another way I can share with non-Pro users without publishing to a Group Workspace that still maintains the interactivity of the graphs?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Publish to your personal workspace, then share the dashboards to your users.

[gpglobal]

I did publish my report to my personal workspace and share it but they are still been required to sign in. why?

[Anonymous]

As mentioned later in the thread, this solution is no longer valid due to the changes made to the licensing.  You can only share if you all have pro licenses, or if you upload this into a premium workspace, or if you make use of an embedded license and then embed the report.

[gpglobal]

Hi  Ross73312, 

I did what you said by publishing my report in my personal work space and shared with friends and they are still been asked to sign in by microsoft. So do you have any idea of what to do next to share my reports to others who don't have powerbi account.

Thanks

Godspower

[freswood]

That's such a clever idea! It hadn't occurred to me. I tried it just then and it worked. Thanks!

[Pandra]

freswood,

is this still working OK for you? Just checking as I'm about to go down this same path, publishing reports and dashboards to the whole company, all of which do not have a pro license.

its just not realistic to purchase licenses for everyone, when most just need to occasionally take a glance at the Project Online data.

can you also schedule refreshes?

things seem to be changing here all the time, and am hoping that this has not changed since your reply from May.

thanks!

[freswood]

Sadly Ross is right. The license changes occurred shortly after I posted, and I ended up having to go down the Pro route.

[Pandra]

OK, thanks guys. Things change so fast with this product, hopefully they will come up with an alternate way to do this.

thanks again, much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

@Pandra  Since this post, there has been changes to the licensing and this solution is no longer valid.

[olivierlenard]

Hi all,

Ashishrj I understand you suggest to use the a Publish to web features. Unfortunately this very features is no more available. could you confirm ?

br

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@ashishrj wrote:

Hi @freswood I am not much aware about SAP HANA DB. But is it on-prem? So possibly you might require DMG as well for scheduling refresh going ahead. So ultimately this will be categorized as PRO feature.

Also if you do not wish to purchase license for all, think about Power BI 'Publish to Web' feature (URL is publicly exposed)

For more details on what classifies as Free Vs Pro click here 

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[ashishrj]

@olivierlenard I suppose this feature is available. Find below image 

[olivierlenard]

Hi,

Thank you for your quick feedback.

herre is a screenshot of my PowerBI service :