Which tier of Power BI is right for my organization?

[mjmar025]

Hi everyone,

I am looking to host several Power BI dashboards on a local server and link to them via (or display them within) a sharepoint page. I have downloaded Power BI report server preview and was able to publish a few reports to the server successfully. I am a bit confused about how the licensing works, and I have a few questions:

For a user who navigates to the server - would they need a Power BI Pro or a Power BI Premium license to view the reports?

Can someone explain the difference between licensing if I publish a Power BI report to SSRS vs PBI Report Server? Is there a difference or would the user need a PBI license either way?

Is there a way to embed a Power BI dashboard that is hosted on a local server into a sharepoint page?

I realize that these are kind of vague questions, so if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

Thank you

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@mjmar025

For a user who navigates to the server - would they need a Power BI Pro or a Power BI Premium license to view the reports?

You need to be running Power BI Premium, or have SQL EE+SQ in order to run the Power BI Report Server. The end users don't need specific licenses.

Can someone explain the difference between licensing if I publish a Power BI report to SSRS vs PBI Report Server? Is there a difference or would the user need a PBI license either way?

As explained above, there are only two ways to get the PBI RS. Premium or EE+SA. It is not accessible with only the Pro license.

SSRS will only get you paginated reports and mobile

PBI SSRS gets you the integration with PBI Service, Deploying PBI Desktop files to the on Premises PBI RS Server, etc. Essentially, they split SSRS into two different products. SSRS is back to a stand alone, and the PBI SSRS has all the PBI related abilities.

Is there a way to embed a Power BI dashboard that is hosted on a local server into a sharepoint page? Interesting question. Not to my knowledge currently. You could certainly embed it using the PBI Dev tools and the PBI Service, but I don't believe the functionality would extend to the PBI RS at GA... or if it would be on the roadmap...

[mjmar025]

Thank you.

So just to be clear - PBI and SSRS once worked together but the do not anymore? And the ONLY way for me to host PBI dashboards locally would be to either have Power BI Premium or SQL Server EE on my server?

[bodyguard10011]

There was never a functionality in SSRS 2016 to host PBI Dashboards. In the current version you just could use SSRS as a storage for PBIX files, but you cannot view reports.

Keep in mind that PBI Premium Report Server will display PBI Reports, not Dashboards.

Klaus Sobel

EMEA BI Support

[chet]

Is that correct? This link implies otherwise (unless I'm mis-reading it)

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/2017/01/17/power-bi-reports-in-sql-server-reporting-s...

[mjmar025]

I am under the impression that the January 2017 preview was what eventually turned into Power BI Report Server and now SSRS is back to what it was prior to that. Can someone confirm this?

Thank you

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@mjmar025@chet They are now two seperate products in vNext (2017). SSRS can use paginated and mobile reports only. PBISSRS has the ability to show Power BI Desktop reports, and integrate with the Power BI Service.

Symantics is the issue related to the other comment. "Technically" - Dashboards only exist in the Power BI Service. What you are viewing on the Power BI Report Server are reports.

Many interchange Report with Dashboard which is wrong, but usually understood.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@mjmar025 The integration (though rough and limited) still works in 2016 I believe... But the full integration in SQL vNext is split. Yes, you would need either of those to host Power BI reports on premises in the PBI Report Server.