Difference Between Power BI Free and Pro?
The Power BI Free version differs from Power BI Pro in the collaboration among the user group. Also known as Power BI Desktop, it is a powerful business intelligence tool developed by Microsoft to create rich, interactive reports with visual analytics. It allows you to perform data ingestion, transformation, and data enrichment. On the other hand, Power BI Pro enables you to publish and share reports with your colleagues or external users anytime anywhere on most devices with Microsoft compatibility. You can create App workspaces with Power BI Pro.
However, the greatest difference between Power BI Free and Pro is that Pro helps you share your data, reports, and dashboards with users who also have a Power BI Pro license. Let us look in detail below at the two tools.
Table of Contents
Differences
When it comes to choosing between these 2 tools, you must consider some of the differences between these 2 market-leading business intelligence tools across various parameters before deciding to adopt them. They include:
- Pricing Options
- Power BI Free is a free version of Power BI that allows you to create interactive dashboards and feature-rich reports using your free account in Microsoft Fabric Preview.
- Power BI Pro is a licensed version of Power BI that allows users to publish reports dashboard and additionally access the reports across the organizations. The cost of a Power BI Pro license comes with $10 Per User Per Month
- Report Publish Capability
- You can’t share reports with your users through the Power BI Free version. You need to upgrade it to Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium for report sharing
- With Power BI Pro, you can publish the content and share the content with others. Power BI Pro is included in the Microsoft 365 E5 version
- Maximum storage
- Power BI Desktop can store a maximum of 1GB of data
- Power BI Pro comes with a maximum storage limit of 10GB Per User
- Collaboration and Content Access
- With the Power BI free version, only the author can access the contents they have created and edit/modify/delete the contents
- With the Power BI Pro version, you can share the dashboards, access dashboard subscriptions, and reports with users who have the Power BI Pro version
- Sharing Capability
- With Power BI Free version, you can’t share the datasets with other users
- You can share the underlying dataset with other users with Power BI Pro versions
- Augmented Analytics
- Power BI Desktop doesn’t support Augmented Analytics capabilities
- Power BI Pro supports intelligent and Augmented Analytics features
What is Power BI Free?
Power BI Free is a no-cost version of Microsoft’s Power BI business intelligence tool. It allows users to connect to various data sources, create interactive reports and dashboards, and share these with others. However, it comes with limitations on collaboration, data refresh, and data capacity. Power BI Free version is best suited for individuals, students, and professionals who want to explore the tool and create reports or visuals for their consumption and not to share with others given it’s free for use.
Some of the key features of Power BI Free include:
- Free to download and use
- Data Transformation
- Data Visualization
- Data Connection to different sources
- Limited Data Refresh Frequency
- Limited Data Storage Capability
- Limited features with report creation capability
What is Power BI Pro?
Power BI Pro is a paid subscription version of Power BI. It offers advanced features and capabilities compared to Power BI Free. With Power BI Pro, users can collaborate more effectively, schedule more frequent data refreshes, create and publish reports and dashboards, and access additional data connectors and features. Power BI Pro is best suited for small organizations start-ups or companies with limited budgets who would like to use a cost-effective and feature-rich business intelligence tool for their visualization requirements purpose.
Some of the key features of Power BI Pro include:
- Licensed Subscription
- Data Visualization with broad capabilities
- Data Transformation and data modeling
- Data Refresh frequency and Scheduling
- Collaboration and Sharing content with others
- Data Security
- On-premises Data Gateway
- Wide range of data connectors
Comparative Table (key Differences)
There are several similarities and differences between Power BI Free and Power BI Pro versions. Here we have highlighted the key differences between these products in a comparative table
| Category | Power BI Free | Power BI Pro |
|---|---|---|
| License Type | Power BI Free version doesn’t require any paid license subscription and it’s available for free. This makes it an accessible option for individuals and small teams with budget constraints | Power BI Pro requires a licensed version for users every month for individuals |
| Integration to Office 365 | The Power BI Free version is not a part of Microsoft Office 365 plan | Power BI Pro is available as part of the Microsoft Office 365 plan |
| Alert Subscription | The Power BI Free version doesn’t have a subscription to Alerts and Emails. | The Power BI Pro version comes with an Alert and Email subscription |
| Embedded Analytics | Power BI Free version doesn’t support embedded analytics i.e. you can’t embed your reports to any other apps or website | Power BI Pro version supports embedded analytics where you can embed your reports to any app or website using APIs |
| Collaboration and Sharing | The Power BI Free version doesn’t support collaboration and sharing features | Power BI Pro version allows collaboration and sharing with internal and external users with a Power BI Pro license. Users can edit/delete/add objects to the reports and dashboards |
| Refresh Rate for Datasets | Limited data refresh options and frequency. Typically, data refreshes are less frequent. You can schedule dataset refresh frequency for your reports daily | More frequent data refresh options, including the ability to schedule and refresh data more frequently. You can specify the dataset refresh frequency for your data on an hourly basis |
| App Workspace | You cannot create an App Workspace in the Power BI Free version | You can create an App Workspace in the Power BI Pro version including for mobile layout |
| Content Creation | Power BI Free can only consume and view content created by others.You cannot create or publish reports and dashboards. | Power BI Pro allows content creation, publishing, and sharing, including the ability to create and publish reports and dashboards. |
| On-Premises Gateway | Power BI Free version offers limited or restricted access to on-premises data sources via the on-premises gateway | Power BI Pro provides full access to on-premises data sources through the on-premises data gateway |
| Data Connections | Power BI Free offers a limited selection of data connectors | Power BI Pro provides access to a broader range of data connectors, allowing for more diverse data source connections |
| Advanced Features | Power BI Free providesProvides basic functionality for data visualization and exploration. However, it lacks advanced features like collaboration workspaces, on-premises data gateway access, and some advanced connectors | Power BI Pro includes advanced features such as collaboration workspaces for teams, full access to on-premises data via the gateway, and access to a wider range of data connectors |
In summary, while Power BI Free offers basic data visualization capabilities and limited collaboration features at no cost, Power BI Pro provides advanced features, enhanced collaboration, and more data management capabilities but comes with a subscription fee.
Similarities
Both Power BI and Qlik Sense are business intelligence tools designed to help organizations make data-driven decisions.
- Interactive Reports: Both Power BI Free and Power BI Pro allow users to create interactive reports and dashboards.
- Graphical User Interface: Both offer a user-friendly interface for data visualization and exploration.
- Data Export: Both Power BI Free and Power BI Pro support exporting reports to PDF and Power BI report formats
- Reporting Layouts: Both support Desktop and Mobile layouts for reporting and dashboards in report canvas for display
- Data Visualization: Both Power BI Free and Power BI Pro allow users to create interactive and visually appealing reports and dashboards. Users can use a wide range of data visualization tools, including charts, graphs, tables, and maps.
- Data Connectivity: Both versions support data connectivity to various data sources, including cloud-based services, databases, Excel spreadsheets, and web services. They offer a selection of data connectors to facilitate data access.
- Data Transformation: Users can perform basic data transformation tasks in both Power BI Free and Power BI Pro, such as filtering, sorting, and shaping data to prepare it for analysis.
- Data Sharing: Both versions enable users to share their reports and dashboards with others. However, the extent of sharing and collaboration features varies, with more advanced collaboration options available in Power BI Pro.
- Mobile Access: Users can access and view Power BI reports and dashboards on mobile devices using the Power BI mobile app, which is available for both versions.
- Data Refresh: Both versions support data refresh, allowing users to schedule data updates at specified intervals. However, Power BI Pro offers more flexibility and frequency options for data refresh.
- Data Security: Both Power BI Free and Power BI Pro include data security features, allowing administrators to control user access to reports and dashboards and secure sensitive data.
- Integration: Both versions are integrated with other Microsoft products and services, such as SharePoint, Azure, and Office 365. This integration enhances compatibility and allows for a seamless user experience within the Microsoft ecosystem.
- Data Query and Transformation: Users can use Power Query, a common component in both versions, to shape and transform data from various sources before loading it into Power BI for analysis.
- Natural Language Query: Users can ask natural language questions to explore data and generate insights in both Power BI Free and Power BI Pro using the Q&A feature.
It’s important to note that while these similarities exist, Power BI Pro offers more advanced and enhanced versions of many of these features.
In summary, both Power BI Free and Power BI Pro versions provide excellent service and product offerings to users. However, the primary differences between the two versions lie in the extent of collaboration, data modeling, and data capacity capabilities, as well as the availability of advanced connectors and features, which are more comprehensive in Power BI Pro.
Ultimately, the choice between Power BI Free and Power BI Pro depends on your requirements. If the objective is to build reports and dashboards for your consumption then Power BI Free version would be a good choice. However, if the intent is to build reports and dashboards for consumption outside of your ambit then adopting Power BI Pro could be a good choice. Remember, Power BI Pro comes with a price tag and hence, you must understand the objective before you subscribe to one of these two options.
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