Microsoft offers two tiers of Power BI subscriptions, catering to various user needs. The Power BI Pro license, the lowest tier, is essential for all users to access and share reports via the Power BI Service. For advanced features tailored to Power BI power users or members of a data analytics center of excellence, the Premium license is required.
In our detailed comparison, we’ll outline the distinctions between these licenses, aiding you in selecting the most suitable option for your team. By understanding these variances, significant cost savings can be achieved. Businesses have the flexibility to mix and match license types, assigning Pro licenses to some users and Premium licenses to others, depending on their department’s specific reporting and analysis requirements.
Who requires a Power BI license?
In essence, Power BI Desktop serves as a free application for report development and creation. Once reports are created, they can be published to the PowerBI.com server for sharing with others. However, sharing reports and accessing those shared with you necessitates a Power BI Pro license, priced at $10 per user per month, or is encompassed within a Microsoft 365 E5 enterprise account.
Your organization gains various additional capabilities with Power BI licensing, including:
Power BI Pro Features:
- Automatic Scheduled Data Refreshes: A Pro license enables scheduling up to 8 data refreshes daily.
- Data Governance: Track data lineage and establish row-level security tied to individual Microsoft logins, with seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and Active Directory.
- Collaborative Spaces: Publish dashboards to shared workspaces, allowing individuals to view reports specific to their departments, ensuring data compartmentalization.
- Data Redundancy: Dashboards, reports, and data are stored securely in the cloud on the PowerBI.com platform.
- Azure-Backed Cloud Services: Power BI is hosted on Azure infrastructure managed by Microsoft, eliminating the need for setting up servers and managing infrastructure.
- Access to AI Tools: Connect Power BI dashboards to the Power BI Cloud for anomaly detection, data questioning, and interaction with Power BI Copilot powered by ChatGPT.
These features are among the most sought-after by users. Leveraging the Power BI Service centralizes reporting, enabling reuse of data transformations and minimizing redundant work.Even though the licensing costs per person may seem like a lot across a decent sized company there is a lot of value that’s unlocked on the development side that should offset some of the costs with labor savings elsewhere.
Understanding Power BI Premium SKUs
Power BI Premium is offered in two distinct forms tailored to varying business requirements and scales. In this section, we’ll delineate the disparities between Power BI Premium per User (PPU) and Power BI Premium per Capacity.
Comprehending these distinctions is crucial for organizations to efficiently allocate resources and select the version that best suits their needs. The predominant themes across these features revolve around advanced analysis, centralized data preparation, and handling larger datasets.
Additional capabilities that your organization gains with Power Premium licensing includes:
Power BI Premium Features
- More Data Refreshes – Power BI Premium enables users to auto-refresh data up to 48 times a day, compared to the standard 8 times with Pro.
- Larger Datasets – Premium allows for datasets larger than 10 gigabytes, facilitating large-scale analysis.
- Deployment Pipelines – Capabilities to seamlessly move reports from development through different stages to production.
- Incremental Refresh – Automatically append new data to a Power BI dataset, streamlining data updates.
- Advanced Dataflows – Centralize data transformation with Dataflows, enabling data preparation once for reuse, with additional premium-exclusive features for advanced functionality.
- More Advanced AI Modeling – Enjoy greater flexibility and access to supplementary AI analysis features.
- Datamarts – Self-service SQL databases that can be swiftly created on demand by business users.
For a more comprehensive list, visit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/enterprise/service-premium-features
Upon review, many of these features may appear niche, and indeed, they are. However, for those employed in large enterprises with highly data-literate teams, several features can significantly streamline development efforts and provide finer control over Power BI functionalities.
Additional licensing details for Power BI, can be found on Microsoft’s Power BI licensing page: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/
Power BI Premium Per User vs Premium Capacity
Microsoft offers two pathways to access Power BI Premium features: Premium per User (PPU) and Premium per Capacity. These options diverge significantly in their pricing models. While Power BI Premium per User is priced at $20 (USD) per user per month, Power BI Premium per Capacity starts at $4,995 (USD) per month.
Despite the apparent disparity in costs, the substantial gap between these two options is justified by distinct factors.
Power BI Premium Capacity eliminates the requirement for Power BI report viewers to possess Pro Licenses.
Consequently, there exists a break-even point of 500 monthly report viewers, where the expenditure on monthly per-user licenses can be ceased, transitioning to a one-size-fits-all solution. However, as with any solution, nuances exist within Premium Capacity.
Here are some key points to understand about capacity:
Premium Capacity is acquired based on compute resources.
As the number of report viewers increases, more compute resources are needed to support them. Scaling from 500 to thousands of report viewers requires significantly more compute power, with costs starting at $4,995 (USD) but potentially escalating.
Estimating required compute power is challenging, depending on factors like report complexity, concurrent viewership, and dataset sizes. If compute resources become strained, users may experience slow report interactions, indicating a need to upgrade to higher capacity tiers.
Microsoft offers a guide on Power BI Premium Capacities, SKUs, and compute resources: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/enterprise/service-premium-what-is
Requirement of Pro licenses for Power BI developers despite Premium Capacity
However, it’s worth noting that Power BI Developers still require Pro licenses in addition to Premium capacity to publish developed reports. While this may seem like a peculiar licensing quirk, the cost is relatively minimal compared to capacity pricing.
Optimizing Power BI Premium options for cost efficiency and scalability
Choosing the right Premium option for your needs can either save or cost your organization a significant amount of money. Large enterprises with hundreds or thousands of report viewers typically deploy premium capacities. For smaller organizations, Premium Per User often serves as the entry point, with additional licenses acquired on an as-needed basis for teams requiring added features.
As companies scale up their Power BI deployments, switching to Premium Capacity can save on monthly licenses and streamline the process by eliminating the need to acquire and assign individual licenses for report viewers. While this cost is minimal for small companies, it can become burdensome as reports become centralized around Power BI.
Who should consider Premium Per User?
- Power Users – Individuals in need of advanced analytics and AI capabilities.
- Small Teams – Groups seeking higher performance but constrained by budget limitations.
- Developers – Individuals tasked with developing complex data models or reports.
Who should consider Premium Capacity?
- Large Businesses – Enterprises with extensive user bases.
- Heavy Usage – Organizations managing large datasets and extensive reporting.
- Complex Needs – Businesses requiring advanced security and governance features.
- IT Departments – Centralized management of Power BI resources and workloads.
By understanding the features of Power BI Pro, Premium Per User (PPU), and Premium per Capacity, business users can make informed decisions about which model aligns with their requirements. This ensures they acquire the necessary capabilities without overspending on features they may not need.
Maximizing cost efficiency and performance in Power BI license selection
In conclusion, understanding the differences between Power BI Pro and Premium licenses is essential for optimizing cost efficiency and functionality within your organization. By tailoring your licensing strategy to match your specific needs and leveraging expert guidance from BeSharp Experts, you can maximize the value of your Power BI investment while minimizing costs. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you optimize your Power BI licensing strategy and drive business success.