The Tool Desk
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Power BI Desktop vs. Power BI service at a glance
| Task | Best place to start | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Prepare and transform source data | Power BI Desktop | Desktop includes data-preparation capabilities such as Power Query. |
| Set up relationships and calculations | Power BI Desktop | Desktop provides modeling features including relationships and DAX. |
| Design and author an interactive report | Power BI Desktop | Microsoft describes Desktop as the report-development app. |
| Make a report available online to colleagues | Power BI service, after publishing | Publishing sends the model and report to a service workspace. |
| Work together on shared content | Power BI service workspace | Workspaces provide a shared environment with roles that control access. |
| Distribute curated content to an audience | Power BI service app | Apps package content for distribution and can target audience groups. |
| Provide unrestricted public access | Publish to web, only when public exposure is intended | Anyone can view the content without signing in, and underlying model data may be accessible. |
Microsoft’s Power BI overview explains the distinction: Desktop is the development app, while the service is the cloud platform for publishing and collaboration.
What Power BI Desktop does
Desktop is the natural starting point when you are building a report. You can connect to data sources, prepare and transform data, define relationships and calculations, and arrange report visuals. The result combines a semantic model—the data structure and logic behind the report—with one or more report pages.
Use Desktop when you need to shape the data or make changes to the model and report design. Microsoft’s overview of Power BI describes these development capabilities, including data preparation, modeling, and report creation.
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What Power BI service does
The Power BI service is the online environment for making reports available to other people, organizing shared content, and viewing and interacting with reports. Once content is in a workspace, its access and collaboration options depend on workspace roles, licenses, and the capacity hosting that content.
The service also offers two distinct ways to work with content: workspaces support teams that create and manage content together, while apps package content for distribution to an audience. An app’s recipients can interact with its reports but generally do not edit the app contents. Microsoft describes these options in its documentation on collaborating and sharing Power BI content and publishing an app.
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How publishing from Desktop to the service works
- Build or update the report in Desktop. Work on the data, semantic model, and report in the Desktop file.
- Publish to a service workspace. Publishing creates service-side content: a semantic model with the same name and reports created in Report view, according to Microsoft’s Desktop publishing instructions.
- Share or distribute the service content. Use workspace access for team collaboration or publish an app when you want to distribute a curated collection to an audience. The appropriate option depends on who needs access and whether they should help manage content or primarily consume it.
The Desktop file and service content are separate copies, not two views that automatically synchronize every edit. Microsoft notes that changes made to a report in Power BI service are not saved back to the original Desktop file. Keep track of which copy is the managed source, and make subsequent development changes in the intended file.
Workspaces and apps solve different sharing needs
Use a workspace for collaborative production
A workspace is suited to a team that needs to create, organize, and manage shared Power BI content. Workspace roles control what participants can do, so access can be set according to each person’s responsibilities.
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Use an app for audience distribution
An app is suited to distributing finished, curated content. It gives an audience a way to view and interact with the reports without making those recipients editors of the app contents.
Power BI sharing depends on license and capacity
Publishing a report does not mean every colleague can automatically access it. Available sharing and collaboration features depend on the licenses assigned to the people involved and the capacity hosting the content. Microsoft’s license feature comparison distinguishes Free, Pro, and Premium Per User (PPU) licenses; for example, Free users have limited sharing and collaboration in shared capacity, while Pro and PPU provide paid sharing capabilities with different audience rules.
Check the current license and capacity rules for the specific workspace and recipient scenario before choosing a sharing method. Avoid assuming that every viewer always needs the same license: the applicable requirements vary with where the content is hosted and how it is shared. Microsoft’s license documentation was last updated August 24, 2026, as reported with the source used here; entitlements and service features can change.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Publish to web is public, not private sharing
Power BI’s Publish to web option makes content viewable by anyone on the internet without authentication. Microsoft also warns that viewers may be able to access underlying model data even when it is not displayed in the report. Do not use this option for confidential, proprietary, or otherwise sensitive material. For access limited to named people or an organization, use an appropriate service sharing method instead. See Microsoft’s Publish to web guidance.
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Which should you use?
- Choose Desktop to prepare data, build the model, or create and revise a report.
- Choose the service to make published work available online, collaborate in a workspace, or distribute it through an app.
- Use both for the common workflow: develop in Desktop, publish to a service workspace, then share or distribute from the service.
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