Differences between Embedded, “Publish to Web” and “Insert Report”

Although the 3 options allow you to embed reports in websites, sharepoint, e-mail, teams, etc., they are quite different.

Embedded

This is a license per capacity, which allows you to view reports securely, with permissions, RLS, OLS, access audits, IP blocks, etc., through an application, without the need for the viewer to have a Power BI license, and to control all the visuals, colors, themes, pages and components of the reports using programming language.

Insert report

This is a way of sharing reports on websites, applications, sharepoint, teams, etc. securely, while maintaining all Power BI security controls, such as permissions, RLS, OLS and access audits.

Unlike Embedded, in this sharing mode, all users who will access the report need to have a Pro or PPU license (or Premium capacity).

In addition, you can NOT control the elements of the report via programming language to dynamically create/edit visuals, change themes, create/delete pages, etc...

Publish on the web

This is a way of sharing reports for free, without the person viewing them needing to have a Power BI account or license. It works very well when you need to share reports that contain public data, i.e. there is no concern about data leakage.

Unlike Embedded, in “Publish to Web” there is no security: anyone who has access to the report link will view it, without any user-level control, such as RLS or OLS, there is no need for the viewer to be registered in any application and there is no audit to know who is viewing the report. Anyone can be viewing your company's data and you won't know who.

What's more, as has already been widely publicized on the Internet, all reports published in this way can be accessed through simple Google queries, even if the link has never been published anywhere.

Even if you try to block access by using a password to open the portal, this type of mechanism is easily broken in a few seconds using the browser's Developer Tools option and the person will have unrestricted access to the data published in the report.