Power Embedded vs Power BI
1. Introduction
One of the most common questions we receive is about the difference between Power BI and Power Embedded. Although both complement each other, there are important differences, which is why we have prepared this documentation to help you understand.
It is essential to understand that Power Embedded does not replace Power BI. On the contrary, it extends the capabilities of Power BI, allowing an even more detailed view of your data and improving the organization of the BI environment, as well as offering exclusive functionalities.
If you've ever wanted to deliver a personalized portal to your customers, share reports with external users, get detailed insights into which reports are being accessed the most, or even have an AI assistant to help you analyze your data efficiently, and at the same time reduce Power BI license costs, Power Embedded could be the ideal solution for these and other challenges.
Power Embedded is a SaaS solution that uses Microsoft's official capabilities to embed the reports published in the Power BI service directly into your application, which can reduce monthly Power BI licensing costs by up to 90%.
In addition to reducing costs, Power Embedded also offers a number of additional features, which we will describe throughout this documentation.
2. Comparison table between Power BI and Power Embedded
Although some functions are similar, Power Embedded brings some significant improvements.
Below is a table comparing the main similarities and differences between the two solutions.
All data is easily exportable
3. New Power Embedded Features
Low-cost Generative AI
Power BI: Power BI features Copilot, a robust generative AI that helps analyze data. However, this functionality is only available in Microsoft Fabric SKU F64, which may not be financially viable for some organizations due to its high cost.
Power Embedded: In Power Embedded, there is a generative AI called Power Pilot, which also allows you to answer business questions quickly and efficiently. The big difference is that Power Pilot offers this functionality at a significantly more affordable cost, making the solution more attractive from a financial point of view.
Firewall access control
Power BI: In Power Bi, you can't natively restrict access by IP.
Power Embedded: Power Embedded offers this functionality natively, allowing you to restrict user access based on IP addresses.
Audits
Power BI: Audits in Power BI are limited to usage metrics, which often don't provide the detailed information you really need, are often out of date and the view is per workspace, which makes it impractical to have several.
Power Embedded: In Power Embedded, you have access to detailed audits that provide metrics such as access, permissions and most used reports, among other audits, in a unified view of the entire environment, API to query this data or export to CSV/Excel.
Dynamic models
Power BI: Only available via the API.
Power Embedded: Exclusive Power Embedded functionality, developed for scenarios in which a single report is accessed by different clients, each using a different semantic model, and therefore viewing different data. This is very useful for separating the data according to each client without relying on RLS and keeping the size of each model small. This helps a lot with report performance.
Dark Mode - Functionality
Power BI: Only available in Power BI Desktop recently.
Power Embedded: Dark mode has been available natively in the web version of Power BI Embedded since the tool's launch.
Personalized visual identity (White-label)
Power BI: Power BI offers incredible graphics, but it is not possible to customize an environment with the specific visual identity of each customer.
Power Embedded: In Power Embedded, you can create a personalized environment with a specific visual identity for your clients or departments, providing a totally customized experience.
Report catalog
Power BI: There is no native functionality for displaying reports that users don't have access to, but which could be useful to them.
Power Embedded: With the report catalog in Power Embedded, you can show reports to users even if they don't yet have direct access, allowing them to request permission if necessary.
Warnings and notifications
Power BI: There is no native functionality to show warnings, notifications and alerts to users who are browsing the portal.
Power Embedded: There is a Warnings functionality, where you can schedule warnings and notifications, using rich text and images, so that users who are browsing the portal and viewing reports can be made aware of these messages.
All data is easily exportable
Power BI: There are no options for exporting RLS rules, users, audits, etc.
Power Embedded: All audits, RLS rules, users and audits can be exported and imported using files. Report access auditing even has an API for reading data in real time.
4. Power Embedded enhancements
App
Power BI: In Power BI, the app is a way of sharing reports, where you can group several dashboards, reports in one place and share them with different audiences. Only reports can be included and they need to be in the same workspace.
Power Embedded: In Power Embedded, this functionality is available with some improvements. You can create as many applications as you need, add reports from different workspaces and use TV mode, which allows you to display reports on a screen with slideshow functionality natively. In addition, Page Level Security allows you to define which pages of the report you want to make available to each user.
Sharing with external users
Power BI: In Power BI, sharing reports with external users can be complicated, requiring users to have a corporate account or a specific license (Pro or PPU).
Power Embedded: In Power Embedded, which uses Power BI Embedded or Fabric licenses, you can share your reports more flexibly with external users without the same license restrictions.
Dataset refresh
Power BI: You can schedule data refreshes in Power BI, but you are limited to 8 daily refreshes in the Pro license or 48 in the PPU.
Power Embedded: In Power Embedded, in addition to scheduling refreshes, you have extra features, such as the possibility of not having to take possession of the dataset and of performing refreshes without the 30-minute limit between each one and when more than 5 failures occur, the Power Embedded refresh continues to work, while the Power BI refresh stops working. Via API, updates are unlimited.
5. Limitations of Power Embedded
Although Power Embedded offers powerful solutions, there are some limitations that, due to not being supported in the official Power BI API, you can't do through the portal:
Analyze in Excel: If the number of users who need this functionality is low, you can release some Pro accounts so that they can continue to use this functionality.
Direct Lake: Not yet supported by the API.
Visual calculations: Not yet supported by the API.
6. Power Embedded's main features
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