Free Vs. Paid Power BI vs. Fabric: A Quick Walkthrough

As modern businesses increasingly rely on data analytics tools and services, Microsoft’s Power BI remains at the top. Power BI is a leading business intelligence tool that transforms data from multiple sources into structured data sets. These are visually appealing. Users can visualize complex data structures through charts, maps, and reports without coding expertise.

Launched in 2015, Power BI was available to users in two formats: Free and Professional. But as Power BI has evolved dramatically over the last 10 years, it has introduced multiple subscription models. In the latest version, Power BI is deeply integrated with Microsoft Fabric.This has changed its subscription model to a capacity-based licensing model. 

If you are struggling with these questions, this blog is for you: 

1. Can the Power BI Free version support me with data analytics?
2. What is Power BI Pro or Premium, and which one should be opted for?
3. What is MS Fabric, and should I invest in it?

Let us read in detail about how Free Vs. Paid Power BI vs. Fabric.  

Microsoft Power BI Desktop (Free version) 

This free version enables users to analyze, visualize, and generate reports in the PIX format. For beginners, it can be a great platform to start a data visualization journey.  

The Power BI Free version does not allow users to share reports or collaborate with users on different plans. To use the tools and features of the Power BI free version, you need to get the Free Power BI license, which will be assigned by your BI administrator. You can get the license by signing up on the MS website.  

Price: Free

Microsoft Power BI Pro 

It is a paid version that allows teams or departments to publish and share dashboards and reports with users on the Power BI Pro version. It is suitable for medium or small-scale teams. Power BI Pro plan is backed by row-level security (RLS), sensitivity labels, and usage metrics. So, you are assured of strong data security.  

Price: $14 per user per month   

Power BI Premium  

This paid version of Power BI is suitable for organizations that deal with large-scale data and want to streamline it with advanced analytics tools. This version helps users with AI-driven insights and allows them to share the visual reports and charts with Power BI users (free version).  

Price: $24 per user per month  

Free Vs. Paid Power BI vs. Fabric 

Microsoft Fabric 

To use MS Fabric, you will have to purchase a Power BI Premium Capacity license.  

Microsoft Fabric is an AI-powered, intelligent data analytics tool built on Microsoft technologies. As Fabric integrates multiple tools into a SaaS environment, it simplifies data management by promoting data engineering, BI, and data warehousing. 

Let us see what the key components of MS Fabric are:

• OneLake 
• Data Factory  
• Synapse Data Science 
• Power BI 
• Data Activator  
• Synapse Data Engineering  
• Synapse Real-time Intelligence  

Microsoft Fabric: The Bigger Platform  

Microsoft Fabric is Microsoft’s and Azure Data’s new unified data analytics platform, which has revolutionized the data analytics world. 

Why should organizations use MS Fabric? 

1. As this platform integrates with Azure, MS365, and Power BI, organizations that use the MS suite for their everyday operations can easily work on Fabric to accelerate data-driven experiences. 

2. Users can access, manage, and analyze data on Fabric, which promotes real-time communication and knowledge-sharing among data analysts and decision-makers.  

3. Fabric is built on a cloud architecture, which handles a high volume of data. This cloud-native platform responds to evolving business requirements by scaling to accommodate increasing data volumes.

4. AI-powered analytics and machine learning algorithms help businesses automate day-to-day mundane tasks. In this way, decision-makers can focus on high-value business areas.  

5. Fabric makes handling data easy by supporting data lifecycle stages in a single cloud-based environment. It eliminates the need to manage data on multiple tools.  

Lake-centric  

Microsoft Fabric supports a multi-cloud data lake named “OneLake,” which ensures that Fabric’s workloads are wired into this data lake. It acts as a single, central storage system, making data management easier.  

Artificial Intelligence and operational agents 

The Azure OpenAI service is integrated with Fabric. It protects data at every layer. This integration also allows users to use the power of generative AI on the data. With MS Copilot, users can develop data flows and data pipelines, visualize results, and build machine learning models.  

Use cases of MS Fabric 

Healthcare: Patient care can be improved through accurate data management. Fabric ensures secure and scalable patient record systems and enables multidisciplinary research on complex and huge medical datasets.  

Financial sector: Fabric helps financial organizations with integration of the entire data on a secured platform to avoid data breaches. They can ensure compliance with industry regulations. Fabric helps banks and other financial institutions maintain trust with their customers.  

Manufacturing: Advanced analytics and AI-powered features allow manufacturers to: 

• monitor and maintain equipment 
• Conduct predictive maintenance alerts 
• Streamline the production process with data analytics 

Retail: Retailers can leverage the capabilities of MS Fabric to forecast demand, understand customers’ buying patterns, and conduct marketing strategies with advanced data management tools.

What is the role of Fabric consultants?  

By choosing MS Fabric consulting services, you can be assured of expediting your transition to scalable architecture, i.e., Fabric. Fabric consultants identify business challenges and plan Fabric implementations to address them. With a team of highly experienced and knowledgeable experts, Fabric consulting service providers assist you from the discovery phases to the implementation and post-implementation support.

Beyond Key: Your Fabric Consulting Partner  

We at Beyond Key are here to help you with your Fabric implementation journey. We aim to simplify your data management and analysis. Beyond Key can help you with: 

• Unbiased multi-cloud advice 
• Scalable implementations 
• Expert guidance regarding MS Fabric 
• Services include migration assistance, performance optimization, security consulting, and management services 

If you want to start this transformative journey or learn more about Free Vs.Paid Power BI vs. Fabric, please contact our experts.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Is Power BI free to use? 

Yes, Power BI is free to use. You can use the free version to create reports, model data, and create charts and graphs.  

2. What are the limitations of Power BI Free? 

One limitation of Power BI is the inability to share reports and files with other users. They cannot create a collaborative workspace and share data with others.

3. What is Microsoft Fabric, and how is it different from Power BI? 

MS Fabric is an end-to-end data analytics platform that combines data engineering, data visualization, data science, and real-time analytics into a single platform.  

Power BI is a basic data visualization and analytics tool. IT is a part of Microsoft Fabric.  

4. Is Power BI included in Microsoft Fabric? 

Yes, Power BI is included in MS Fabric, and it serves as a platform for reporting and visualization.

5. Do I need a Power BI license if I use Microsoft Fabric? 

Yes, a license is required to use MS Fabric.  

6. Is Microsoft Fabric free? 

No, Microsoft Fabric is not free to use.