The Power BI Desktop is the complete report authoring tool for report designers. It is downloaded as a free application and installed on a local computer. The desktop allows you to connect to different types of data sources and then transform it in a data model. The final part of the report creation process is to add visuals based on the data model.

The Power BI Service is the cloud-based service where users view and interact with the reports. Report designers use the Desktop application to publish the Power BI reports to the Service. Users in the Service can utilise the self service features to edit the existing reports or create new reports and visuals based on the published semantic model. The Service also allows extensive sharing and collaboration with co-workers within the Service and the wider Microsoft 365 application ecosphere.

Microsoft have integrated the Power BI Service as part of Microsoft Fabric, a comprehensive data analytics platform. They are constantly improving Power BI so there are a growing number of areas where the Desktop and Service overlap within the overall Fabric platform. However most implementations use the Power BI Desktop to author the reports and the Service to distribute the reports with others.

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