Comparing Power BI Report Server and the Power BI Service

Deployment

On-premises or hosted cloud

Cloud

Power BI Report Server can be deployed in Azure VMs (hosted cloud) if licensed through Power BI Premium

Source data

Cloud and/or on-premises

Cloud and/or on-premises

License

Power BI Premium or SQL Server EE with SA

Power BI Pro and/or Power BI Premium

Lifecycle

Modern lifecycle policy

Fully managed service

Release cycle

Once every 4 months

Once a month

Latest features and fixes come to Power BI Service first. Most core functionality comes to Power BI Report Server in the next few releases; some features only meant for the Power BI service.

Create Power BI reports in Power BI Desktop

Yes

Yes

Create Power BI reports in the browser

No

Yes

Gateway required

No

Yes for on-premises data sources

Real-time streaming

No

Yes

Real-time streaming in Power BI

Dashboards

No

Yes

Dashboards in the Power BI service

Distribute group of reports using apps

No

Yes

Create and publish apps with dashboards and reports

Content packs

No

Yes

Organizational content packs: Introduction

Connect to services like Salesforce

Yes

Yes

Connect to the services you use with content packs in the Power BI service. In Power BI Report Server, use certified connectors to connect to services. See Power BI report data sources in Power BI Report Server for details.

Q&A

No

Yes

Q&A in the Power BI service and Power BI Desktop

Quick insights

No

Yes

Automatically generate data insights with Power BI

Analyze in Excel

No

Yes

Analyze in Excel

Paginated reports

Yes

Yes

Paginated reports are available in the Power BI service in preview in a Premium capacity

Power BI mobile apps

Yes

Yes

Power BI mobile apps overview

ARC GIS maps

No

Yes

ArcGIS maps in Power BI service and Power BI Desktop by Esri

Email subscriptions for Power BI reports

No

Yes

Subscribe yourself or others to a report or dashboard in the Power BI service

Email subscriptions for paginated reports

Yes

No

E-Mail delivery in Reporting Services

Data alerts

No

Yes

Data alerts in the Power BI service

Row-level security (RLS)

Yes

Yes

Available in both DirectQuery (data source) & Import mode 
Row-level security in the Power BI service 
Row-level security in Power BI Report Server

Full-screen mode

No

Yes

Full-screen mode in the Power BI service

Advanced Office 365 collaboration

No

Yes

Collaborate in an app workspace with Office 365

R visuals

No

Yes

Create R visuals in Power BI Desktop and publish them to the Power BI service. You can't save Power BI reports with R visuals to Power BI Report Server.

Preview features

No

Yes

Opt in for Power BI service preview features

Custom visuals

Yes

Yes

Custom visuals in Power BI

Power BI Desktop

Version optimized for Report Server, available for download with Report Server

Version optimized for Power BI Service, available from the Windows Store

Power BI Desktop for the report server 

Power BI Desktop for the Power BI service