Power BI Desktop or Power BI Service: what do you do where?
Power BI Desktop builds, Power BI Service shares and refreshes. What you do where, when you need a gateway and how to use Power BI on a Mac, step by step.
By Auke Westra
Founder of DigiData
Short answer
Power BI Desktop is the free Windows app where you get data, build a data model and design reports. Power BI Service (app.powerbi.com) is the cloud environment where you publish, share and automatically refresh reports. You need an on-premises data gateway when the Service cannot reach your source over the internet, such as a SQL Server in the office or an Excel file on a network drive. Power BI Desktop does not run on a Mac: you build in the browser or use Windows through Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop.
The difference in one table
Power BI has two parts that are often confused. You build in Power BI Desktop; you share and refresh in Power BI Service.
| Power BI Desktop | Power BI Service | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Free app for Windows 10 or later | Cloud environment at app.powerbi.com, in the browser |
| What it is for | Getting and cleaning data in Power Query, data model and DAX measures, designing reports | Publishing and sharing reports, workspaces and apps, scheduled refresh, subscriptions and alerts |
| Files | .pbix or a Power BI project (.pbip) | Semantic models and reports in a workspace |
| Refresh | Manual with Refresh | Scheduled: up to 8 times a day on shared capacity, up to 48 with Premium Per User or Fabric capacity |
| License | Free | Sharing reports in a shared workspace usually needs a Pro license for creator and viewer |
Which license you need and what it costs is covered in Power BI licensing: which one do you need?.
The usual workflow
- Build the report in Power BI Desktop: get the data, create relationships and write the measures.
- Publish to a workspace in Power BI Service.
- In the Service, enter the data source credentials in the semantic model settings. Desktop does not carry over your passwords or API keys.
- Set up scheduled refresh, at a time after your source has been updated.
- Share the report through the workspace or an app.
If a report works in Desktop but refresh fails in the Service, the cause is almost always step 3 or a missing gateway.
You can also build in the browser
You no longer need Power BI Desktop for everything. In Power BI Service you create a new semantic model through Create and Get data, transform data in Power Query, create relationships, write DAX measures and build the report in the browser. Microsoft calls this editing semantic models in the service.
There are limits. You need write permission on the model, your admin can switch the feature off and some model options are still Desktop-only. For a first report on a few tables the browser is enough; for a large model with many transformations most makers still work in Desktop.
When do you need a gateway?
An on-premises data gateway is Windows software on a computer in your own network. It gives Power BI Service access to sources it cannot reach over the internet itself:
- a SQL Server or other database on your own server
- Excel or CSV files on a local or network drive
- other sources behind your firewall
Cloud sources that Power BI can reach directly, such as Azure SQL Database or files in SharePoint Online and OneDrive, do not need a gateway. You only enter the credentials on the semantic model.
There are two kinds: standard mode for shared connections, DirectQuery and multiple users, and personal mode for one user refreshing their own import models. Whichever you choose, the computer running the gateway must be on and online when the refresh runs.
Take care with OData feeds that use a username and password or an API key. Microsoft's OData connector documentation lists Basic authentication as requiring a gateway. So publish a small test report first and set up the scheduled refresh before you build a large model on it. If your feed URL contains filters, choose Skip test connection when you set up the refresh: the Service tests the credentials on the base URL and ignores the query options. The steps for an Exact Online OData feed are in connecting Exact Online to Power BI.
Power BI on a Mac
Power BI Desktop does not exist for macOS. You have three options:
| Option | What you get | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Power BI Service in the browser | View and share reports, and build models and reports in the browser | Not every Desktop feature yet; sources on your own network need a gateway on a Windows computer |
| Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop | A Windows PC in the cloud with Power BI Desktop | Fully supported according to Microsoft; costs a monthly fee per user |
| Windows in a virtual machine | Windows 11 through, for example, Parallels Desktop on your Mac | Works in practice, but Microsoft does not list it as a supported environment; give the virtual machine plenty of memory |
If you mainly work on a Mac and want dashboards without Windows and without a Power BI license per viewer, a browser-based dashboard tool can be a simpler route. How that compares with building in Power BI is on building a Power BI dashboard.
Checklist when refresh fails in the Service
- Are the data source credentials filled in under the semantic model settings?
- Can the Service reach the source over the internet, or do you need a gateway?
- Is the gateway computer switched on and is the gateway online?
- Does the source URL contain filters or query options? Then choose Skip test connection.
- Does the Service refresh more often than your source is updated? Schedule the refresh after your source update.
Sources
About Auke Westra
Founder of DigiData
Auke Westra is Founder of DigiData. He was responsible for clients' data and reporting and in 2025 began building an in-house data platform with his team. He writes about AI on business data, data definitions, Power BI and integrations.
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