Where does the task live: Power BI Desktop vs the Power BI service
Verdict: Modelling and authoring, including RLS rules and publishing, live in Power BI Desktop. Collaborative and capacity-backed features, workspace creation, automatic aggregations, personalize visuals and RLS member assignment, live in the Power BI service.
| Criterion | Power BI Desktop | Power BI service |
|---|---|---|
| Author RLS roles and DAX filter rules | Yes: Modeling tab, Manage Roles | No: only assign members to existing roles |
| Create a collaborative workspace | No: publishes into an existing workspace only | Yes: at app.powerbi.com |
| Automatic aggregations | Not available | Yes: service-side semantic model settings |
| Personalize visuals at runtime | Authoring tool, not applicable | Yes, when the report designer enabled it |
Rules
- Author RLS roles and their DAX filters in Power BI Desktop via the Modeling tab and Manage Roles; add members to those roles in the Power BI service.
- Create and manage workspaces in the Power BI service at app.powerbi.com; Power BI Desktop can only publish into a workspace that already exists.
- Automatic aggregations are a service-side feature on the published semantic model; the toggle never appears in Power BI Desktop settings.
- Personalize visuals is a designer opt-in enabled per report or per visual; without it, readers cannot reshape charts regardless of their licence.
Traps
- A missing Personalize this visual icon is a designer setting, not a reader permission, licence or Desktop-versus-service problem.
- Workspace creation is not in Desktop's File menu; Desktop publishes to a workspace but cannot create one.