Unified Catalog and Data Map modules missing in Microsoft Purview (Free Account)

Hi Brishti Saha,
it looks like you’re on the Microsoft Purview Discovery Plan (free tier), which only gives you:

• The core Catalog experience for browsing/searching metadata

• A Data Map “history” log of asset updates

The full Unified Catalog and Data Map solutions (with scanning, data products, health actions, etc.) are part of the enterprise-paid offering, so you won’t see those tiles until you upgrade. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Are Unified Catalog and Data Map available on the free version? – No. The free/Discovery Plan only includes the basic Catalog and Data Map history. Full Unified Catalog and Data Map capabilities require the enterprise version.
2. If an upgrade is required, do you need to link an Azure subscription? – Yes. Upgrading to the enterprise tier means you’ll assign an Azure subscription to the Purview account so billing can kick in for those additional modules.
3. Do you need any special permissions on the free tier to see those tiles? – Since the tiles themselves aren’t offered in the free tier, there’s no role assignment that will make them appear. After you upgrade, make sure you’ve granted yourself a built-in Purview role (for example, Data Curator, Data Source Administrator or Purview Administrator) so you can view and manage the Unified Catalog and Data Map blades.

Hope that helps clarify why those tiles are missing. Let me know if you’d like pointers on upgrading your account or assigning roles once you’re on the enterprise plan!

Reference list

• Free version of Microsoft Purview data governance solutions

https://learn.microsoft.com/purview/data-governance-free-version

• Unified Catalog region availability

https://learn.microsoft.com/purview/unified-catalog-regions

• Learn about Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog

https://learn.microsoft.com/purview/unified-catalog

• Data governance with Microsoft Purview

https://learn.microsoft.com/purview/data-governance-overview
Hope this helps. If you have any follow-up questions, please let me know. I would be happy to help.
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1. Unified Catalog and Data Map are part of Microsoft Purview data governance in the new Microsoft Purview portal, but the free version exposes only a subset of capabilities and surfaces them primarily through the Catalog and Data Map history experiences. In the free version, the focus is:
   • Auto discovery of Azure and Microsoft Fabric resources via live view
   • Browsing and searching assets via Catalog
   • Viewing Data Map history
   The comparison table shows that both Free and Enterprise include Data Map, but the free version is limited to:
   • Auto discovery of Azure data sources
   • Manual creation of assets via Data Map APIs
   • Basic catalog browse/search and manual curation
   The full Data Map and Unified Catalog feature set (collections, glossary terms, advanced access control, automated scans, workflows, business rules, etc.) is only available after upgrading to the enterprise version. In the free/Discovery plan, only the limited governance experience is available, so not all solution tiles that exist in enterprise tenants will appear.
2. To access the enterprise version (and thus the full Data Map and broader governance applications), an upgrade to enterprise is required. The upgrade path described for data governance is specifically to the enterprise version of Microsoft Purview data governance. The enterprise version has access to:
   • All Microsoft Purview applications and data sources
   • Collections, glossary terms, automated scans, workflows, business rules, and full REST API use
   The upgrade is an account-level change for Microsoft Purview data governance. The documentation describes upgrading the free instance to enterprise; it does not detail subscription wiring in this excerpt, but it does state that when upgrading, all data from the free version is migrated and the enterprise account is hosted in the same location. Any Azure subscription linkage requirements would be handled as part of that enterprise upgrade flow.
3. In the free tier, access control is tenant-level and simplified. All users can view data assets for sources where they already have at least Read permissions. For metadata curation and broader catalog operations, the key role is:
   • Data Catalog Curator – can create, read, modify, and delete catalog data objects and establish relationships between objects.
   There is no indication that additional roles are required just to make the tiles appear in the free version; instead, the free version simply exposes a limited set of governance solutions (Catalog and Data Map history) rather than the full Unified Catalog/Data Map solution tiles seen in enterprise environments. Account type can be confirmed in the portal under Settings → Account → Account type.

References:

• Free version of Microsoft Purview data governance solutions
• Get started with the free version of Microsoft Purview data governance solutions
• Learn about the Microsoft Purview portal
• Data governance roles and permissions in Microsoft Purview
• Learn about data governance in the Microsoft Purview portal