Data and ops
Airtable vs Baserow
Airtable if you want the richest field types, automations and app-building on top of your data. Baserow if seat costs are the problem or the data has to live on your own servers — it covers the core spreadsheet-database job at a fraction of the price.
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Airtable or Baserow — which should you use?
Airtable if you want the richest field types, automations and app-building on top of your data. Baserow if seat costs are the problem or the data has to live on your own servers — it covers the core spreadsheet-database job at a fraction of the price. Airtable starts at Team from roughly $20 per seat per month billed annually (free tier: Free plan with limited records per base and basic features.); Baserow starts at Cloud premium from a few dollars per user per month (free tier: Free self-hosting; free cloud tier with unlimited rows on paid plans.). Prices are list prices and change, so check the vendor pages before buying.
Last updated 3 August 2026
Airtable defined this category and still has the best interface, the widest field types and the deepest ecosystem. It also charges per seat, which becomes painful when half the company just needs to read a table.
Baserow is the open-source alternative, MIT-licensed core, self-hostable, with a cloud version priced far lower. It does the fundamentals well and lacks the polish.
Side by side
Airtable and Baserow in short.
Airtable
Spreadsheet-database hybrid with automations, interfaces and an app ecosystem.
- Free
- Free plan with limited records per base and basic features.
- Paid from
- Team from roughly $20 per seat per month billed annually
Good at
- Interface Designer turns a base into a usable internal app without code
- Rich field types, views and automations out of the box
- Huge template and integration ecosystem
Weak at
- Per-seat pricing punishes wide internal access
- Record limits per base bite sooner than people expect
Baserow
Open-source, self-hostable no-code database with a familiar grid interface.
- Free
- Free self-hosting; free cloud tier with unlimited rows on paid plans.
- Paid from
- Cloud premium from a few dollars per user per month
Good at
- MIT-licensed core you can self-host with no seat limits
- Much cheaper per user on cloud
- REST API generated for every table
Weak at
- Fewer field types, views and automations
- No equivalent of Airtable's Interface Designer maturity
The differences
Where they actually diverge.
| Feature | Airtable | Baserow |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Proprietary | MIT core, self-hostable |
| Price per seat | ~$20+ | A few dollars, or free self-hosted |
| App building | Interface Designer | Basic |
| Automations | Extensive | Simpler |
| Data location | Airtable's cloud | Yours, if self-hosted |
Pick one
Which one fits you.
Choose Airtable if
- You're building an internal tool on top of the data
- You need calendar, gallery, gantt and kanban views out of the box
- The team is small enough that seats don't hurt
Choose Baserow if
- Twenty people need read access and you won't pay twenty seats
- Data residency or self-hosting is required
- The grid and an API is all you need
When neither is the answer
For anything that's actually a product database, use Postgres. These tools are for operational data a human maintains, not application state.
Questions
Common questions.
Can I migrate from Airtable to Baserow?
Baserow imports Airtable bases and CSV files. Field types mostly map; automations, interfaces and scripting blocks don't and need rebuilding.
Are these safe for customer data?
Treat them like any SaaS: check the DPA, restrict sharing links, and avoid storing payment or health data unless you've done the compliance work. Self-hosted Baserow avoids the processor question entirely.
Prices are list prices published by each vendor and change often — check the linked pricing pages before you buy. We take no affiliate commission and nobody pays to appear here.
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