Baserow is better if you want lower costs, self-hosting or EU data storage; Airtable is better if you want the most polished interface, native mobile apps and the largest integration library. For a typical small team Baserow costs half as much or less, but one billing rule can flip that, and Airtable charges per editor on every paid plan.
What is Baserow? Baserow is an open-source, no-code database from Amsterdam that works like Airtable and can run in the cloud or on your own server.
What is Airtable? Airtable is a cloud-only, no-code database that mixes a spreadsheet look with database features, owned by Bending Spoons since September 2026.
How we compared them: This is a research comparison, not a hands-on test. We checked both vendors’ pricing pages and help documentation on November 2, 2026, and worked out the team costs ourselves from those published prices. Where a source is written by one of the two vendors, we say so. SmartWorkflowLab has no sponsorship or affiliate deal with Baserow or Airtable.
Baserow vs Airtable at a Glance
| Baserow | Airtable | |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Baserow B.V. (Amsterdam) | Bending Spoons (since September 2026) |
| Free plan | 3,000 rows per workspace (cloud), unlimited self-hosted | 1,000 records per base, up to 5 editors |
| Cheapest paid plan | Premium: $10/user/mo yearly, $12 monthly | Team: $20/user/mo yearly, $24 monthly |
| Next plan | Advanced: $18 yearly, $22 monthly | Business: $45 yearly, $54 monthly |
| Who you pay for | Premium: everyone. Advanced: editors only | Team: editors and commenters. Business: editors only |
| Self-hosting | Yes, open source | No, cloud only |
| Default data location | Germany (cloud) or your own server | United States |
| Rows on cheapest paid plan | 50,000 per workspace | 50,000 per base |
| Mobile apps | Mobile browser | iOS and Android apps |
| AI | AI fields and the Kuma assistant (Premium and up) | Omni assistant and AI fields, on credits |
Baserow Pros and Cons
Pros
- Costs half of Airtable Team per user on Premium, and $18 on Advanced against Airtable Business at $45.
- On Advanced, commenters and viewers are free, so only editors cost money.
- Self-host it for free with unlimited rows and storage, or use the cloud with data in Germany.
- A built-in Airtable importer moves tables, links and attachments across.
- Automations, an app builder and AI are included in the plans, and self-hosted automations have no usage limit.
Cons
- Premium bills every collaborator, including read-only viewers.
- Rows are counted per workspace, not per base, so all your databases share one limit.
- Row history lasts 90 days on Premium, against a year on Airtable Team.
- No native mobile apps and a smaller library of native integrations.
- Self-hosting needs someone comfortable running a server, backups and updates.
Airtable Pros and Cons
Pros
- The most polished interface in this category, with Interfaces for building dashboards and simple apps.
- Native iOS and Android apps.
- A large integration library, plus two-way Sync between bases on Business.
- One year of revision history on Team and Business.
- Read-only users are free on every paid plan.
Cons
- $20 per user on Team and $45 on Business, before any add-ons.
- Commenters count as paid seats on the Team plan.
- No self-hosting, and EU data residency only on Enterprise Scale.
- The free plan stops at 1,000 records per base.
- Ownership changed in September 2026, followed by large staff cuts in October.
Pricing Compared
Prices were checked on Baserow’s pricing page and in Airtable’s plans overview on November 2, 2026. Both are per user per month.
Baserow Cloud Plans
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Rows per workspace | Storage per workspace | Automation credits a month | Row history |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 3,000 | 2 GB | 2,000 | 14 days |
| Premium | $10 | $12 | 50,000 | 20 GB | 100,000 | 90 days |
| Advanced | $18 | $22 | 250,000 | 100 GB | 500,000 | 180 days |
| Enterprise | On request | On request | 1,000,000 | 1,000 GB | 2,000,000 | 180 days |
Premium adds all views (including Kanban, calendar and timeline), AI features, row comments and Excel export. Advanced adds role-based and field-level permissions, audit logs and SSO. Self-hosted Premium and Advanced have no row or storage limits.
Airtable Plans
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Records per base | Attachments per base | Automation runs a month | Revision history |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 1,000 | 1 GB | 100 | 2 weeks |
| Team | $20 | $24 | 50,000 | 20 GB | 25,000 | 1 year |
| Business | $45 | $54 | 125,000 | 100 GB | 100,000 | 1 year |
| Enterprise Scale | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Team includes Interfaces and 15,000 AI credits per billable user a month. Business adds two-way Sync, admin tools and 20,000 AI credits per paid user. API calls are capped at 1,000 a month on Free and 100,000 on Team, and unlimited on Business.
Who You Actually Pay For
This is where most comparisons go wrong, because the two tools bill different people:
| Role | Baserow Premium | Baserow Advanced | Airtable Team | Airtable Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admins, builders, editors | Paid | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Commenters | Paid | Free | Paid | Free |
| Read-only viewers | Paid | Free | Free | Free |
Sources: Baserow subscriptions overview and Airtable plans overview.
Monthly Cost for 4 Team Setups (Billed Yearly)
We worked these out from the published yearly-billing prices above:
| Team setup | Baserow Premium | Baserow Advanced | Airtable Team | Airtable Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 editors | $20 | $36 | $40 | $90 |
| 5 editors | $50 | $90 | $100 | $225 |
| 5 editors + 10 read-only viewers | $150 | $90 | $100 | $225 |
| 5 editors + 10 commenters | $150 | $90 | $300 | $225 |
How we got them: Baserow Premium is $10 times everyone in the workspace, Baserow Advanced is $18 times editors only, Airtable Team is $20 times editors and commenters, and Airtable Business is $45 times editors only. Self-hosting the free edition of Baserow costs nothing per user, only your server. On monthly billing, the 5-editor team pays $60 on Baserow Premium, $110 on Advanced, $120 on Airtable Team and $270 on Airtable Business.
Is Baserow Cheaper Than Airtable?
Yes, in most setups: five editors pay $50 a month on Baserow Premium against $100 on Airtable Team, billed yearly. The exception is Baserow Premium with many read-only viewers, because Premium bills everyone, so a team where most people only view should pick Baserow Advanced, which bills editors only.
Limits That Matter Day to Day
- Rows: Airtable counts records per base, and Baserow counts rows per workspace. Airtable Team allows 50,000 records in each base, while Baserow Premium allows 50,000 rows across every database in the workspace. If you run several busy databases, Baserow Advanced (250,000) or self-hosting is the fairer match.
- Automations: Airtable counts each automation run, and Baserow counts each action inside a run as one credit. A run with three actions uses one of Airtable’s runs but three Baserow credits. Baserow’s cloud limits are currently soft, so automations keep running past the allowance while you get notified, according to a July 2026 Baserow announcement. Self-hosted automations have no limit.
- History: Airtable Team and Business keep a year of revisions. Baserow keeps row history for 90 days on Premium and 180 days on Advanced.
- API: Airtable caps API calls at 1,000 a month on Free and 100,000 on Team, with no cap on Business. Baserow Cloud has no monthly call cap but allows up to 10 requests at the same time under a fair use policy, and self-hosted Baserow has no rate limit, according to Baserow’s FAQ.
- Hitting a limit on Airtable: your data stays, but you can’t add records or attachments until you upgrade.
- Hitting a limit on Baserow Cloud: if a workspace stays over its row limit for 7 days, it can’t create new rows until you upgrade or delete rows. Self-hosted paid plans have no row or storage limits at all.
Performance With Large Tables
Neither vendor publishes independent benchmarks. Airtable avoids the question with hard caps of 50,000 records per base on Team and 125,000 on Business. Baserow says its tables can handle millions of rows on self-hosted servers, and its own release notes claim large speed-ups from automatic indexes (May 2023) and optional field indexes that make filtering up to 10 times faster (July 2025). Baserow’s FAQ adds that requests are faster on tables with fewer fields and rows. These are vendor claims, so if you plan to store hundreds of thousands of rows, test a copy of your largest table before you commit.
Verdict: Airtable’s per-base limits are more generous for teams with many databases on a mid-tier plan, while Baserow removes the limits entirely if you self-host.
Self-Hosting and Open Source
Baserow’s core is open source and runs on a PostgreSQL database. You can install it on your own server with Docker, or on Kubernetes with Baserow’s Helm chart. Self-hosters can also add plugins to extend it. The free self-hosted edition has unlimited rows but only grid, gallery and form views, and keeps the Baserow logo. Premium and Advanced features need a paid license even when self-hosted, billed per seat you assign, and on Advanced commenters and viewers don’t need a seat. Baserow’s pricing docs list Premium at $10 to $12 and Advanced at $18 to $22 per user a month, and Capterra lists self-hosted Premium at $10 per user, so a license costs about the same as the cloud plan.
A small team usually needs a small cloud server, often $10 to $20 a month, plus someone who can handle updates and backups. Airtable has no self-hosted option.
Verdict: Baserow is the only choice of the two if your data must stay on your own servers.
Data Location, GDPR and Ownership
Baserow Cloud stores all customer data in Germany, according to Baserow’s data residency page (a vendor source). The company is Baserow B.V., registered in Amsterdam, and its terms fall under Dutch law. Self-hosting lets you choose the country yourself.
Airtable stores data in the United States by default. EU and Australian data residency are available only on the Enterprise Scale plan, according to Airtable’s data residency article.
Airtable’s ownership is also new. Bending Spoons completed its purchase on September 4, 2026, and in an October 12, 2026 update Airtable said “nothing changes regarding your plan, price, or service offering,” while also parting ways with “a large portion of the pre-acquisition team.” The same update promised an upgrade to its Omni AI assistant, a new app builder called Canvas, and work on EU data residency.
Security and Compliance
Airtable lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and HIPAA on its trust and security page, and offers a GDPR data processing addendum. HIPAA support is limited to Enterprise Scale customers. Baserow’s FAQ says it is GDPR, HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II compliant and doesn’t mention ISO 27001. SSO needs Airtable Business or Baserow Advanced.
Verdict: Baserow is the simpler choice if your policy or your clients require data hosted in the EU, because its cloud keeps data in Germany on every plan. Airtable can still be GDPR-compliant through its data processing addendum, but EU data residency needs Enterprise Scale, and it holds more published security certifications.
Features Compared
Views and Interfaces
Both have grid, gallery, form, Kanban, calendar and timeline views. On Baserow, Kanban, calendar and timeline need Premium. Airtable’s Interfaces let you build dashboards and simple apps on top of your bases. Baserow’s equivalent is its Application Builder, for portals and internal tools, with up to 500 external app users per workspace on every cloud plan.
Automations
Airtable has mature built-in automations with a clear run limit per plan. Baserow added an Automations Builder in version 2.0 (November 2025) and has kept extending it: version 2.4 in September 2026 added loops, an email trigger and responses to web requests, according to its release notes. For complex workflows, both tools also connect to Make and n8n, which we compare in n8n vs Make.
AI
Airtable’s AI, the Omni assistant and AI fields, runs on monthly credits: 500 per editor on Free, 15,000 per billable user on Team and 20,000 on Business. Baserow’s AI fields and Kuma assistant are on Premium and up. Kuma can build tables, views and automations from a chat, and since version 2.4 admins can choose their own AI provider and model, which matters if you self-host and want to keep data away from a particular AI company.
Formulas and Scripting
Both tools have spreadsheet-style formula fields, lookups and rollups. Airtable goes further for power users with its Scripting extension on paid plans and a “Run a script” automation action, which run JavaScript against your base. Baserow’s equivalents are its REST API, custom CSS and JavaScript in the Application Builder, and plugins for self-hosters. If your team relies on Airtable scripts, plan to rewrite them, because the Airtable importer doesn’t bring formulas or scripts across.
Integrations and Mobile
Airtable has the larger library of native integrations and apps for iOS and Android. Baserow relies more on its REST API, webhooks and connectors on Zapier, Make and n8n, and it works on phones through the mobile browser rather than a native app.
Verdict: Airtable is better than Baserow for out-of-the-box integrations and mobile use, while Baserow gives you more control over AI providers and unlimited self-hosted automations.
Moving From Airtable to Baserow
Baserow’s Airtable importer copies a base from its public share link. Here’s what moves and what doesn’t:
| Moves across | Has to be rebuilt |
|---|---|
| Tables and records | Automations |
| Most field types | Interfaces and integrations |
| Linked records | Formulas, lookups and rollups |
| Attachments | Row comments and revision history |
| Grid views with filters, sorts and grouping | Access controls and field descriptions |
Baserow adds an import report table that lists anything only partly imported. If your Airtable organization requires sign-in to view shared links, the import can fail, and Baserow’s docs describe a workaround.
A sensible order: import one base, check the import report, rebuild its formulas and automations, run both tools side by side for two weeks, then move the rest.
Which Should You Choose?
| If you… | Choose |
|---|---|
| Want the lowest cost for a small team of editors | Baserow Premium |
| Have many commenters or read-only viewers | Baserow Advanced |
| Must keep data on your own server or in the EU | Baserow |
| Want native mobile apps | Airtable |
| Rely on many native integrations or Sync between bases | Airtable |
| Need a year of revision history on a mid-tier plan | Airtable Team |
| Have several large databases and won’t self-host | Airtable Business or Baserow Advanced |
| Worry about the Bending Spoons takeover | Baserow, or keep an Airtable export ready |
Other Options
If neither fits, NocoDB, Grist and Teable are three more open-source databases, SmartSuite is a hosted all-in-one work platform, and Google Sheets may be enough if you don’t need linked records. We compare eight options in our Airtable alternatives guide, and if you’re still deciding whether you need a database at all, see Airtable vs Google Sheets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Baserow better than Airtable?
Baserow is better if you want lower cost, self-hosting, data stored in the EU or no per-seat fees for commenters on its Advanced plan. Airtable is better if you want the most polished interface, native mobile apps, a large integration library, Sync between bases and a full year of revision history even on the Team plan.
Is Baserow cheaper than Airtable?
Usually, yes. Baserow Premium costs $10 per user a month billed yearly and Advanced $18, against $20 for Airtable Team and $45 for Business. The exception is a team with many read-only viewers on Baserow Premium, because Premium bills every collaborator, while Airtable Team doesn’t charge for read-only users.
Is Baserow free?
Yes, in two ways. Baserow Cloud has a free plan with 3,000 rows and 2 GB of storage per workspace. The self-hosted open-source edition is free with unlimited rows and storage, but it has fewer views and features than the paid plans, and you pay for your own server.
Can I import my Airtable base into Baserow?
Yes. Baserow has a built-in Airtable importer that brings over tables, records, most field types, linked records, attachments and grid views with their filters and sorts. Automations, interfaces, comments, revision history, formulas, lookups and rollups don’t transfer and have to be rebuilt. The importer needs a public share link to the base.
Where is Baserow data stored?
Baserow Cloud stores all customer data in Germany, and the company is Baserow B.V. in Amsterdam. If you self-host, the data stays on your own server wherever you run it. Airtable stores data in the United States by default, and EU data residency is only available on its Enterprise Scale plan.
Does Airtable charge for commenters?
On the Team plan, yes. Airtable bills owners, creators, editors and commenters on Team, and only read-only users are free. On the Business plan, commenters and read-only users are free. Baserow’s Advanced plan also lets commenters and viewers join free, while its Premium plan bills every collaborator.
Sources
- Baserow pricing, pricing plans docs and subscriptions overview, checked November 2, 2026
- Baserow Airtable importer docs, 2.4 release notes, automation limits update, data residency and terms
- Airtable pricing and plans overview, checked November 2, 2026
- Baserow FAQ, Helm install guide and 1.34 release notes on field indexes
- Airtable trust and security, Scripting extension and data residency and Back to bases update (October 12, 2026)
