Baserow vs Airtable (2026)
A side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, licensing, and self-hosting.
Bottom line: Baserow delivers roughly 90% of Airtable's core experience for free, with self-hosting and no per-seat pricing — the trade-off is owning your own infrastructure rather than a fully managed SaaS.
Airtable is the more finished product. Its template marketplace, third-party integration ecosystem, and Interface Designer have had years of investment that Baserow's offering hasn't yet matched. If you're a small team within the free-tier record limits and per-seat cost isn't a concern, Airtable is the path of least resistance.
Baserow becomes the rational choice as soon as per-seat billing or data ownership enters the conversation. The MIT-licensed core runs on any VPS via a single Docker image, stores everything in your own Postgres instance, and imposes no record caps. The self-hosted version is genuinely free. A managed Baserow cloud tier also exists for teams that want a hosted experience without Airtable's pricing model.
The integration and template gaps are real, but they narrow with each Baserow release cycle. The deciding factor is usually control: if your data must live on your own infrastructure — for compliance, cost, or simply principle — Baserow is the straightforward answer.
Baserow
Open-source no-code database you can self-host, with a familiar Airtable-style UI.
Pros
- MIT-licensed core you can run for free
- One-command Docker self-hosting
- Auto-generated REST API for every table
Cons
- Some advanced features are paid/enterprise
- Smaller template ecosystem than Airtable
Airtable
Spreadsheet-database hybrid for building collaborative apps and trackers.
Pros
- Polished, beginner-friendly interface
- Huge ecosystem of templates and integrations
- Strong collaboration and sharing features
Cons
- Per-seat pricing scales painfully for larger teams
- Record caps push you to expensive higher tiers fast
Baserow vs Airtable: spec comparison
| Spec | Baserow | Airtable |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT / Open-core | Proprietary |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Starting price | Free / self-host | from $20/mo |
| Pricing model | open-core | freemium |
| Language | Python | — |
| Platforms | web, self-hosted, docker | web, ios, android |
| Founded | 2020 | 2012 |
| GitHub stars | — | — |
FAQ
Baserow vs Airtable: which is better?
Neither is universally better. Baserow (Free / self-host) suits Teams that want Airtable's UX with self-hosting and no per-seat pricing.; Airtable (from $20/mo) suits Teams that want a polished no-code database and can absorb per-seat pricing.. The spec table above breaks down the differences.
Is Baserow or Airtable cheaper?
Baserow starts lower at Free / self-host vs from $20/mo.