Airtable vs NocoDB vs Baserow: 2026 No-Code Database Comparison
What actually decides the Airtable vs NocoDB vs Baserow choice is not the free tier. It is what happens on the first paid plan: record caps, API or automation metering, storage, seat pricing, and — for the two self-hostable options — the license attached to the code. Those five variables separate a tool that stays cheap from one that quietly becomes the most expensive line item in the stack.
Sources and scope
This review is based on the vendors’ official pricing and support documentation plus GitHub API data captured on 2026-09-22. We did not run any of these tools hands-on, we did not benchmark them, and nothing here reflects trial experience. The figures below are what the vendors publish.
What was verified
Pricing and plan-limit pages for Airtable, Airtable’s support plans document, Baserow, NocoDB, and Grist were retrieved on 2026-09-22, each confirmed HTTP 200. Repository metadata for NocoDB, Baserow, and grist-core came from the GitHub API on the same date: star counts, last-push timestamps, and the license string each repository reports.
What this review does not claim
There is no hands-on testing behind this comparison. No queries were executed, no imports were timed, no support tickets were filed, and no trials were run. Anything that would require sitting inside these products — interface builder speed, sync reliability, mobile performance — is outside scope and simply not published here.
Where Airtable still wins
Airtable remains the most complete no-code product of the three. Automations, extensions, forms, Interface Designer, and timeline or Gantt views are native features rather than add-ons Airtable pricing. The cost of that maturity is per-collaborator pricing and metered API calls.
Airtable pricing and limits
The Free plan is $0 and caps a base at 1,000 records, allows 1,000 API calls per workspace per month, gives 1 GB of attachment storage per base, and keeps two weeks of revision and snapshot history; Airtable branding cannot be removed Airtable pricing. Team is $24 per collaborator/month billed monthly or $20/mo billed annually, lifting the cap to 50,000 records per base, 100,000 API calls per workspace per month, 20 GB of attachment storage per base, and one year of history Airtable plans documentation. Business is $54 monthly or $45/mo billed annually: 125,000 records per base, unlimited API calls, 100 GB of attachment storage per base, one year of revision history. Enterprise Scale is custom pricing via sales.
Airtable workflow features
Automations, extensions, forms, Interface Designer, and timeline and Gantt views are all included from Team upward, which means the Free plan has none of them Airtable pricing. The Team trial that new workspaces receive lasts 14 days and excludes the custom-script automation action and premium form features Airtable plans documentation.
Airtable workspace constraints
Workspace-wide caps sit above the per-plan limits: 1,500 bases per workspace, 1,000 tables per base, and 1,000 views per base Airtable plans documentation. Business and Enterprise Scale also require a private email domain, so gmail and yahoo addresses are ineligible for those tiers Airtable pricing. Airtable is closed-source SaaS and is not self-hostable.
Where NocoDB fits self-hosted teams
NocoDB is built around a database-first, self-hosted deployment. The Community edition is self-deployed and described by the vendor as Fair-Code, while the hosted tiers meter seats, records, API calls, and automation runs — and reserve external database connections for the upper tiers NocoDB pricing.
NocoDB free plan limits
The Free plan is $0 and covers up to 3 users, with 3 editor seats and 10 commenter seats, 1,000 records, 1 GB of storage, 100 automation runs, 1,000 API calls per month, 1 extension, and 1 interface of up to 3 pages NocoDB pricing. External database connections are not supported on Free.
NocoDB paid tiers and seats
Plus is $12 per seat/month billed annually, or $108/month for unlimited seats, with 50,000 records, 20 GB of storage, 30,000 automation runs, 100,000 API calls per month, and unlimited extensions and interfaces. Business is $24 per seat/month billed annually, or $216/month unlimited seats, with 300,000 records, 100 GB of storage, 120,000 automation runs, 1,000,000 API calls per month, 10 external database connections, private bases, and SAML-based single sign-on. Business Scale is $45 per seat/month billed annually with no seat minimums. External database connections are not supported on Free or Plus NocoDB pricing.
NocoDB Community licensing
Community is self-hosted and marketed as “$0 forever, self-deployed” and Fair-Code; the same pricing page cites 63,000+ GitHub stars and 20+ million downloads NocoDB pricing. The GitHub API reports 65,038 stars and a last push on 2026-09-22 NocoDB repository. LICENSE.md, updated 2026-01-29, places master and develop branch content under a “Sustainable Use License” v1.0 — a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, copy, distribute, make available, and prepare derivative works — while content on other branches is not licensed. Practically, a business can run and modify NocoDB internally, but reselling it or hosting it for third parties falls outside that grant.
Where Baserow balances cloud and self-host
Baserow publishes one per-user tier ladder under two tabs — cloud and self-host — which is the clearest signal of its positioning. The same plan names and prices apply whether Baserow runs the instance or the customer does, so self-hosting does not drop the subscription for Premium and Advanced Baserow pricing.
Baserow free limits
Free is $0 with 3,000 rows per workspace, 2 GB of storage per workspace, 2,000 automation credits, 500 external app users, grid, form and gallery views, 65+ templates, and 14 days of row change history Baserow pricing.
Baserow Premium and Advanced
Premium is $10 per user/month billed yearly, or $12 billed monthly, with 50,000 rows per workspace, 20 GB of storage, 100,000 automation credits, all views, an AI features trial, and 90 days of row change history. Advanced is $18 per user/month billed yearly, or $22 billed monthly, with 250,000 rows per workspace, 100 GB of storage, 500,000 automation credits, unlimited external app users, implementation support, invoice payment, and 180 days of row change history. Enterprise is on request, at 1,000,000 rows per workspace, 1,000 GB of storage, and 2,000,000 automation credits Baserow pricing.
Self-host cost note
The identical ladder under the Self-host tab means Premium and Advanced self-hosting are paid per-user subscriptions rather than free downloads Baserow pricing. The repository license adds nuance: the LICENSE file states that content outside the premium/ and enterprise/ directories is licensed separately, client-side JavaScript is under the MIT Expat license, and the premium/ and enterprise/ directories carry their own licenses. The GitHub API reports the repository license as “Other” / NOASSERTION rather than any standard SPDX identifier, so describing Baserow as simply open source is inaccurate. The repo shows 5,973 stars and a last push on 2026-09-22 Baserow repository.
Head-to-head pricing and limits
The table puts the three free plans, first paid tiers, second tiers, and top tiers side by side, along with self-host availability and GitHub star counts. The pattern is consistent: each vendor draws its first hard line at 50,000 records, then differentiates on API or automation metering, seat structure, and license terms.
Comparison table
| Feature | Airtable | NocoDB | Baserow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free price | $0 | $0, up to 3 users | $0 |
| Free record cap | 1,000 records per base | 1,000 records | 3,000 rows per workspace |
| Free storage | 1 GB attachment per base | 1 GB storage | 2 GB storage per workspace |
| Free API or automation | 1,000 API calls per workspace per month | 1,000 API calls per month; 100 automation runs | 2,000 automation credits |
| Free-plan limits | No automations, extensions or Interface Designer; Airtable branding cannot be removed; 2-week revision history | 3 editor seats, 10 commenter seats, 1 extension, 1 interface up to 3 pages | Grid, form and gallery views; 65+ templates; 500 external app users |
| First paid tier | Team: $20/mo per collaborator billed annually ($24 monthly) | Plus: $12 per seat/month billed annually ($108/month for unlimited seats) | Premium: $10 per user/month billed yearly ($12 monthly) |
| First paid record cap | 50,000 records per base | 50,000 records | 50,000 rows per workspace |
| First paid storage | 20 GB attachment per base | 20 GB storage | 20 GB storage |
| First paid API or automation | 100,000 API calls per workspace per month | 100,000 API calls per month; 30,000 automation runs | 100,000 automation credits |
| Next tier | Business: $45/mo per collaborator billed annually ($54 monthly); 125,000 records per base; unlimited API calls; 100 GB attachment storage | Business: $24 per seat/month billed annually ($216/month unlimited seats); 300,000 records; 100 GB storage; 1,000,000 API calls per month; 10 external database connections | Advanced: $18 per user/month billed yearly ($22 monthly); 250,000 rows per workspace; 100 GB storage; 500,000 automation credits |
| Top tier | Enterprise Scale: custom pricing via sales (private email domain required) | Business Scale: $45 per seat/month billed annually | Enterprise: on request; 1,000,000 rows; 1,000 GB storage |
| Self-host option | Not self-hostable | Community: “$0 forever, self-deployed”, Fair-Code | Premium and Advanced self-host are paid per-user subscriptions |
| GitHub stars | Not applicable | 65,038 | 5,973 |
What the limits reveal
Airtable charges per collaborator and meters API calls per workspace, so heavy integration traffic drives an upgrade regardless of base count Airtable plans documentation. NocoDB charges per seat on an annual commitment and gates external database connections by tier, which matters for teams bringing their own Postgres or MySQL NocoDB pricing. Baserow meters automations in credits instead of API calls and charges per user even for self-hosted Premium and Advanced, so a self-hosted deployment is a subscription rather than a free download Baserow pricing. Free tiers diverge sharply: 1,000 records for Airtable and NocoDB against 3,000 rows for Baserow.
Optional reference point: Grist
Grist is included as a fourth reference point rather than a contender. Its free plan allows unlimited documents with up to 5,000 records per document, 30-day snapshot history, and 100 one-time AI Assistant credits, and its community edition is open source and self-hosted Grist pricing.
Pro is $10/user/month monthly or $8/user/month billed annual, raising documents to 100,000 records with 3-year snapshot history. Business is $30/user/month monthly or $24 annual with a five-user minimum Grist pricing. The community edition costs $0, is open-source, and self-hosted; the grist-core repository is Apache-2.0 with 11,844 GitHub stars grist-core repository. Those figures serve mainly as a benchmark for how the other three price records and history.
Verdict: how to choose
The decision comes down to one constraint: infrastructure appetite versus feature maturity. Airtable wins where no infrastructure should be run and mature no-code features matter most; NocoDB wins where self-hosting at community cost is the priority; Baserow wins where free-tier headroom and one consistent cloud-and-self-host interface matter most.
Pick Airtable if
Pick Airtable if the deciding constraint is mature no-code features and vendor support without running any infrastructure. Automations, Interface Designer, forms, and timeline views arrive as product features, and the trade-off is per-collaborator pricing plus API metering Airtable pricing. Business and Enterprise Scale also require a private email domain, which rules out consumer addresses.
Pick NocoDB if
Pick NocoDB if the deciding constraint is a self-hosted database front end at $0 community cost under a Fair-Code license. Check the paid tiers first if the deployment needs external database connections, since those begin at Business, and read the Sustainable Use License before reselling or hosting for third parties NocoDB pricing NocoDB repository.
Pick Baserow if
Pick Baserow if the deciding constraint is more free-tier rows and storage alongside one consistent interface across cloud and self-host. Accept that self-hosting Premium or Advanced is a paid per-user subscription, and treat the license as non-standard because the repository reports “Other” / NOASSERTION Baserow pricing Baserow repository.
FAQ
Is self-hosted NocoDB actually free?
Community is self-hosted and the vendor calls it “$0 forever, self-deployed” under a Fair-Code label NocoDB pricing. The Sustainable Use License v1.0 grants internal use, copying, distribution, and derivative works for master and develop branch content NocoDB repository. Hosting the tool for third parties or reselling it falls outside that grant.
Is self-hosted Baserow free at Premium or Advanced?
No. The pricing page shows the same per-user ladder under its Cloud and Self-host tabs, so Premium at $10 per user/month billed yearly and Advanced at $18 per user/month billed yearly apply to self-hosted installs Baserow pricing. The premium/ and enterprise/ directories carry their own licenses separate from the rest of the repository Baserow repository.
Which of the three gives the most free rows and storage?
Baserow, at 3,000 rows per workspace and 2 GB of storage Baserow pricing. Airtable allows 1,000 records per base and 1 GB of attachment storage with no automations, extensions, or Interface Designer Airtable pricing. NocoDB allows 1,000 records and 1 GB of storage for up to 3 users NocoDB pricing.
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