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It's a split decision.
Choose Baserow for lower-cost paid plans, self-hosting, and a clearly stated row ceiling; its Premium starts at $10/user/month billed annually, while Advanced is $18. Choose Airtable for connected team workflows, higher-scale data through HyperDB, and a higher ease-of-use review score. Airtable Team starts at $20/user/month annually, and edit-permission users are charged. Both have free plans, but their limits differ; Airtable monthly rates and Enterprise pricing are not published.
01Side by side
| Baserow | Airtable | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid starting price | $10/user/month, billed annually | $20/user/month, billed annually |
| Free plan | Free; 3,000 rows per workspace | Free for all users; lightweight needs |
| Best for | Teams wanting self-hosting and workflow control | Teams building collaborative, connected workflows |
| Core strength | Self-hosting plus databases, apps, and automation | AI agents, app building, and HyperDB scale |
| Learning curve | Ease-of-use review score: 7.5 | Ease-of-use review score: 8 |
| Integrations/data | 3,000 free rows; self-host on your infrastructure | HyperDB supports hundreds of millions of records |
| Team/seat costs | Premium $10 per user/month, billed annually | Read-only collaborators free; editors are charged |
| Support | Review score: 6 | Review score: 5 |
Baserow Choose Baserow if
- Choose Baserow if you want self-hosting options.
- Choose Baserow if lower listed paid-seat pricing matters.
- Choose Baserow if its published row and automation caps fit.
Airtable Choose Airtable if
- Choose Airtable if you need HyperDB's high record scale.
- Choose Airtable if read-only collaborators should not incur seat charges.
- Choose Airtable if AI agents and model options matter.
02Pricing compared
Baserow is cheaper at the listed entry points for paid plans. Its Premium plan costs $10 per user/month billed annually, or $12 monthly; Advanced costs $18 annually or $22 monthly. Premium includes 50,000 rows per workspace, while Advanced includes 250,000. Baserow also has a free plan with 3,000 rows per workspace.
Airtable’s Team plan is $20 per user/month billed annually, and Business is $45. Edit-permission users are charged on both plans; read-only collaborators, form submissions, and share links are not. Airtable’s monthly-billed rates are not published. Its free plan is described as suited to lightweight needs, but the published pricing details don’t specify its record cap. Airtable says users cannot add more records or attachments after reaching plan limits. Enterprise pricing is custom for both products.
03Features and depth
Both products combine structured data with no-code apps and workflows, but Baserow makes deployment choice a clearer part of the offer. It supports cloud or self-hosting, including Docker, AWS, and Helm. Its database views include grid, gallery, Kanban, calendar, timeline, form, and survey; it also offers dashboards, visual workflow automation, and Kuma, an AI assistant that can build from a description. The plan caps are explicit: Advanced lists 250,000 rows per workspace, while Enterprise lists 1,000,000.
Airtable emphasizes connected team workflows, conversational app building, and AI agents that can orchestrate actions across operations. It offers models from OpenAI, Gemini, Llama, Anthropic, and other providers. For larger data needs, HyperDB supports record limits in the hundreds of millions, according to Airtable’s product information. Airtable also lists admin roles, fine-grained permissions, audit logs, data residency, and ISO, HIPAA, and SOC 2. Choose Baserow when self-hosting and visible row ceilings matter; choose Airtable for its stated scale and enterprise controls.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Airtable has the higher ease-of-use review score in our comparison: 8, versus 7.5 for Baserow. That points to a modest advantage, not proof that every team will find Airtable easier. Both are no-code products, and both offer ways to build apps from team data.
Baserow’s many views, visual workflows, dashboards, and self-hosting options give teams flexibility, but also leave more choices to configure. Airtable centers its pitch on connected workflows, conversational app building, and collaboration. Its seat rules are worth checking before inviting editors: edit-permission users are charged on Team and Business. For Baserow, check row and storage limits against your data before choosing a plan. The better fit depends on whether you value Airtable’s reviewed ease of use or Baserow’s deployment control.
Questions people ask
Is Baserow cheaper than Airtable?
At the published annual rates, yes: Baserow Premium is $10 per user/month and Advanced is $18, while Airtable Team is $20 and Business is $45. These are plan prices, not a like-for-like feature comparison. Baserow also publishes monthly rates; Airtable’s monthly rates are not published.
Does Baserow have a free plan, and what are its limits?
Yes. Baserow’s free plan includes 3,000 rows and 2GB of storage per workspace, 2,000 automation credits, and 500 external app users. It includes Grid, Form, and Gallery views. The published Airtable pricing details confirm a free plan but do not specify its record or attachment limits.
Can I self-host Airtable or Baserow?
The published product information lists self-hosting for Baserow, with options including Docker, AWS, and Helm. It does not list an Airtable self-hosted deployment option. If keeping data on your own infrastructure is a requirement, verify deployment details with each vendor before switching.
Which product is better for large databases?
Airtable highlights HyperDB, which supports record limits in the hundreds of millions. Baserow publishes plan-level row caps: 250,000 per workspace on Advanced and 1,000,000 on Enterprise. Those figures are not directly equivalent to Airtable’s HyperDB description, so confirm capacity and plan requirements with the vendors.