Open-Source Airtable Alternatives: 4 Self-Hosted Picks (2026)
Airtable charges $20 per user per month on its Team plan and $45 per user per month on Business (both billed annually). That is fine for a small team, but the per-seat model climbs fast, and your data lives on Airtable's servers. Four mature projects replace Airtable's core (grids, views, relations, and forms) and self-host on a Liquid Web Managed VPS from about $33/month, flat, regardless of how many people use it. Three are OSI open source; NocoDB moved to a source-available license in January 2026, which still permits internal business use but changes what you may resell. Licenses are spelled out in the table below.
Quick pick:
- Closest Airtable feel, largest community? NocoDB (64k+ GitHub stars): grids, forms, views, and it can sit on top of an existing MySQL or Postgres database. Note the source-available license.
- Polished no-code database? Baserow: clean UI, plugins, and a genuinely friendly self-host story.
- Modern, real-time, Postgres-native? Teable (21k+ stars): the newest and fastest-moving, with a spreadsheet-grade UI.
- Spreadsheet plus a real database? Grist (Apache-2.0): Python formulas and access rules, great for analysts.
- Bottom line. At 3+ seats you already pay more for Airtable than a whole Managed VPS, and you keep your data. NocoDB is the safe default for internal use; pick Teable or Grist if you need a genuine open-source license.
Compare the four at a glance
| Tool | Best for | License | Data store | Closest Airtable feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NocoDB | Largest community, existing DBs | Sustainable Use License (source-available) | MySQL, Postgres, SQLite | Grid + gallery + kanban + form views |
| Baserow | Non-technical teams | MIT (open-source edition) | Postgres | Clean no-code grid + plugins |
| Teable | Postgres-native, real-time | AGPL-3.0 | Postgres (plain tables) | Spreadsheet-grade collaborative grid |
| Grist | Analysts and spreadsheet thinkers | Apache-2.0 | SQLite per document | Formulas + granular access rules |
Star counts and licenses verified 22 August 2026. Airtable pricing changes — check airtable.com/pricing and Liquid Web at liquidweb.com/vps-hosting/managed-vps/ before you budget.
A note on "open source." Only Baserow's core, Teable, and Grist carry OSI-approved licenses. NocoDB's master and develop branches moved to the Sustainable Use License on 29 January 2026: you may run and modify it for your own internal business purposes, but you may not sell it or offer it as a paid service. For a team self-hosting its own base, that restriction never bites. If you plan to embed a database in a product you sell, choose Grist (Apache-2.0) or Teable (AGPL-3.0) instead.
NocoDB
The most popular option by a wide margin (64,000+ GitHub stars, actively developed). NocoDB turns a database into a smart spreadsheet with grid, gallery, kanban, and form views, plus API access and webhooks. Its standout feature: it can connect to an existing MySQL or Postgres database and give it an Airtable-style UI, rather than forcing you to migrate data in.
Self-hosting is a single Docker Compose stack (NocoDB with PostgreSQL, Redis, and a gateway). A 2 to 4 GB VPS comfortably runs a small team. The connect-to-existing-database trick is the reason to pick it: point NocoDB at a production Postgres replica and non-technical colleagues get an Airtable-style editor over data you already own, with no migration and no second copy to keep in sync.
Baserow
A no-code database with a clean, approachable interface, plugin support, and a REST API. Baserow is developed in the open on GitLab and self-hosts cleanly via Docker, backed by Postgres. It leans more "friendly product" than "developer tool," which makes it a good pick for non-technical teams who want Airtable's ease without the per-seat bill.
The license split matters if you are comparing editions: the Baserow Open Source Edition is MIT, while the premium/ and enterprise/ directories carry their own commercial terms. Row coloring, admin roles and SSO live in those tiers, so confirm the feature you need is in the MIT core before you commit.
Teable
The newest of the group (21,000+ GitHub stars and moving fast), under AGPL-3.0. Teable is Postgres-native, with a spreadsheet-grade UI, real-time collaboration, and no-code app features. Because it stores data in standard Postgres tables rather than an opaque internal format, every base stays queryable with plain SQL — you can point BI tools or a reporting job straight at it without an export step. That is the strongest argument for Teable over NocoDB when you expect to build on the data. The trade-off is maturity: it is the youngest project here, so pin a version and read release notes before upgrading.
Grist
A spreadsheet-database hybrid under the permissive Apache-2.0 license (11,000+ stars). Grist adds real Python formulas, granular access rules, and dashboards on top of a relational core. Each document is a portable SQLite file, so backup and hand-off are a file copy rather than a database dump — the lightest operational story of the four.
It is the best fit when your team thinks in spreadsheets but has outgrown one, and Apache-2.0 makes it the most flexible option for embedding or commercial use. The access rules are unusually granular for this category: you can restrict by row and by column, which none of the free tiers of the others match.
(For low-code internal apps rather than a pure database, Budibase is a strong adjacent option, though it targets app-building more than Airtable-style data management.)
Fill your self-hosted base with scraped data
A self-hosted database is only as useful as the data in it. Because NocoDB, Baserow, and Teable all expose a REST API, you can pipe web data straight in: run an Apify Actor to collect leads, products, or listings, then POST the results to your base. Our Google Maps guide and Make.com + Airtable integration show the pattern, which works the same against a self-hosted API endpoint.
Where to start
For most teams leaving Airtable, NocoDB is the first stop: the largest community, the closest feature match, and the only one that can wrap a database you already run. If your team will resell or embed what you build, skip it and start with Grist (Apache-2.0) or Teable (AGPL-3.0). Non-technical teams who just want the grid to feel obvious are usually happiest on Baserow. Analysts who want formulas rather than a database go to Grist.
Whichever you pick, run it for two weeks against one real workflow before you migrate everything. All four import CSV, so the cost of trying a second one is an afternoon.
Where to host it
FAQ
Teable (AGPL-3.0) and Grist (Apache-2.0) are the strongest genuinely open-source picks, and Baserow's core edition is MIT. NocoDB is the most popular by a wide margin (64,000+ GitHub stars) and the closest to Airtable's feel, but since January 2026 it ships under the source-available Sustainable Use License: fine for internal business use, not for reselling. Choose NocoDB for an internal team base, Teable or Grist if the license matters.
The software is free and open-source; you pay only for the server. A 2 to 4 GB Managed VPS (from about $33/month) runs any of these for a small team, at a flat price no matter how many users you add, unlike Airtable's per-seat billing.
Yes. NocoDB, Baserow, and Teable all support CSV import, and NocoDB can also connect directly to an existing MySQL or Postgres database. Export your Airtable bases to CSV and import them into your chosen tool.
Next steps
Pick NocoDB for the closest Airtable experience, or Grist if your team lives in spreadsheets, and deploy it on a Liquid Web Managed VPS (see the panel above). For self-hosted project tracking, see our open-source Linear alternatives.