Airtable is a good product. Small businesses rarely leave because it stopped working. They leave because of the bill, the limits, or the feeling that they no longer control something their business runs on. One reviewer on Trustpilot described being "stuck paying Airtable $240 a year if I want to continue to use the investment of my data" (Trustpilot).
This guide is for a small business using Airtable as its operating database: stock, orders, customers, jobs, bookings.
Why small businesses leave Airtable
- The price per seat. Team costs $20 per seat a month billed yearly ($24 monthly) and Business $45 ($54). Every editor is a seat, so the bill grows with every hire.
- Record limits. Each base holds up to 1,000 records on Free, 50,000 on Team and 125,000 on Business. Free also stops at 5 editors.
- People outside the team. Giving a contractor or client edit access usually means paying for another seat.
- Ownership. Bending Spoons completed its purchase of Airtable on 4 September 2026. Prices haven't changed. If an owner change makes you nervous, the first step is the same as for any move: export your data now.
Pick by your reason
| Your reason | Look at |
|---|---|
| The bill per seat | Baserow, Grist or NocoDB on your own server, where users cost nothing extra |
| Record limits | Any self-hosted option; their limits come from your server, not a plan |
| You want it on your own server | NocoDB, Baserow, Teable or Grist |
| You want something simpler | Google Sheets with a form in front, or Notion databases |
| Staff should only see their part | Grist, whose access rules work on rows and columns |
Self-hosted alternatives
All four below run on your own server for free, and each also sells a hosted version and paid features. Baserow, Grist and Teable are open source; NocoDB uses a "fair-code" licence that allows use inside your business. One warning before you choose: features have moved from free editions into paid ones before, and it was the complaint we saw most often about these tools. Read what the free edition includes today, not what it included last year.
NocoDB
NocoDB copies Airtable's grid closely. Self-hosted Community is free with unlimited records and seats. In the cloud, Free covers 3 editors and 1,000 records, and Plus is $12 per seat a month billed yearly.
Baserow
Baserow is often the first of these that people try. Self-hosted, it is free with unlimited rows, and almost all of its code is MIT-licensed. The cloud Free plan holds 3,000 rows per workspace. Premium is $10 per user a month billed yearly, and roles and audit logs need Advanced at $18.
Grist
Grist is a spreadsheet and a relational database at once, with formulas in Python, forms, and access rules down to rows and columns. Grist Desktop also runs on one computer without the internet. The cloud Free plan holds 5,000 records per document. Pro is $8 per user a month billed yearly, or $10 monthly, and the self-hosted Community edition is free under Apache-2.0. Its AI Assistant can create and change records and help with formulas.
Teable
Teable is built on Postgres. Its core is licensed AGPL-3.0. The cloud Free plan holds 1,000 rows per space, and Pro is $13 per seat a month billed yearly.
Hosted alternatives
SmartSuite
A hosted database close to Airtable in how it works. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Team is $15 per seat a month billed yearly, with at least 3 users and 5,000 records per solution.
Google Sheets and AppSheet
If the business already runs on Google Workspace, a sheet with a Google Form in front covers a single list. AppSheet turns a sheet into an app with screens and per-user views. AppSheet Core comes at no extra cost with most Google Workspace editions; on its own it is $10 per user a month, or $5 for Starter. AppSheet's own database stops at 2,500 rows on those plans, while apps built on a Google Sheet don't have that row cap.
Notion databases
Notion databases handle simple linked lists well, such as clients and their projects, inside the wiki the team already uses. Databases are on the Free plan; Plus is $10 per seat a month billed yearly. They are weak at numbers: stock levels, totals per customer, anything that needs a running balance.
Moving out of Airtable
- Download every table. Open each table's grid view with all fields visible, and download it as CSV.
- Save the attachments. The CSV only holds links to attachments, and those links expire. Download the files you need.
- Write down the automations. They don't export. Describe each one as a plain example: "When an order's status becomes Shipped, email the customer."
- Note the linked fields. Linked records export as text names. You will relink them in the new tool, so make sure the names are unique.