Airtable pricing changes: implications, alternatives, and solutions

• Airtable’s pricing changes (side-by-side comparison)
• Key changes to Airtable’s pricing, per plan
• Airtable pricing implications for small-medium businesses and enterprises
• Baserow is open source, whereas Airtable is closed source and proprietary
• Summary

Airtable recently announced changes to its pricing plans. These changes have significant implications, especially for medium-sized teams, but also for Enterprise customers. In this article, we’ll explore what the most important changes are, how they may impact you as a team, and which alternative no-code database is available if you consider moving off Airtable.

Additionally, we’ll explore possible solutions so that you can:

• Continue running your business data operations
• Formulate an informed decision on Airtable alternatives and determine if you should (or need) to migrate
• Be better prepared for more future pricing changes that you may experience

Airtable’s pricing changes (side-by-side comparison)

To understand the implications of the new Airtable pricing changes, let’s take a look at a side-by-side overview comparison of the new and previous pricing tiers:

Here’s the full, detailed comparison between Airtable’s old and new pricing plans, along with their respective features:

Key changes to Airtable’s pricing, per plan

Free plan

Airtable still has the Free plan, but it now has stricter limitations:

• Records per base are decreasing from 1,200 to 1,000.
• Storage/attachment space per base is decreasing from 2 GB to 1 GB.
• Rather than having up to 5 users with all permissions, you’re specifically limited to 5 editors and 50 commenters.
• From one synced table to no synced tables.
• From one synced integration to no synced integrations.
• API calls per workspace per month are decreasing from unlimited to 1,000.

Plus plan (now Team plan)

⚠️ An important thing to note about this plan: Airtable will keep your Plus plan pricing under the new Team plan, as long as you don’t change anything. This is a short-term solution since you’ll end up having to choose between a downgrade to the Free plan or spending twice as much as you’re currently spending on the Team plan.

As your data, rows, storage, and teams grow (or shrink), it means that at some point, you’ll be bound to the new pricing and limits under the Team or another plan.

This makes Airtable less flexible and scalable since you’ll likely need to shift tiers at some point as your projects, team, and business grow. Given how difficult it is to foresee these changes, especially from a budget perspective, this puts you at risk of facing heavier spending than you might’ve anticipated.

Pro plan (now Team plan)

Unlike the new Team plan, or what is now the legacy Plus plan, users will not be able to keep their current pricing, even if no changes are made.

Instead, anyone using the legacy Airtable Pro plan will be automatically placed into the new higher-cost Team plan starting September 18th, 2023.

Business plan

Creating the Business plan is the first step in shifting sales focus to higher-tier customers with higher margins at an increased price point.

Enterprise

When it comes to the new Enterprise Scale plan, Airtable didn’t provide as much detail compared to the other plans. The new Enterprise Scale plan appears to be focused on increasing storage limits, user management, and artificial intelligence. Even though Airtable’s Enterprise Scale plan varies, it can be reasonably expected to be in the $60+ per user per month rate billed annually, and a bit more if billed monthly. This is a price point where scaling users and data held within Airtable becomes a real budget issue. Here are some key changes from the legacy Enterprise plan and the new Enterprise Scale plan:

As you can see, a lot of the features in the new Enterprise Scale plan remain the same. Perhaps the biggest jump is the 250,000 record increase, but it comes at a relatively hefty price tag.

Despite lots of features for user management, it still does not address the issue of self-hosting options where scalability, data governance, and security are in the hands of the enterprise without being locked into the SaaS vendor.

Airtable pricing implications for small-medium businesses and enterprises

Mid-size teams: Multiply your spending by 2.5 times or accept less storage and automation runs

For mid-size teams who enjoyed the Pro plan, you will either need to downgrade to Team and accept less storage and fewer automation runs, or spend 2.5 times the amount on the Professional plan in order to keep your current features. This would get you access to some features currently only available in the Enterprise plan, (even though you could argue that the Pro plan is like the old Enterprise plan from an average price per user perspective).

Teams using Airtable will need to assess their requirements and determine whether the Plus plan offers sufficient features to meet their collaboration needs. The enhanced calendar functionality and expanded revision history may be valuable for teams working on complex projects.

However, the increased cost of the Team and Business plans compared to the legacy Plus and Pro plans, respectively, may require teams to reevaluate their budget allocations—especially as your data grows.

Large teams: Even with Enterprise scale, you are still limited and your cost will increase significantly

As Airtable aims to scale better in the enterprise segment, the new Enterprise Scale plan addresses this by bumping record and storage limits. Most of the other features remain as per the legacy Enterprise plan. The legacy Enterprise plan means that companies seeking advanced security and administrative controls will need to invest in the significantly higher-priced Enterprise Scale plan.

For companies that were on the legacy Enterprise plan, and are now being shifted to the new Enterprise Scale plan, you’ll see minimal changes. The largest change perhaps is that you can now store 250,000 records per base, as opposed to the previous 500,000 per base limit.

Nevertheless, the sales motion of Airtable will continue to evolve from product-led to sales-led, with an increase in cost of sales expected as new salespeople will be hired to drive revenue in this segment. This means margins in the enterprise segment will need to be higher and pricing will increase accordingly.

Baserow is open source, whereas Airtable is closed source and proprietary

In light of the Airtable pricing changes, it is worth considering alternatives that offer similar functionality at a more cost-effective price point. One such alternative is Baserow, an open-source platform that provides a comparable experience to Airtable.

Baserow, however, provides far more flexibility in allowing you to create databases and applications that scale.

Let’s explore some advantages of Baserow over Airtable.

Baserow is open source, Airtable is closed source and proprietary

Baserow being open source has huge advantages for individuals, teams, and businesses. Being open source, you have greater control over your data and can customize the platform to suit your specific needs.

This level of flexibility is beneficial for companies with unique requirements, especially for companies in highly-regulated industries, like finance, healthcare, education, and more.

If you’re building software on top of Airtable, think twice about the risk for your business. Whereas Airtable’s business model thrives on locking you into its proprietary ecosystem, Baserow operates the opposite way. If Airtable is a critical part of your tech stack and operations, any changes to Airtable—whether it’s pricing increases, storage limitations, or proprietary extensions—your business will feel the effects of that instantly, and you’ll be forced to pay the price in all of the associated switching costs (time, money, energy, and resources).

With Baserow’s MIT license, you can build software and sell Baserow as part of your offering. You remain in control, make a margin on every user, and keep a direct commercial and service relationship with your customers.

Baserow Cloud vs. Baserow Self-Hosted

Unlike Airtable, you can choose from two different deployment types: Baserow Cloud and Baserow Self-Hosted.

Airtable’s proprietary nature often causes headaches for organizations that need granular control over their data, since Airtable doesn’t offer an open-source, self-hosted version. Airtable is only available in SaaS form via the cloud.

Baserow Cloud is the hosted SaaS version of Baserow, akin to Airtable. With Baserow Cloud, you go to baserow.io to sign up, and you can start using the platform instantly. No need to worry about deployments, updates, or any server administration. Baserow handles it all.

With Baserow Self-Hosted, you’re completely in control of everything. If you’re in one of those highly regulated industries with strict data governance policies, like finance, Manufacturing, Research, Government, Healthcare, or Education, Baserow Self-Hosted gives you the peace of mind of being fully data compliant.

Baserow Self-Hosted allows you to adhere to even the strictest data governance policies, whether at the organization, state, or federal level by self-hosting Baserow on your premises. This way, you get both security and privacy, knowing that you administrate and manage everything from beginning to end.

Baserow has higher, more generous limits than Airtable

Baserow offers significantly higher limits on records, attachments, and other resources compared to Airtable’s plans. This allows users to work with larger datasets without worrying about hitting limitations.

If you handle large volumes of data and row and storage limits are a big concern for your business, it’s unlikely that you’ll find Airtable’s limits satisfactory.

With Baserow, you can go the self-hosted route and eliminate row and storage limits entirely.

Baserow is more cost-effective than Airtable

As we look at Airtable’s new plans and pricing structure, we see a considerable difference between Baserow and Airtable.

Take Baserow’s Advanced plan, for example. For $20 per user, per month, you get:

• 250,000 rows/records
• 20 GB of storage
• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Free read/comment users
• All available view types

If we compare it to Airtable’s new Team plan, which is $20 per user, per month, you get:

• 50,000 rows/records
• 10 GB of storage
• No role-based access control (RBAC)
• Free edit/comment users
• All available view types

If we compare enterprise plans between Baserow and Airtable, Airtable still has a limit of 500,000 records per base. Baserow Self-Hosted, on the other hand, has no limits on rows/records, or storage.

Baserow Enterprise also comes with an instance-wide admin panel that allows you to drill down into insights about everything that’s going on in Baserow. Sign in with SSO, pay by invoice, and get access to audit logs that give you full visibility for the utmost security.

Baserow has no vendor lock-in

Baserow allows you to come and go as you, please. Focus on your business needs, rather than the risk that comes from adopting another platform for your business and teams. Rather than locking you into proprietary formats, Baserow allows you to export your data in CSV, XML, and JSON formats.

The combination of Baserow’s open-source nature and self-hosting capability results in no vendor lock-in. You have the freedom to customize and extend the functionality of Baserow according to your specific needs. You’re never tied to a particular vendor or forced to rely on proprietary features. This flexibility allows you to adapt and evolve your systems without being constrained by the limitations imposed by a single provider like Airtable.

Baserow automation with Make, Zapier, and n8n

Baserow integrates seamlessly with automation platforms like Make, Zapier, and n8n to create the workflows you need.

Baserow gives your business continuity and longevity

By avoiding vendor lock-in, Baserow provides businesses with greater control over your operations and reduces the risk of disruption.

When businesses rely heavily on proprietary platforms like Airtable and the vendor decides to change pricing, discontinue the service, or modify features, it can have a significant impact on the business’s operations.

Baserow’s open-source nature and self-hosting capability ensure that your business can continue to use and maintain your systems even if external circumstances change.

Summary

Baserow’s pricing structure is designed to provide more value for less money. Users can access advanced features and higher resource limits at a fraction of the cost compared to Airtable’s paid plans.

The new Airtable pricing changes have implications for teams and companies of different sizes. Users will need to assess their requirements and budget constraints to determine the most suitable plan. Additionally, exploring alternatives like Baserow can provide a cost-effective solution with greater flexibility and resource limits.

While Airtable remains a popular choice for many, the introduction of Baserow as an open-source alternative provides users with an attractive option that offers more generous limits and cost-effectiveness.

Try Baserow today and see for yourself

If you’re ready to free your business from Airtable’s constraints, try Baserow today for free. Experience the freedom to create, the flexibility to scale, and the fearlessness that comes with building your no-code applications with Baserow.

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