Baserow: The European Open Source Alternative to Airtable

No-code databases have transformed how teams manage projects, track inventory, organise content, and build internal tools. Airtable popularised this category by combining the familiarity of a spreadsheet with the power of a relational database, and millions of teams worldwide now depend on it. But for European businesses, Airtable presents a familiar problem: it is a US company, processing data on US infrastructure, subject to US law. If your Airtable bases contain customer records, employee data, or any information covered by GDPR, you are operating in a legal grey zone. Baserow offers a way out.

What Baserow does

Baserow is an open source, no-code database platform built by a team in Amsterdam. Like Airtable, it lets you create relational databases through a visual interface — no SQL knowledge required. You can define tables with typed fields (text, number, date, file, link-to-another-table, and more), create filtered views, build forms for data input, and collaborate with your team in real time. If you have used Airtable, the learning curve with Baserow is minimal.

What sets Baserow apart is its architecture. The platform is fully open source under the MIT licence, meaning you can inspect every line of code, contribute improvements, and verify that the software does exactly what it claims. There is no proprietary black box. For organisations that need to satisfy security audits or demonstrate transparency to regulators, this matters enormously.

EU hosting and data sovereignty

Baserow’s managed hosting is based in the Netherlands, with infrastructure running on European data centres. Your data stays within EU jurisdiction, governed by Dutch and European data protection law. There is no CLOUD Act exposure, no reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses, and no need for transfer impact assessments. For a detailed side-by-side comparison of the two platforms, see our Airtable vs Baserow analysis.

For organisations with stricter requirements, Baserow’s open source nature means you can self-host on your own infrastructure. Deploy it on a Hetzner Cloud VPS in Falkenstein or a Scaleway instance in Paris, and you have complete control over where your data lives, who can access it, and how it is backed up. This level of control is simply not possible with Airtable.

Feature comparison

Baserow has matured rapidly. The platform now supports features that cover the majority of Airtable use cases:

• Multiple field types: text, long text, number, boolean, date, single select, multiple select, link row, file, formula, lookup, and more.
• Views: grid, gallery, form, and Kanban views let you visualise the same data in different ways.
• API-first design: every table and field is accessible through a well-documented REST API, making it straightforward to integrate Baserow with other tools.
• Webhooks and automations: trigger actions based on row changes, connect to external services, and build lightweight workflows.
• Granular permissions: control who can view, edit, or administer specific tables and databases.

There are areas where Airtable still leads — notably in the breadth of third-party integrations and the polish of certain advanced features like scripting and interface designer. But for the core use case of building and managing relational databases through a visual interface, Baserow delivers. And it does so without the compliance baggage.

Who should consider Baserow

Baserow is a strong fit for any European organisation that currently uses Airtable and handles data subject to GDPR. This includes marketing teams managing campaign trackers, HR departments maintaining employee databases, product teams running project boards, and operations teams tracking inventory or logistics.

It is also an excellent choice for public sector organisations and companies in regulated industries (healthcare, finance, legal) where data sovereignty requirements are non-negotiable. The ability to self-host gives these organisations a level of assurance that no US-hosted SaaS product can match.

Getting started

Baserow offers a free tier on its managed platform that is sufficient for small teams and personal projects. Paid plans unlock additional storage, row limits, and premium features. For self-hosted deployments, the software is free and available on GitHub.

If you are evaluating no-code database tools for your team, Baserow deserves serious consideration. It proves that European open source software can compete directly with well-funded US incumbents — not by copying features, but by offering something those incumbents cannot: genuine data sovereignty, code transparency, and hosting within European borders.