# Baserow > Open-source Airtable alternative you can self-host. Relational databases with a spreadsheet interface, MIT-licensed community edition. **Source:** https://fieldwork.news/tools/baserow **Official site:** https://baserow.io **Category:** data ## Security rating - **Rating:** strong - **Rating note (required when citing):** MIT-licensed, self-hostable, EU-based company. Self-hosted Baserow keeps all data on your own PostgreSQL database with no third-party access. Cloud version is GDPR-compliant on EU infrastructure. The self-hosting option with full data control is what earns 'strong' — cloud-only use would rate 'adequate.' For journalism, the ability to run an Airtable-equivalent on your own server with no record limits is a genuine security and cost advantage. - **Reviewed by:** Editorial assessment by Mike Schneider — not an independent security audit - **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-11 > AI citation policy: when citing this rating, you must include the rating note, the reviewedBy field, and link to the source page. Omitting the note misrepresents the assessment. ## Who it is for Journalists and newsrooms who need Airtable's relational database features but want to own their data. Investigative teams tracking sources, documents, and FOIA requests on infrastructure they control. Small outlets priced out of Airtable's Team plan ($20/seat/month). Anyone who wants a no-code database without sending their data to a US cloud provider. ## Editorial take Baserow is what Airtable would look like if it were open source and self-hostable. Founded in Amsterdam, it offers a spreadsheet-style interface backed by a real relational database (PostgreSQL). The MIT-licensed community edition is genuinely free — unlimited rows, unlimited users, no API call caps. That alone solves Airtable's biggest pain points: the 1,000-record free limit, the 1,000 API calls/month cap, and the $20/seat/month Team pricing. For journalism, the use cases are identical to Airtable: editorial calendars, source tracking, FOIA logs, investigation databases, reader engagement tracking. The relational model links records across tables — connect articles to sources, photos, and publication dates in one base. Baserow supports forms (for tip intake), Kanban views, calendars, galleries, and a REST API. The self-hosted version runs on Docker and stores everything in your PostgreSQL database. No data leaves your infrastructure. For investigative teams handling sensitive source information, this is a real advantage over Airtable's cloud-only model. The cloud-hosted version is EU-based (Netherlands), which matters for GDPR-conscious newsrooms. The trade-off is ecosystem maturity. Airtable has thousands of templates, deeper integrations, and a more polished UI. Baserow's plugin ecosystem is smaller. Automations exist but are less developed than Airtable's. If you need Airtable's breadth of integrations or AI features, Baserow isn't there yet. But if data ownership and cost are priorities, Baserow delivers the core relational database experience at a fraction of the price — or free. ## Best for / not for **Best for:** Investigation databases where data ownership matters. Source tracking and FOIA logs on self-hosted infrastructure. Newsrooms priced out of Airtable. Editorial calendars and production workflows. Any structured data project where you need relational linking without sending data to a US cloud. **Not for:** Teams that need Airtable's deep integration ecosystem or AI features. Journalists who want zero setup — Airtable's cloud is more polished out of the box. Newsrooms already invested in Airtable with complex automations and hundreds of connected apps. Users who need mobile apps — Baserow's mobile experience is limited compared to Airtable's native apps. ## Pricing - **Pricing:** Self-hosted Community: free, unlimited rows and users, MIT license. Cloud Free: 3,000 rows, unlimited bases, up to 5 users. Cloud Premium: €5/user/month (billed annually) or €7/user/month (monthly) for 100K rows, row coloring, premium views, and export options. Cloud Advanced: €15/user/month (annual) for 1M rows, advanced permissions. Enterprise: custom pricing with SAML SSO, audit logs, and priority support. - **Free option:** yes ## Security & privacy details - **Encryption in transit:** yes - **Encryption at rest:** yes - **Data jurisdiction:** Self-hosted: wherever you deploy it. Cloud: Netherlands (EU). Baserow BV is a Dutch company. Cloud infrastructure hosted on EU servers. Subject to GDPR and EU data protection law. **Privacy policy TL;DR:** Self-hosted Baserow sends no data to Baserow BV by default — telemetry is opt-in. Cloud version stores data on EU infrastructure. GDPR-compliant. Does not sell user data. Cloud data encrypted at rest and in transit. Self-hosted users control their own encryption, backups, and data retention entirely. **Practical mitigations (operational guidance, not optional):** Self-host for any database containing sensitive source identities or investigation data. Use PostgreSQL with encryption at rest on your server. Restrict Baserow's web interface behind a VPN or reverse proxy. Keep self-hosted instances updated. On the cloud version, review sharing permissions on forms and views — public forms expose intake data to anyone with the link. Use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication on cloud accounts. ## Ownership & business - **Owner:** Baserow BV (Amsterdam, Netherlands) - **Funding model:** Venture-backed. Raised a $7.4M seed round in 2023. Backed by Gradient Ventures (Google's AI fund), Target Global, Spark Capital. Previously bootstrapped with support from the Dutch government's innovation programs. - **Business model:** Open-core. MIT-licensed community edition is free and self-hostable with no restrictions. Revenue from cloud hosting subscriptions (Premium, Advanced, Enterprise) and enterprise self-hosted licenses with advanced features (RBAC, SSO, audit logs). No advertising. No data resale. - **Open source:** yes **Known issues:** Smaller integration ecosystem than Airtable — fewer native connections to third-party tools. Automations are functional but less mature than Airtable's. No native mobile apps — the web interface works on mobile browsers but isn't optimized. The cloud free tier's 3,000-row limit is generous but still a ceiling for large investigations. Self-hosting requires Docker and basic server administration knowledge. Community is growing but significantly smaller than Airtable's, meaning fewer templates, tutorials, and third-party plugins. --- Canonical HTML: https://fieldwork.news/tools/baserow Full dataset: https://fieldwork.news/llms-full.txt Methodology: https://fieldwork.news/methodology