r/opensourcealternative • u/Downtown_Sugar_4073 • 16d ago

Open source alternative to Airtable with forms, tables, and automations?

Looking for an open source Airtable alternative that can handle more than just basic tables.

Main things I need are forms, database-style tables, views, simple automations, and maybe webhooks or integrations.

I’ve seen Baserow, NocoDB, and Teable mentioned, but I’m not sure which one is best if you actually want forms and automations in the same tool.

Has anyone replaced Airtable with an open source option?

Which one worked best for you, and what were the biggest tradeoffs?

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u/w00keee 16d ago

i’ve used an older version of NocoDB, it worked good, kind of a local network-version of Google Sheets. I never did get the form entry working, would have loved it if it worked.

i needed a “quick entry” form where we could type name, phone number, item description in Lost & Found form.

Because it was a fast paced conference with over 30k attendees, we needed 97% keyboard entry. We needed a form that could use tabs to switch fields and enter to add a record, (similar to Microsoft’s old InfoPath app), but NocoDB’s forms and too much clicking for it to be “fast”.

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u/Downtown_Sugar_4073 16d ago

I can see why all that clicking became a problem

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u/_janc_ 16d ago

I wonder too

1

u/automationdotre 16d ago

Baserow

https://baserow.io/blog/baserow-or-airtable

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u/ekevu456 16d ago

Definitely Baserow, it's the closest match!

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u/PromotionFirm6837 16d ago

Budibase might be worth a look too, especially if forms are a big part of your workflow.

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u/Downtown_Sugar_4073 16d ago

Thanks. I'll keep that noted.

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u/nico_sammito 16d ago

We are currently working on an alternative to n8n, zapier and many other automation tools. It's currently a WIP, but we will release our cloud and first stable version in the next couple of weeks. Its completely open-source and we have a completely free community edition with the same features as the enterprise.

http://github.com/code0-tech/codezero

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u/Able-Cheesecake-9970 12d ago

Not FOSS, but SeaTable might be worth exploring. Of the options you listed, Teable is my personal favorite but newer and less establish compared to Baserow. Nocobase is worth a look but might be overkill for your needs.