I tried 10+ Airtable alternatives and found these 6 best picks for 2025

Airtable is one of those tools that can feel like magic. It’s a spreadsheet, a database, and a project manager all wrapped up in a pretty interface. But if you’ve ever lost a weekend trying to get a linked record setup just right, you know that its power comes with a steep learning curve. Sometimes it feels like you're spending more time building your tools than actually getting work done.

I’ve been there. You want the flexibility of a database, but you need something that’s easier to use, more affordable, or just a better fit for a specific job, like managing projects or automating customer support.

That’s why I decided to dive deep into the world of database-spreadsheet tools. I've tested some of the most popular options to bring you a straightforward guide to the 6 best Airtable alternatives for 2025, each with its own unique strengths.

What is Airtable and why look for Airtable alternatives?

Airtable is a flexible platform that mixes the simplicity of a spreadsheet with the power of a database. It allows teams to build custom apps and workflows to manage just about anything you can think of. It’s a dream for anyone who loves to tinker and build their perfect system from the ground up.

But that’s exactly where things can get tricky. If you’re looking for an alternative, you’re probably bumping up against one of these common headaches:

As you'll hear from users on Reddit, Airtable is what you make it. That's a nice way of saying you have to invest a serious amount of time building and maintaining your setup. That’s time you could be spending on other parts of your business.

Reddit

• The cost adds up fast. The per-user pricing can become a real budget-killer as your team grows. The Team plan is $24 per user per month, and the Business plan is $54 per user per month. For a ten-person team, that can easily run into thousands of dollars a year.

• It's a jack of all trades. Airtable can do a little bit of everything, which is great until you need it to do one thing exceptionally well. For specialized tasks like customer support automation or advanced project reporting, it often falls short of purpose-built tools.

What I looked for in the best Airtable alternatives

To pull this list together, I wasn't just searching for Airtable clones. I focused on tools that address its main weaknesses while still giving you a solid platform for your data. Here’s what I was looking for:

• Core features: The tool had to have strong database or advanced spreadsheet capabilities for organizing and connecting data.

• Team collaboration: It needed to be designed for teams, so everyone can work together without getting in each other's way.

• Ease of use: I wanted a good balance of power and user-friendliness. A massive learning curve was a big no.

• Flexibility: The platform had to be adaptable enough to handle different kinds of work without feeling clunky or restrictive.

• Value for money: I looked for clear pricing and useful free or entry-level plans that let you get real work done from the start.

Airtable alternatives comparison table

Here’s a quick overview of my top picks to help you see how they compare.

The 6 best Airtable alternatives for 2025

Finding the right tool really boils down to the job you need it for. Are you trying to track a simple project or build out an enterprise-level support system? Here are my top picks, each chosen for a specific purpose.

1. eesel AI

A lot of teams try to use Airtable to build a support ticket tracker or an internal knowledge base. The issue is that it’s a clunky, manual process that can’t keep up when things get busy. Instead of giving you another box of building blocks, eesel AI is a specialized platform that automates this whole process. It’s an AI agent that connects to your help desk (like Zendesk or Intercom) and knowledge sources (like Confluence or past tickets) to provide instant, automated support.

A workflow showing how eesel AI automates the customer support process, which is a key feature of these Airtable alternatives.::

• Why I chose it: It solves the whole "build vs. buy" problem. Why spend months building a support workflow in Airtable when you can launch a fully functional AI agent in minutes? eesel AI takes all your scattered information and turns it into an intelligent system that answers customer questions, drafts replies for agents, and triages tickets on its own.

• Pros:

  • Get started right away: You can go live in minutes without having to schedule a sales call or sit through a mandatory demo.

  • Unifies knowledge automatically: It learns from your past tickets, help docs, and internal wikis, so it sounds like your team from day one.

  • Risk-free testing: You can test how it would have handled thousands of your past tickets before you ever turn it on for live customers.

• Cons:

  • It's a specialized tool for customer service and internal support, so it's not meant to be a general-purpose database for marketing or sales.

  • The pricing is based on AI interactions, which is a different model than Airtable's per-user pricing.

• Pricing: You can try everything out with a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start with the Team plan at $299/month, which includes up to 1,000 AI interactions, an AI Copilot for your helpdesk, and a Slack integration.

2. Smartsheet

Smartsheet is for any team that basically lives in spreadsheets but needs the power of a real project management tool. It takes the familiar grid layout you know from Excel or Google Sheets and adds features like Gantt charts, automated workflows, and reporting dashboards that can manage projects at any scale.

• Why I chose it: It’s the perfect exit for anyone who finds Airtable’s database-first approach a bit too restrictive. If you want the freedom of working in cells but still need to manage complex project timelines, Smartsheet is a great choice.

• Pros:

  • It feels natural for anyone who’s ever used a spreadsheet.

  • It’s excellent for managing large-scale projects where you need a high-level view of everything.

  • The automation and integration options are solid and reliable.

• Cons:

  • The interface can feel a little dated compared to some of the newer tools out there.

  • The price can climb for larger teams, and many of the best features are only available on higher-priced plans.

• Pricing: Smartsheet doesn’t have a free plan, but you can try it for 30 days. The Pro plan starts at $9 per user/month and gives you unlimited sheets and 250 automations per month. The Business plan is $32 per user/month and adds unlimited automations and team workload tracking.

3. ClickUp

ClickUp wants to be the one app that replaces everything else. It’s built to be the center of your work, pulling together tasks, docs, goals, and spreadsheets into one place. While it’s mainly a project management tool, its Tables view gives you database-like features that can handle many of the same things you’d do in Airtable.

A screenshot of the ClickUp dashboard, showcasing why it is one of the top Airtable alternatives for all-in-one project management.::

• Why I chose it: This is a great pick for teams that feel Airtable is too focused on data and not enough on the daily work of getting things done. It offers a much wider range of project management features right out of the box.

• Pros:

  • The "Free Forever" plan is one of the most generous around, with unlimited tasks and members.

  • It’s incredibly flexible, with over 15 different ways to view your work, from Kanban boards to calendars.

  • The pricing is very competitive, offering a lot of bang for your buck even on the cheaper plans.

• Cons:

  • All the features and options can be a bit much for new users to take in.

  • Its database tools are good, but they're a feature, not the core of the product like they are in Airtable.

• Pricing: A generous Free Forever plan is available. Paid plans start with the Unlimited plan at $10 per user/month, which gives you unlimited storage and integrations. The Business plan is $19 per user/month and adds things like workload management and custom exporting.

4. Notion

Notion is an all-in-one workspace that does a beautiful job of combining documents, wikis, and databases. It's the perfect tool for teams that want to build a central hub where project plans and team docs can live right next to the data that powers them.

A screenshot of a company wiki in Notion, highlighting its strength as one of the leading Airtable alternatives for documentation.::

• Why I chose it: Its document-first feel is a real advantage for knowledge management. You can create a clean, collaborative team wiki and drop powerful databases right into your pages. This helps you build a single source of truth that's tough to create in Airtable. As a nice little bonus, eesel AI connects directly with Notion to pull that knowledge into your AI agent.

• Pros:

  • The interface is clean, minimal, and very flexible.

  • It's fantastic for building team knowledge bases and project documentation.

  • The free plan is solid and works well for individuals and small teams.

• Cons:

  • Its database features aren't as advanced as Airtable's, with fewer field types and simpler automations.

  • It can start to feel a bit slow when you're working with really large databases.

• Pricing: Notion offers a free plan with a block trial for teams. The Plus plan starts at $12 per user/month and includes unlimited blocks and file uploads. The Business plan is $22 per user/month and adds SAML SSO and advanced page analytics.

5. Baserow

Baserow is an open-source, no-code database that looks and feels a lot like Airtable. The big difference? You can either use their hosted cloud version or run it on your own servers, giving you total control over your data.

• Why I chose it: This is the best option for teams with strict data privacy rules, a desire to avoid being locked into one provider, or a need for a cheaper solution at a large scale. Self-hosting gives you the ultimate freedom to customize and secure your setup however you want.

• Pros:

  • It's completely open-source, so you're not stuck with a single company.

  • Self-hosting gives you full control over data security, which is a must-have for many organizations.

  • The interface is clean, fast, and will feel very familiar if you're coming from Airtable.

• Cons:

  • Running it yourself requires some technical know-how to set up and maintain.

  • It doesn't have as many built-in integrations as the bigger, more established tools.

• Pricing: The self-hosted version is free and open-source. The hosted cloud version has a Free plan with up to 3,000 rows. The Premium plan starts at $12 per user/month for 50,000 rows, and the Advanced plan at $22 per user/month offers 250,000 rows.

6. Google Sheets

Seriously, don't overlook Google Sheets. While it's just a spreadsheet, it can be a surprisingly capable tool for managing data. With tons of formulas, add-ons, and the power of Google Apps Script, you can actually mimic a lot of Airtable’s functionality without spending a dime.

• Why I chose it: It's the most accessible and affordable option on this list, hands down. For teams already in the Google ecosystem, it’s a familiar tool that can be shaped to handle project tracking, simple CRMs, and content calendars. Plus, it integrates with tools like eesel AI for Google Docs, making it part of a connected knowledge ecosystem.

• Pros:

  • It's completely free with a standard Google account.

  • It's incredibly flexible and familiar to pretty much everyone.

  • It connects perfectly with the entire Google Workspace suite.

• Cons:

  • It doesn’t have a true relational database structure or different views like Kanban or Gallery.

  • Trying to manage complex workflows can turn into a tangled mess of formulas and scripts.

• Pricing: Google Sheets is free with a personal Google account. For businesses, it's included in all Google Workspace plans, which start at $7 per user/month for the Business Starter plan.

This video provides a helpful overview of some of the best no-code and open-source Airtable alternatives available in 2025.

How to choose the right Airtable alternatives

Switching tools is a big deal, so it’s worth thinking it through. Before you make a final decision, ask yourself a few questions:

• What problem am I really trying to solve? Be honest about your main goal. Are you managing complex projects? Building a team wiki? Or trying to automate customer support? A general tool is rarely as good as one designed for a specific job.

• How technical is my team? Does your team enjoy tinkering and building their own tools? A platform like Baserow might be a great fit. If they just want something that works right away, you'll be better off with ClickUp for project management or eesel AI for support.

• What's the real cost? Don't just look at the monthly price tag. Think about the time your team will spend setting up, learning, and maintaining the tool. Sometimes, a more expensive, specialized tool can actually save you money by cutting down on hundreds of hours of manual work.

Stop building your support system, automate it

Airtable is a fantastic tool for building things from the ground up. But when it comes to something as important as customer support, the best alternative isn't another box of building blocks, it's a solution that’s built for the job. If your main goal is to manage knowledge and answer customer questions efficiently, you've probably outgrown a DIY database. You need an automation platform.

Ready to see how that works? eesel AI connects with your existing tools to launch a powerful AI agent in minutes, not months. You can try it for free today.