Airtable vs SeaTable: pricing, hosting and features compared (2026)

Rangee is a no-code database, and so a competitor of both these tools. We only cite facts checked on 4 November 2026. They come from the publishers' official pages, and from the press for the Airtable acquisition.

Airtable and SeaTable make the same promise: a spreadsheet that becomes a real database, with linked tables, views and automations. The first is American and the better known. The second is German, cheaper per seat, and can be installed on your own servers.

The comparison has come up often since Bending Spoons' acquisition of Airtable, completed on 4 September 2026. This page sets out the prices according to your number of editors and readers, and where your data goes. It also covers the free plans and what gets lost in a migration. For the other European options, see our comparison of Airtable alternatives.

Airtable or SeaTable: which should you choose?

As of 4 November 2026, SeaTable Plus costs €7 excl. VAT per user per month billed annually, against $20 per editor for Airtable Team (SeaTable pricing, Airtable pricing). SeaTable wins on price per seat, European hosting and installation on your own servers. Airtable stays ahead on interfaces, AI and integrations.

Your situation settles it faster than the feature list:

• SeaTable if your data must stay in Europe without an Enterprise plan, or if you need to install the tool in-house.
• SeaTable as well if almost all your users edit the data.
• Airtable if most of your users only need to look, or if you are building business applications for non-specialists.
• A third option if you want both free readers and European hosting from the entry-level plan: see the last section.

The comparison table

Be careful: the two tools do not count their limits the same way. Airtable sets records and storage per base, and automations per workspace. SeaTable sets most limits for the whole team; some grow with the number of users.

SeaTable lists its prices excluding VAT. Airtable lists its prices in dollars without saying anything about VAT, which is added depending on your country.

The cost by number of editors and readers

Airtable bills the seats that edit, SeaTable every active user (Airtable plans, SeaTable, billing). So the bill depends less on the listed price than on the share of readers in your team.

For a team where everyone edits, the gap is wide. Billed annually, 5 users cost $100 on Airtable Team and €35 excl. VAT on SeaTable Plus. At 25 users, it is $500 against €175 excl. VAT.

The gap reverses with readers. Take a team of 10 editors and 40 readers, for example a sales department and its branches. Airtable Team bills 10 seats, or $200 a month. SeaTable Plus bills 50 users, or €350 excl. VAT a month. Over a year, that comes to $2,400 against €4,200 excl. VAT.

The break-even point lies between 1.5 and 2 readers per editor, depending on the dollar exchange rate. With one reader per editor or fewer, SeaTable Plus costs less. Beyond two, Airtable Team wins.

One detail also matters at Airtable. According to its help centre, commenters pay like editors on Team, but not on Business. Our article on Airtable pricing sets out these rules and their contradictions.

Data hosting

SeaTable processes its cloud data in Germany on every plan, in Exoscale and Hetzner data centres according to its sub-processor list. Airtable only offers Europe on Enterprise Scale, in Frankfurt (Data residency at Airtable).

Even on Enterprise Scale, Airtable's European residency is partial. Cell contents, field names and files go to the chosen region. Base and interface names, user accounts and some metadata stay in the United States. And turning residency on does not move bases that already exist.

The Airtable contract is signed with Formagrid Inc., registered in California according to its terms of service. The Bending Spoons acquisition changes nothing on this point. The company that hosts and processes your data remains subject to US law, the Cloud Act included: our article on the Cloud Act explains its effects.

SeaTable GmbH is a German company, entered in the Mainz commercial register according to its imprint. It offers every customer a data processing agreement under Article 28 of the GDPR. The ten questions to ask any provider are in our guide to data sovereignty.

Installing SeaTable on your servers

Airtable exists only in the cloud. SeaTable offers two editions to install in-house (SeaTable editions):

• Enterprise Edition, with every feature, under a proprietary licence. It is free for up to 3 users, then sold in tiers of 10, 25 and 50 users, with no public price on its pricing page as of 4 Nov 2026.
• Developer Edition, free but limited to 200 simultaneous connections. It has none of the Enterprise features (advanced permissions, Universal Apps, archiving), no official support, and cannot be used to resell a service.

According to the same documentation, some SeaTable components are under the Apache 2.0 or AGPL licence, but the table server remains proprietary. SeaTable is therefore only partly open source. If that criterion matters to you, Grist (Apache 2.0) and Teable (AGPL-3.0) meet it better. Baserow publishes almost all of its code under MIT: see our Baserow review. Our SeaTable review covers its server editions, plans and limits.

Views, interfaces, automations: who does what?

Airtable offers 8 views (Airtable views) and a mature interface builder, with dashboards, forms and review pages (Interface Designer). SeaTable offers 6 native views, including the timeline and tree views added in March 2026 (release 6.1).

The AI gap is real. Airtable has included AI credits in every plan since June 2025 (AI billing). In November 2025, SeaTable added summarising, extraction and classification features, still in beta (release 6.0). They rely on a model that SeaTable hosts in Germany.

Python is SeaTable's strong card for technical teams. SeaTable runs Python scripts; Airtable does not. The pricing page announces 250 Python runs per month on Plus; the help centre cites a ceiling of up to 5,000. Check your quota with the publisher before relying on it.

The free plans

SeaTable's free plan offers 10,000 rows and 2 GB for the whole team, up to 25 users (SeaTable Prices). Airtable's stops at 1,000 records and 1 GB per base, with 5 editors and unlimited readers (Airtable plans).

The two row caps do not read the same way. SeaTable allows up to ten times more rows in a single base, but the cap is shared by the whole team. Airtable, for its part, applies its limit base by base.

Airtable's free plan has two strengths: unlimited readers and the Interface Designer. SeaTable's accepts 25 users, unlimited JavaScript scripts and 100 Python runs per month. To test with a real team, SeaTable gives you more room.

Migrating from Airtable to SeaTable

Since version 6.1, released in March 2026, SeaTable imports an Airtable base using its ID and a personal access token (release 6.1). Tables, data and links come across. Button, count, lookup and rollup fields do not, and formulas have to be rewritten.

Automations and interfaces are not imported: you have to rebuild them in SeaTable. Take stock before you move. List the formulas, automations and interfaces in use every week. Migration time depends on these three items far more than on the number of rows.

Our verdict

Airtable remains the most complete tool for building business applications. Its interfaces are mature, its AI is built in and its ecosystem is the broadest. Its two drawbacks are the price per editor and US hosting. The Bending Spoons acquisition adds uncertainty, with no change announced so far.

SeaTable is the sensible choice for a European team where almost everyone edits the data. It also fits when the tool has to run on your own servers. On the other hand, its interface takes more learning, and its applications exist only in Enterprise.

How many of your users will only look? With more than two readers per editor, Airtable Team costs less than SeaTable Plus. With one reader per editor or fewer, SeaTable wins.

And Rangee?

Rangee is a third option, with its own trade-offs. The Pro plan costs €5 excl. VAT per editor per month, and readers and commenters are free on every plan. Data is hosted in the European Union on every plan, and Rangee is published by a company under French law.

Our limits are clear. Rangee is in private beta, is not open source and cannot be installed on your own servers. Its Free plan is tighter than SeaTable's: 1 base, 1,000 records and 2 editors. To install the tool in-house or write Python scripts, SeaTable is the best choice of the three.

To see these tools side by side with Baserow, NocoDB, Grist, Teable and Notion, open our full comparison. To compare on your own data, join the Rangee beta: the Free plan never expires.