Airtable vs Grist
Airtable and Grist are both databases & spreadsheets tools. Airtable is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Grist is aimed at developers and small businesses. Grist costs less, from $10/mo versus $24/mo for Airtable. Both have a free plan.
| Pricing | Freemium · $24 | Open source · $10 |
| Starting price | $24/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 30 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Enterprise | Developers, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web |
| Country | US · 2012 | US · 2017 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Airtable if
Operations, marketing and content teams that outgrew spreadsheets but do not want a developer-built system.
- Approachable for spreadsheet users yet relational
- Interfaces turn data into usable apps without code
- Rich field types and views
Look elsewhere if: Very large datasets, budget-sensitive teams (Baserow, NocoDB, Grist), or engineering data that belongs in a real database.
Choose Grist if
Power users wanting spreadsheet + database.
- Powerful formulas
- Fine-grained permissions
- Open source
Look elsewhere if: Simple lists.
Airtable vs Grist pricing
Airtable
- Free$01,000 records/base, 5 editors, 1 GB
- Team$24/seat/mo$20 billed annually; 50,000 records/base, 20 GB
- Business$54/seat/mo$45 billed annually; 125,000 records, SAML SSO
- Enterprise ScaleCustom500,000 records, enterprise API
Grist
- Free$0Hosted; up to 5,000 records per document
- Pro$10/user/mo$8 billed annually
- Business$30/user/mo$24 billed annually; min 5 users; 150,000 records/doc
- EnterpriseCustomCustom SSO, audit log streaming, SLAs
- Community edition$0Free and open source, self-hosted
Airtable · Key features
- Relational tables with 25+ field types, lookups and rollups
- Grid, kanban, calendar, gallery, Gantt, timeline and form views
- Interface Designer for dashboards and internal apps
- Automations with triggers, scripts and AI steps
- Sync between bases and external sources (Salesforce, Jira, Google Sheets)
- REST API, webhooks and extensions marketplace
Cons
- Record limits per base can block growth
- Per-seat pricing is high for large teams of light users
- Free plan shrank significantly
Grist · Key features
- Relational tables
- Python formulas
- Granular access rules
- Linked widgets and dashboards
- Self-hosting
- API
Cons
- Learning curve
- Smaller ecosystem
- UI less familiar
Airtable vs Grist: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Airtable or Grist?
Grist starts at $10/mo and Airtable at $24/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Airtable and Grist have a free plan?
Yes, both Airtable and Grist have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.