Airtable vs Metabase: pricing, plans, and positioning compared
Verified pricing and side-by-side plan structures. Updated daily.
Side-by-side comparison
Airtable Analytics & Data | Metabase Analytics & Data | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $24/mo | $100/mo |
| Annual discount | −17% | −10% |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Number of tiers | 4 | 3 |
| Positioning | Spreadsheet-database hybrid, valued $11B private. Positioned as the alternative to Excel + Access + Notion for teams building custom workflow apps without engineering. Distinctive for its "database that looks like a spreadsheet" positioning that made no-code databases accessible to non-technical users. Free tier is functional; paid tiers add automation, API access, and larger record limits. Pricing has increased steadily since 2022 as Airtable pivots toward enterprise use cases. | Open-source business intelligence tool positioned as the alternative to Tableau and Looker for engineering-led teams. Distinctive for its free self-hosted tier that runs on Docker — the go-to "first BI tool" for startups before they can justify a data team. Cloud version priced from $85/mo. Acquired minority stake by Insight Partners; still open-source. Popular with technical founders who want SQL access to their Postgres/BigQuery data. |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Plan-by-plan comparison
| # | Airtable | Metabase |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free Monthly: 0 · Annual: 0 unlimited bases, 1K records/base, 1GB attachments | Starter Monthly: 100 · Annual: 90 base incl. 5 users, +$6/user |
| 2 | Team Monthly: 24 · Annual: 20 50K records, extensions, sync integrations | Pro Monthly: 575 · Annual: 517.50 base incl. 10 users, +$12/user |
| 3 | Business Monthly: 54 · Annual: 45 125K records + admin panel + SAML SSO | Enterprise Monthly: custom · Annual: custom from ~$20K/yr |
| 4 | Enterprise Scale Monthly: custom · Annual: custom 500K records + advanced admin + audit logs | — |