# Baserow vs Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)

> Baserow scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)'s 58.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-microsoft-excel-graph
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Baserow scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)'s 58.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do sheets read.

- Baserow: grade B, 63.6/100, rank #276 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/baserow.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/baserow.json
- Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API): grade C, 58.5/100, rank #399 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-excel-graph.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-excel-graph.json

## Which one, for what

### Baserow (B)

Good for: Teams that want Airtable-style typed tables they can also self-host, with row-level reads and writes by an agent through table-scoped tokens or a small MCP tool set.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 15
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 53

Also in its favour:
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) loses 4 points for them

Watch for: The MCP endpoint's key sits in the URL path, and the docs say it grants full access to modify data in the workspace

### Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) (C)

Good for: Agents working on .xlsx files that already live in a Microsoft 365 tenant, and for using Excel's calculation engine through function endpoints.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 77
- Security & auth, 65 against 54
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 65

Watch for: Reference pages list delegated permissions only and mark application permissions as not supported


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Baserow | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 62 | Baserow +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 85 | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 73 | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 65 | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 15 | Baserow +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 53 | Baserow +19 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 75 | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **63.6 · B** | **58.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Baserow | Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Baserow B.V. | Microsoft |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.baserow.io` | `https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0` |
| Transports | HTTP, SSE (legacy) | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Freemium | Your plan |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT for the core, including the REST API and the MCP server. Code under premium/ and enterprise/ is source-available under Baserow's own licences and needs a paid subscription in production. Docs are CC BY-SA 4.0 | MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 7 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2025-09-19 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 6.1k stars | 835 stars, 2.9M npm/wk, 1.6M PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Baserow.** Database tokens are limited to chosen tables and to create, read, update or delete, and the REST API has a public OpenAPI description with batch calls of 200 rows. The MCP server authenticates with a key in its URL, runs over SSE only and has no read-only mode. Cloud requests are capped at 10 at a time.

**Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API).** Ranges, tables, charts and 366 worksheet function endpoints are reachable over REST with a public OpenAPI, and a non-persistent session lets an agent test changes without saving them. The reference pages list delegated permissions only, with Files.ReadWrite as the least privileged scope, and writes take no idempotency key.

## Before you call either

### Baserow

1. Create a database token with only the tables and operations needed. It can't change tables or fields, which need a JWT from `/api/user/token-auth/`
2. Send `Authorization: Token YOUR_DATABASE_TOKEN`, and add `user_field_names=true` or rows come back keyed as `field_123`
3. Use the `/batch/` endpoints for up to 200 rows a call, and keep to 10 requests in flight on Baserow Cloud
4. Treat the MCP URL as a password. Keep it out of logs and version control, and delete the endpoint to revoke it
5. Over MCP, call `get_table_schema` before `create_rows` or `update_rows`, and page `list_table_rows` with `page` and `size`

### Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)

1. Create a session with POST /workbook/createSession and send `workbook-session-id` on every call. Persistent sessions expire after about 5 minutes idle
2. Set `persistChanges` to false when you only need a calculation or a chart image, so nothing is saved to the file
3. Send one request at a time per workbook and wait for each response. Microsoft warns that parallel writes cause throttling, timeouts and merge conflicts
4. Add rows in one call with a two-dimensional `values` array, and check the table before repeating a row add that returned 504
5. Read bounded addresses such as A1:D500. A whole-column range such as C:C returns null for values, and writes to it are refused

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Baserow or Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)?

Baserow scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)'s 58.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and transparency & trust.

### Do Baserow and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) need an API key?

Baserow needs an API key. Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Baserow and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) without installing anything?

Yes. Baserow has a hosted endpoint at https://api.baserow.io and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) at https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0.

### Are Baserow and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) open source?

Baserow is open source (MIT for the core, including the REST API and the MCP server. Code under premium/ and enterprise/ is source-available under Baserow's own licences and needs a paid subscription in production. Docs are CC BY-SA 4.0). No open-source release is listed for Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-microsoft-excel-graph.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "baserow", "b": "microsoft-excel-graph"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare baserow microsoft-excel-graph`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/baserow.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-excel-graph.json

## Other comparisons with Baserow or Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)

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- [Baserow vs NocoDB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-nocodb.md)
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