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Head to head · Sheets records · October 2026 research run

Baserow vs NocoDB

NocoDB scores 75.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Baserow's 63.6 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Baserow leads on payments & pricing. Both do sheets records.

BaserowBaserow B.V. · HTTP API B63.6/100#350 of 842 NocoDBNocoDB Inc · HTTP API BB75.7/100#41 of 842

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 30

Also in its favour

  • Open source

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

NocoDB BB

Good for Teams that want Airtable-style typed records with the option to self-host, and an agent that reads, filters and writes records or builds schema through MCP with a narrow allowlist.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 97 against 65
  • Schema & documentation, 85 against 77
  • Security & auth, 71 against 54
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 72
  • Transparency & trust, 76 against 65

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

5 requests a second per user on every plan, shared by all of that user's tokens, with a 30-second block after a 429

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBaserowNocoDBEdge
Reliability16%206597NocoDB +32
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27785NocoDB +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.27274NocoDB +2
Security & auth14%17.55471NocoDB +17
Payments & pricing10%12.54030Baserow +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87287NocoDB +15
Transparency & trust7%8.86576NocoDB +11
Negative events≤1500
Total63.6 · B75.7 · BB

Facts side by side

FactBaserowNocoDB
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorBaserow B.V.NocoDB Inc
Hosted endpointhttps://api.baserow.iohttps://app.nocodb.com
TransportsHTTP, SSE (legacy)HTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMIT 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 4.0Sustainable Use License 1.0 since January 2026 (source-available, not OSI-approved; AGPL-3.0 before). NocoDB Cloud is a proprietary service under NocoDB's Terms of Service
Tools exposed7199
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-292026-09-29
Terms last updatedno date given2025-10-14
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-03-20
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity6.1k stars65k stars, 6.3k npm/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.

NocoDB

API tokens and MCP connections are limited by permission category and by base, and an MCP connection registers only the tools it is allowed. The v3 REST API has a public OpenAPI file. Requests are capped at 5 a second per user, REST writes take 10 records a call, and the Free plan stops at 1,000 API calls a month.

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

NocoDB

  1. Create a fine-grained token limited to the bases and categories the task needs. Send it as xc-token or as a Bearer token
  2. Stay under 5 requests a second across all tokens of one user. After a 429, honour Retry-After or wait 30 seconds
  3. Send REST writes in batches of 10 records. The MCP record tools take up to 100, counted as one API call per 10 records
  4. Write date filters with a sub-operator, such as (due_date,eq,exactDate,2026-06-01), and put no space after ~and or ~or
  5. Use /records/upsert with a merge key so a repeated write updates the record instead of adding a duplicate

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Baserow or NocoDB?

NocoDB scores 75.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Baserow's 63.6 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Baserow leads on payments & pricing.

Do Baserow and NocoDB need an API key?

Baserow needs an API key. NocoDB takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Baserow and NocoDB without installing anything?

Yes. Baserow has a hosted endpoint at https://api.baserow.io and NocoDB at https://app.nocodb.com.

Are Baserow and NocoDB 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 NocoDB.

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