# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-nocodb
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-nocodb.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-nocodb.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserow-vs-nocodb.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: 2026-10-09

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.

- Baserow: grade B, 63.6/100, rank #350 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/baserow.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/baserow.json
- NocoDB: grade BB, 75.7/100, rank #41 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nocodb.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nocodb.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 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

| Category | Weight | Baserow | NocoDB | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 97 | NocoDB +32 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 85 | NocoDB +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 74 | NocoDB +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 71 | NocoDB +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Baserow +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 87 | NocoDB +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 76 | NocoDB +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.6 · B** | **75.7 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Baserow | NocoDB |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Baserow B.V. | NocoDB Inc |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.baserow.io` | `https://app.nocodb.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, SSE (legacy) | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| 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 | Sustainable 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 exposed | 7 | 199 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-10-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-03-20 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 6.1k stars | 65k 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.


## For agents

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

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