NocoDB vs SeaTable

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.

SeaTable

API tokens are limited to one base and to read-only or read-write, and the official MCP server marks every tool as read-only or destructive. The Free plan allows 3,000 API calls a month in total, and base calls are capped at 200 a minute. The status page showed the base API degraded for 0.77 per cent of 30 days.

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

SeaTable

1. Create an API token for the one base with read-only permission unless writes are needed, then exchange it at /api/v2.1/dtable/app-access-token/ for a Base-Token
2. Renew the Base-Token before it expires after 3 days, and send it as Authorization: Bearer to /api-gateway/api/v2/dtables/{base_uuid}/
3. Read x-ratelimit-remaining and x-ratelimit-reset on every base call. SeaTable Cloud allows 200 base calls a minute and answers 429 with no body
4. Batch writes to save the monthly quota. One call appends or updates up to 1,000 rows over REST and 100 over MCP
5. Over MCP, prefer update_rows and delete_rows to query_sql, which can run UPDATE and DELETE, and call get_schema before writing