A few years go, I set up an Airtable account. It’s a cloud-based database service that’s super user-friendly and doesn’t require any coding knowledge. You can create databases, and access it in different ways, like as spreadsheets, cards with images, task lists, or even project manager's tracker. It’s like having a personal cloud-based workspace!

However, I’m always looking for ways to have more control over my data, so I started exploring other options.

One of the alternatives I found is Baserow. It’s basically like Airtable, but it’s based on free, open-source software. That gives me peace of mind because I can easily export and import my data if I decide to self-host it. Note that you can do this with Airtable, too, i.e. import and export.

After using Baserow for more than a year, I came across Nocodb. It’s also an Airtable alternative, but it’s based on free, open-source software too. The main difference is that Nocodb has some features that are only available on Baserow’s subscription-based tier, even if you self-host.

Since I’m trying to minimize my subscriptions, I decided to self-host a Nocodb instance at home. I figured that since no one else needs to access my database, having it on a Raspberry Pi won’t hurt.

Nocodb’s cloud-based database service is free for up to 20 users. If you need more than that, you can upgrade to the enterprise edition. But here’s the cool part: self-hosting Nocodb doesn’t require any subscription unless you go the enterprise level route. I haven’t explored going enterprise yet because I don’t need the added features like SAML and SSO.

You won’t believe how well Nocodb works on an old 4GB Raspberry Pi 4! It’s surprising, considering I have it running alongside a self-hosted Photoprism instance, both on Docker. I imported all my Baserow databases and now everything’s hosted at home. Unfortunately, I had external services that automatically updated my Baserow databases (like Airtable used to do), but they failed because Nocodb doesn’t have a routable IP address, i.e., it is inaccessible outside of the home network. Luckily, that was fixed thanks to Cloudflare tunnels. Now, those external services can update my Nocodb databases without any issues without moving the server outside of the home network. Pretty cool, right?

So, if you’re looking for an easy to use database service that you can access like a simple spreadsheet, populate via a form, and view as a calendar entry, give Nocodb a try.