
Open-source Airtable alternative

Open-source Airtable alternative
Rowflare is an open-source application that functions as an alternative to Airtable, designed to run on a user's own Cloudflare account. Licensed under AGPL-3.0, the software provides a spreadsheet-database hybrid that allows users to create, manage, and collaborate on structured data. Instead of paying per-seat subscription fees, Rowflare requires only the Cloudflare Workers Paid plan, which costs approximately five dollars per month for an entire team, regardless of the number of users. The application offers six types of views for the same set of records: grid, kanban, calendar, timeline, gallery, and form views. It includes dashboards with numbers and charts computed from table data, automations that trigger actions based on events within a base, and AI fields that allow a language model to fill columns with summaries, categories, numbers, or dates using the user's own API key. A path lookup feature enables records to traverse chains of linked records to any depth, and an MCP server allows AI clients such as Claude and Cursor to interact directly with bases. All features are available in every edition, including the self-hosted version. Technically, each base is stored as a SQLite database inside its own Durable Object, with reads and writes executing in a single thread to keep formulas, lookups, and rollups updated without network round trips. Workers serve the application and a REST API, while D1 stores accounts and workspaces, R2 stores attachments, and a cron trigger handles housekeeping. Everything runs within the user's Cloudflare account, and the Rowflare project has no access to the user's data. Real-time collaboration is supported over WebSockets, with idle connections not billed as Durable Object duration due to WebSocket Hibernation. Deploying the application requires the Cloudflare Workers Paid plan, and no separate server, database, or Docker setup is needed. Typical use cases include team project tracking, content planning, inventory management, and any workflow that benefits from a relational database with a spreadsheet-like interface. Users can group records by up to three fields with group totals, view data in calendar or timeline layouts with lanes, and set up automations to respond to changes in their bases. The application is backed by 731 automated tests, and a free plan is available through Rowflare Cloud for those who prefer not to self-host.