Host NocoDB without installing anything
One table seen as a grid, a gallery, a kanban board, a calendar or a form — and able to sit on top of a MySQL or PostgreSQL database you already run.
Starting at €8.99/month
Introduction
NocoDB installed, updated and backed up by us, on a machine in France. Turn a database into a collaborative spreadsheet: grid, gallery, kanban and form views. The open-source Airtable alternative, hosted at your place. You install nothing and configure no server: the application is online a few minutes after you order, under your own name.
The plan that suits it is App Confort at €8.99/month incl. VAT — 4 GB of memory. NocoDB is a Node.js application on top of a PostgreSQL database that holds both your tables and the description of your views, computed fields and permissions. Memory goes in three directions: wide grids, which load pages of rows along with their rollup and linked columns; imports, where a file of tens of thousands of rows is parsed before being written; and attachments, whose thumbnails are produced on upload. With 4 GB, a real working base of several tables and a few tens of thousands of records raises no questions.
People almost always come from Airtable, often when the free record limit closes in or when the data must no longer leave Europe. NocoDB has an import wizard that connects to Airtable with a personal access token and brings over tables, fields, views and attachments; CSV files, Excel workbooks and JSON also go straight in. Its distinctive trait lies elsewhere: instead of creating an internal base, you can point it at an existing MySQL or PostgreSQL database and let colleagues who will never write SQL work with it. And every table automatically gets its own REST API, with tokens and webhooks on row creation, update or deletion.
What managed hosting changes
Five ways of looking at the same table
Grid to type into, gallery for visuals, kanban to push cards from one column to the next, calendar for dates, form to have someone else fill it in. They are views onto a single table: changing a value in kanban changes it in the grid.
Fields that fetch from elsewhere
Links between tables, lookups of a value on a linked record, rollups of a column in the linked table, formulas, multi-selects, attachments, barcodes and QR codes. A quote can show the customer name and the sum of its lines without anybody copying them.
Sitting on a database you already have
NocoDB can connect to an existing MySQL or PostgreSQL database and present its tables. This is what sets it apart from online spreadsheets: the business application keeps writing to the database, and teams read and correct it from a grid.
Generated API and shared views
Every table exposes a REST API with its own tokens, and webhooks fire when a row is created or changed. A view is published through a link, password-protected if needed, read-only or as a form — with no account for the recipient.
Why hand it over rather than install it
A team that has hit the Airtable ceiling
The record limit per base is reached, or you would have to pay a seat for everyone who types two rows a week. Here the importer brings the tables and views over, and the number of collaborators does not move the bill.
A department that cannot let its data leave
A list of beneficiaries, candidates or patients does not belong in an online spreadsheet hosted outside Europe. The same working base exists here, on a machine in France, with the same views.
A business database to open up to non-technical staff
Stock already lives in a MySQL database behind an application. NocoDB plugs into it and offers a grid: the warehouse hand corrects a quantity with no ticket, no SQL access, and no interface to write.
A sign-up form to publish
The form view is linked from a website or an email, each response becomes a row, and follow-up happens on a kanban board behind it. No extra survey tool to pay for.
Production tracking with photographs
One card per order, a photo of the finished item as an attachment, a rollup field giving the total hours. The gallery is for review, the grid for logging.
Hosted in France
In our own infrastructure in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, which we operate ourselves. A working base always ends up holding personal data, and this one does not leave the country.
Frequently asked questions
Through the import wizard: you create a personal access token in Airtable, point at the base to take over, and NocoDB brings across tables, fields, views and attachments. Plan a review of two things: formulas, whose dialect is not identical, and Airtable-specific field types that have no equivalent — those arrive as text and are reworked afterwards.
Coming in: Airtable through the wizard, CSV files, Excel workbooks and JSON, with column mapping. It can also connect to an existing MySQL or PostgreSQL database without copying anything. Going out, every view exports to CSV or Excel, the REST API lets you read everything back programmatically, and if the database is yours it stays workable with the usual PostgreSQL tools.
NocoDB has no scripted automation workshop like Airtable's: you go through webhooks, wiring them into a flow tool such as n8n or Node-RED. Formulas exist but the syntax differs, so the longest ones have to be rewritten. Attachments use the plan's disk space, which matters if you upload video. And there is no offline mobile app: the web interface adapts to a phone, but it needs a connection.
App Confort, at €8.99/month incl. VAT. It provides 4 GB of memory where the application asks for 1 GB at minimum: the headroom serves the system, not the decor. You can change plan later without reinstalling.
Yes, they are part of the service. NocoDB moves quickly: staying current is also how you get the new field types and importer fixes without having to follow release announcements.