The self-hosted alternative compliance teams can actually approve
- Import your Airtable data automatically
- Preserve relationships, links, and attachments
- Self-host everything
Can you self-host Airtable?
No, you can’t. If you have specific security requirements, need to host everything on-premises, or just want to control your data and your software, you’ll need a different solution. Grist has a long history, and it starts with data sovereignty.
As a platform, Grist features relational data with spreadsheet views, custom dashboards and no-code app building. See below for a detailed feature comparison.
We’ve also developed a custom Airtable base importer that will help you migrate your data, relationships, and even attachments in minutes.
Quick comparison
| Grist | Airtable |
|
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted deployment | Yes | No – cloud only |
| Data residency | Your servers, your region | US-based servers or EU via AWS |
| Row-level permissions | Yes — row, column, and cell level | Limited |
| Open source | Yes — auditable on GitHub | No |
| Python formulas | Yes | No |
Why do organizations with security requirements switch to Grist?
Grist is 100% self-hostable for on-premises deployment, or available with managed hosting around the world.
Grist presents a lowered risk profile thanks to comprehensive and highly-customizable role-based access rules, letting you limit access and exporting down to the row. You can also test these roles interactively to make sure access is properly limited.
Grist is built around fully portable data with no lock-in mechanisms. A Grist file is an SQLite database, and always able to be exported elsewhere – subject to access rules, of course.
How can I deploy Grist?
Secure SaaS
Hosted on getgrist.com and ready to go. The easiest way to start using Grist or to test out features before deploying on-premise.
Managed server
Grist Labs deploys and manages Grist on a dedicated server in a region of your choice. Gives you the customization of self-hosting, but leaves the devops and maintenance to us.
Self-hosted
Serve containerized via Docker or compile directly from source. Configure everything to fit your requirements: SSO, storage, sandboxing, snapshots, styling, and much more.
Does Grist have the same features as Airtable?
Grist isn’t an Airtable clone, but it also organizes relational data in a way that lets you collaborate and build no-code apps without custom development. Airtable excels at consolidating workflows, and teams love its polished interface for basic project tracking and simple data organization.
But if you’re working with complex data relationships, need granular access controls, or require more powerful formulas, Airtable may fall short.
| Airtable | Grist | |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet interface | ✔ | ✔ |
| Relational data | ✔ | ✔ |
| Data visualizations | ✔ | ✔ |
| Reporting | ✔ | ✔ |
| Real-time collaboration | ✔ | ✔ |
| Automations | ✔ | ✔ |
| AI assistant | ✔ | ✔ |
| Data types / structured data | ✔ | ✔ |
| REST API / webhooks | ✔ | ✔ |
| Forms | ✔ | ✔ |
| Integrations | ✔ | ✔ |
| Drag-and-drop layouts | ✔ | ✔ |
| SSO authentication | SAML (only on Business or Enterprise). | OIDC and SAML (Enterprise, or self-hosted full edition). |
| Interactive API console | X | Developers can explore, test, and experiment with the Grist API. |
| Python support | X | Native Python support for advanced calculations and data manipulation. |
| Granular access controls | Table and field-level permissions (paid plans); view-level sharing. | Access controls down to the individual cell level. |
| Self-hostable | X | Self-hostable. Open source. No data lock-in. SQLite file format. |