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27 Comments

NocoDB: The Open Source Airtable Alternative

Hey IndieHacker Community 👋 👋,

We are thrilled to open source NocoDB last week.

NocoDB is the Open Source Airtable Alternative.

NocoDB works by connecting to any existing databases like MySQL, Postgres, SQL server and transforms them into a smart spreadsheet interface! This allows you to build no-code applications collaboratively with teams.

Rich Spreadsheet

Gallery View

Kanban View

Collaborate like spreadsheet

Share Views

App Store

REST & GraphQL APIs

REST & GraphQL APIs

Integrate with Zapier

Mobile Apps

NocoDB's app store allows you to build business workflows on views with combination of Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Twilio, Whatsapp, Email & any 3rd party APIs too. Plus NocoDB provides programmatic access to APIs so that you can build integrations with Zapier / Integromat and custom applications too.

FEATURES :
Rich Spreadsheet Interface :
⚡ Sort, search, filter, hide columns with ease
⚡ Create Views : Grid, Gallery, Kanban, Gantt, Form
⚡ Share Views : public & password protected
⚡ Personal & locked Views
⚡ Upload images to cells (Works with S3, Minio, GCP, Azure & many more)!!
⚡ Roles : Owner, Creator, Editor, Commenter, Viewer, Commenter, Custom.
⚡ Access Control : Fine-grained access control even to column level.
⚡ API tokens to integrate with Zapier & Integromat.

Automations & App store :
⚡ Chat : Microsoft Teams, Slack, Discord, Mattermost
⚡ Email : SMTP, SES, Mailchimp
⚡ SMS : Twilio
⚡ Whatsapp
⚡ Any 3rd Party APIs

Programmatic API access via :
⚡ REST APIs (Swagger)
⚡ GraphQL APIs.
⚡ Includes JWT Authentication & Social Auth

🎯 Why we building this ?
Most internet businesses equip themselves with either spreadsheet or a database to solve their business needs. Spreadsheets are used by a Billion+ humans collaboratively every single day. However, we are way off working at similar speeds on databases which are way more powerful tools when it comes to computing. Attempts to solve this with SaaS offerings has meant horrible access controls, vendor lockin, data lockin, abrupt price changes & most importantly a glass ceiling on what's possible in future.

❤️ Our Mission :
Our mission is to provide the most powerful no-code interface for databases which is open source to every single internet business in the world. This would not only democratise access to a powerful computing tool but also bring forth a billion+ people who will have radical tinkering-and-building abilities on internet.

You can join our amazing community here :
📣 Github : https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb
📣 Discord : https://discord.gg/5RgZmkW
📣 Twitter : https://twitter.com/nocodb

Would love to hear your usecases & feedbacks. 🙌

Happy Tinkering,
Team NocoDB

  1. 5

    Self hosted Airtable will be a huge industry.

    1. 1

      I believe the problem is fundamental to most businesses and having an access tool like NocoDB is a necessity.

      1. 1

        Google auth doesn't seem to be working atm btw.

        1. 1

          Here is documentation to setup google auth : https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb/blob/master/markdown/plugins/google-auth.md

          Please check if it helps

          1. 1

            I'm getting an error while trying to sign up via the website after clicking the "Signup with Google" button on the signup page: https://nocodb.com/user/auth/google

            It looks like a 404 error.

            1. 1

              ah I got you, sorry we don't yet provide the hosting.

              You can self host it on any cloud or vps with just docker or npm.

              I assumed it was google auth for self hosting you were trying. :)

              1. 1

                Ah, that makes sense. I was trying to sign up since there was a button on the website for it.

                1. 1

                  There is plan for hosting in future.

      2. 1

        Yes indeed it is. Turning Airtable into a database management tool that business folks can use will yield what I believe to be great results. It's such a big pain point that I've considered building my own Airtable/DBMS product!

        1. 1

          This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  2. 3

    Can I import a database?

    1. 1

      Which database are you on ?

      Yes, you can connect to any pre-existing database.

      1. 1

        that's great then. I'm using mysql

        1. 1

          Yes it works perfectly fine. Here is the demo link.

          https://youtu.be/tb5UyaQns4A

          And all demos are here : https://nocodb.com/demos

          :-)

          1. 2

            Whao! Does it mean when I update in nocodb, my database is also changed! This is dope!

            1. 1

              Yes, absoultely !!!!

              And also you can share it just like google spreadsheets with your team with various roles.

  3. 2

    Been waiting for someone to come up with this!
    Have you posted in Community.AirTable.com to source early power users? If you're concerned about block from bias, I'd be happy to on your behalf.
    Likewise for my appearance on "For The Record" podcast with Ben Green & Chris Dancy on Wednesday.

    1. 2

      booked demo for thurs

      1. 1

        Awesome, tty soon

    2. 1

      Too kind of you Laurence.

      That would be awesome if you can mention it on airtable community.

      I will follow up with Podcast - please do give it a mention. I believe this tool should exist with internet business. Below is our mission.

      ❤️ Our Mission :
      Our mission is to provide the most powerful no-code interface for databases which is open source to every single internet business in the world. This would not only democratise access to a powerful computing tool but also bring forth a billion+ people who will have radical tinkering-and-building abilities on internet.

      1. 2

        Done. Look forward to chatting Thu

        1. 1

          Awesome, please mention our github : https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb

          We arent yet providing the hosting. So many of our users are trying to signup to it :|

          However its completely self hostable.

          1. 1

            Talk to you soon

  4. 2

    Great job with the design!

    Could you share how long did it take to make it (including design, frontend, backend, docs, etc)?

    1. 2

      Hey thank you, its in early stage. We've improvements to do with design. Appreciate the feedback. We've been at it for long time.. :) Here is a short gist

      🔦 Also how this all began ..
      We open sourced two API solutions before NocoDB :
      ⚡ A no-code REST APIs generator for any MySQL DB. ~200,000 Docker pulls. This was a hobby project & had no GUI. 📈 (xmyqsl)
      ⚡ A low-code REST-GraphQL APIs generator for any database with GUI. Used by 100s of companies. 📈 (xgenecloud)

      The thing that surprised us the most was that even non-developers started using our API products & rooting for us. 🚀 🚀 Whilst everybody loved instant API access to databases, it was slow-and-painful for them to build UI and collaborate with their teams. 💔 💔 ... This made us to radically rethink & combine the power of our 2 API products then transform them into something better.

      1. 1

        Are those API solutions still available? Thanks!

        1. 1

          Yes, they are part of NocoDB : check Api Access in our demos

          https://nocodb.com/demos

  5. 1

    As this a no coder tool, would really appreciate if someone can help setting up this or if there are easy to follow guide for non coder to selfhost it. Thanks.

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