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Show HN: Teable – Open-Source No-Code Database Fusion of Postgres and Airtable (github.com/teableio)
279 points by bieberChen 10 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 94 comments
Features

Spreadsheet-like interface All you want is here • Cell Editing: Directly click and edit content within cells.

• Formula Support: Input mathematical and logical formulas to auto-calculate values.

• Data Sorting and Filtering: Sort data based on a column or multiple columns; use filters to view specific rows of data.

• Aggregation Function: Automatically summarize statistics for each column, providing instant calculations like sum, average, count, max, and min for streamlined data analysis.

• Data Formatting: formatting numbers, dates, etc.

• Grouping: Organize rows into collapsible groups based on column values for easier data analysis and navigation.

• Import/Export Capabilities: Import and export data from other formats, e.g., .csv, .xlsx.

Multiple Views

Visualize and interact with data in various ways best suited for their specific tasks.

• Grid View: The default view of the table, which displays data in a spreadsheet-like format.

• Form View: Input data in a form format, which is useful for collecting data.

• Coming soon: Kanban View, Calendar View, Gallery View, Gantt View, Timeline View.

Super Fast Amazing response speed and data capacity

• Millions of data are easily processed, and there is no pressure to filter and sort

• Automatic database indexing for maximum speed

• Supports batch data operations at one time

Full-featured SQL Support Seamless integration with the software you are familiar with

• BI tools like Metabase PowerBi...

• No-code tools like Appsmith...

• Direct retrieve data with native SQL

Privacy-First

• Bring your own database (coming soon)

Real-time collaboration • No need to refresh the page, data is updated in real-time




Congratulations on the launch! This looks pretty neat, though there are many similar products.

When non-technical/semi-technical people are exposed to the database, the biggest issues come from two areas

* their lack of grasp on data models, and modeling in general. This stumps them every time they see bridge tables, many-to-ones, and joins. Or when they need to answer a question, and the answer is not obvious from the base tables

* databases in general are very normalized, cryptically named (tables and columns) and have too much evolutionary baggage (both from a schema and data point of view) - except for in new/small systems.

These then become organizational problems rather than tooling problems.


I totally agree. I’m very interested in some kind of data modeling representation that’s a lot more user-friendly.

The core problem as I understand it is the difference between references and values.


I would love to hear some comparison points with: nocodb, baserow, grist. These are all very similar and open-source, does teable bring anything new to the table?


Was the pun intended?

I'm also curious to see a comparison between the above, in particular trying to understand who is the most open source in their features + expected to not start feature capping soon.


This pun is interesting; the 'new' in Teable is literally the 'e'. I've addressed the product comparison questions in a public reply, hoping it's helpful.


Where can I see it?


search ”In the comments” in this page


They are not true open source if they have a pricing page


They’re not true open source if they have ridiculous nonfree licenses like the AGPL which is just an EULA in disguise (and probably isn’t enforceable as a result).


Do you have a better licensing solution for companies who resell and profit on open source and don’t give back commits or support?


lol what


Congratulations on launching, it's nice to see more open source products in this area (I work on https://mathesar.org/). Feel free to reach out if you'd like to talk and compare notes.


your demo seems to be offline


Thanks, taking a look. We just moved it to new infrastructure and we're still working out the kinks.

Edit: should be fixed, let me know if there are more issues.


Congrats! It's a very useful use-case, BTW we are building an open-source no-code data activation from Postgres to Airtable and many more destinations. Would love to watch the repo ;)

(https://github.com/Multiwoven/multiwoven)


How does this compare to NocoDB[0] which is already quite established?

[0]: https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb


NocoDB is a pretty impressive product. In fact, the idea for creating Teable emerged around the same time NocoDB was released. The challenge with Teable is our desire to provide a fully No-Code and real-time collaborative experience on the product interface, which contrasts with NocoDB's approach of exposing more database details to the user. Both have their pros and cons.

Additionally, Teable supports developers by offering open database connections and database permission management, a concept inspired by Supabase. This allows both developers and users to create on the same platform.


I've deployed this on my server, and I have to say, it's incredible. I've been looking for an open-source alternative to Airtable for a long time, but none of them met my requirements.


Baserow[0] is really good!

[0]: https://baserow.io/


Baserow is open-core, and some views and JSON-export are behind a subscription. Not a bad thing per-se but needs a mention.


I'm thrilled to hear that!


I've been waiting on Xata to allow a direct SQL connection to the underlying db to take advantage of the Postgres connector in Plasmic for rapid product development -- that Teable allows this is a killer feature for me.


Hey, SQL over HTTP is possible now in Xata, and direct Postgres access will be possible _real soon_.


Is there any functionality that allows me to easily create a no-code form on my website and link to a database table?

Additionally I want to use the API to do things when certain tables are updated. Example, send an email (using my own code) when a new row is added. How easy is something like this?


What are the differences to Glide's data-grid?

https://glideapps.github.io/glide-data-grid/?path=/story/gli...


GlideGrid is an outstanding canvas grid component (interestingly, it was initially used by us before we decided to create our own version to enhance the user experience). Teable, on the other hand, is a fully-featured no-code platform aimed at empowering those without technical backgrounds to efficiently work with Postgres (a relational database).


Can you share the motivation behind it? Why did you open source it? Is there a commercial version where some feature will be paid?


I like it. Do you have a roadmap? There are a lot of 'coming soon' features :)

What I miss in these kind of tools is a way to 'mold' the UI into something more specific. A kind of scripting maybe. For example I would like an 'edit' button on each row to open an edit form, opening a form for editing. Similarly an 'Add record' button at the bottom. Or better, an 'Add contact' button if its the Contacts table. And how about having a view that always opens with a certain filter, for example the Purchases table showing only purchases by customer A if I click on the button 'Purchases' in the Customers table in the row of customer A.


How do you handle schema changes like adding columns or changing the type of columns? Is the schema fixed at design time by a database admin, or can the end-user add/remove columns, create tables, and introduce relationships?


That is what I want to share. When users create fields in the visible table, it directly creates columns in the corresponding Postgres table. There's a mapping between the fields on the UI and the physical columns. At the same time, relationships are a major highlight; the "link field" of the Teable will create logical foreign keys or junction tables between physical tables to maintain the relationship.


Wow - did you just completely rip off Attio's website:

Your website: https://teable.io/

Attios website: https://attio.com/

---

Also, what makes this different from:

Budibase (cofounder) https://budibase.com

Baserow https://baserow.com

Nocodb https://nocodb.com


I'm truly sorry if our actions have caused any offense. Our team consists of 5 freelance programmers without any designers on board, and without any funding, so we had to tackle the design aspect ourselves. Initially, we planned to use a colorful gradient theme, but found the UI coordination too challenging for us. It was then that we came across the beautiful simplicity of shadcn, and decided to go with a black and white theme.

We did look at various black and white themed websites on the market, including Notion and Attio, but I assure you, we did not plagiarize any images. Thank you for your critique. We will make it our priority to adjust our design to be more unique as swiftly as possible.


Don't apologize for using a theme for your landing page. And don't apologize to a competitor who is throwing shade and linking to their competing product.


I think it's a bit strange to reply directly that you did not plagiarise any images when the opening table cell background is a direct lift of the SVG from our site...


As a neutral observer, it’s hard to make sense of what exactly you’re saying was copied.

What is the opening table cell background? Is this something in the app code itself, or something that made it onto the public site? And this SVG was custom made by your company?


The creator chose to remove the image in question following my post.

You can see the image behind the central video on the wayback machine archive here: https://web.archive.org/web/20240311143537/https://teable.io...

The asset was created in-house by our design team custom for our website (not outsourced or a template) and was copied identically. The asset itself is a small thing, but the denial of something which is materially provable seemed very odd to me, hence my reply!


Thanks for sharing the details. They got to the image before I got to this thread, so this is super helpful.

And that’s pretty appalling. As a product manager who had to be aware of what our competitors were doing, I can’t even begin to understand how someone thought directly lifting assets was a good idea.

For legal reasons at minimum, but for ethical reasons as well.

We always made a point of not letting our design people even see competitor’s stuff for exactly this reason.


Looks like they used framer.com based on a pop up I see on the bottom right, so maybe that’s a template?


They should really think about changing out the theme asap. It may not be their fault that they used the same template and their logos look similar, but being the new entrant, they should definitely establish their own brand look.


They should not be thinking about branding at this stage. They should be thinking about differentiation, and delivering value. Getting in front of customers. Their landing page looks perfectly adequate from an aesthetic perspective.


Sure we will, this week.


In all honesty, don't. Seriously, this is bad advice. Nobody is going to visit your website and say "woah, this looks like Attio's website - I'm out!" with, evidently, the exception of a few folks from Attio. The website looks good, you and the other company aren't truly direct competitors so branding conflicts are not much of a concern, and if you both truly just derived your designs from a root common theme then I don't know why this is even being brought up here, unless the other commenters were unaware that their design was derived from a template. There are undoubtedly things significantly more worth spending time on as a very early startup then redesigning your website to appease a few people on HN, who were (assuming the common template bit is true) in the wrong for raising this issue to begin with and and should be updating their comment with this context.

EDIT - apologies, the OP here is not from Attio which was my assumption and would've made the OP's post unnecessary but an understandable reflex to seeing a doppelganger of their own website. If you check the OP's profile to see which company they're _actually_ from you will certainly realize that this entire comment chain should be fully ignored. It's pretty shitty, actually.


I think I was pretty open in my comment (cofounder).

They copied Attio's SVG image and everything. My issue was not the aesthetics but the fact they copied another organization's work. Surely, you don't think that's right?


Are you serious, man? You edited your comment, twice. We both know your comment did not include "(cofounder)", but did include unnecessary jabs at your your competitor ("this makes me lose all faith in our credibility.") when you posted it. I've used Budibase and think it's a great product, and couldn't have anything but respect for the people behind it. You're above this.

EDIT - Apologies, you did indeed include "(cofounder)" in your original post, I just missed it (based on bing's cached page.) Regardless, this is not the way to deal with competitors, and frankly your product speaks for itself. And perhaps obscene amounts of torrenting in my teenage years has permanently skewed my moral compass for these things, but I really don't care about table cell background svg theft.


I'm sorry to hear about your years of torment.


> Also, what makes this different from

With no prior knowledge of any of these and briefly glancing through each site, the main thing that sticks out to me is that Teable is free as in has no pricing page (for now at least)


The others are open source


Is this only for building internal tools? Or is it possible to build apps which collect data from end users with support for auth and access control?

It seems that there are a lot of such platforms for internal apps. E.g. Retool, Airtable. Are there any no-code tools that support building external-facing apps? Apps that can collect data from untrusted external users?

Something that combines the features of Wufoo and Airtable in a single cohesive and flexible service?


Airtable itself lets you expose simple forms to the public internet.

Then there are dedicated form tools like Fillout that let you build more complex forms that integrate with Airtable.


Teable can currently share forms to get data from external users. You can also integrate with other lowcode tools to build external application interfaces


What are the main differences compared to Baserow (https://baserow.io/)?


I loved what you have done out there - it is clean and neat. I wish you all the success albeit the crowded space (disclaimer: I work for Retable).


In the comments, everyone is interested in the core differences between Teable and similar products. Here, I'll compare the products mentioned. Please note that since I'm not a deep user of the other products, there might be inaccuracies, and I welcome corrections.

Grist

I had heard of Grist before but never actually experienced it. A quick look at Grist through videos showed that its dynamic spreadsheet capabilities are incredibly powerful, complete with fixed field types, making it excellent for organizing structured data. It seems to have an edge in flexibility, and compared to Airtable, it might be more akin to Smartsheet.

According to its official documentation, Grist's Pro Plan offers up to 100k rows, indicating that queries and calculations are processed on the frontend or in memory, which typically makes it challenging to scale data rows further. This is a problem that Airtable also faces.

Baserow and NocoDB,

my impression is that Baserow's features are relatively more stable, and it started commercializing earlier, being among the first batch of open-source Airtable alternatives.

Baserow initially had a limit on the number of rows, but this year's updates seem to have significantly increased its data capacity. Notably, Baserow does not support Bring Your Own Database or query by SQL, but it offers a seamless scrolling table interface, unlike NocoDB, which requires pagination. In terms of other functionalities, both have their strengths. My assessment aligns with what I found on Baserow's official forum and comparisons with NocoDB.

Teable Compared to similar products, Teable invests heavily in its table format UI, striving for seamless scrolling, copy-pasting, batch editing, and other quick table operations, which we believe are key to saving users' time. Therefore, we developed our Canvas table rendering component to achieve perfection. Meanwhile, batch operations pose a significant challenge for database compatibility, but we see this as a necessary investment.

Additionally, Teable supports developers by offering open database connections and database permission management, a concept inspired by Supabase. This allows both developers and users to create on the same platform.

What we think the future of no-code products look like

1. An interface that anyone can use to build applications easily.

2. Easy access to data, letting users grab, move, and reuse their information as they wish.

3. Data privacy and choice, whether that's in the cloud, on-premise, or even just on your local.

4. It needs to work for developers too, not just non-tech users.

5. It should handle lots of data, so it can grow with your business.

6. Flexibility to integrate with other software, combining strengths to get the job done.

7. Native AI integration to takes data automation to a whole new level.


I'm a big believer in easy no code abstractions without black box restrictions on the code underneath, particularly for "power users" who run into the limitations of no code tools after a few iterations (particularly on a cost per function level).


Looks super fast !

I am just dabbling in nocode platforms, so far I only spent an evening per solution: undb, baserow, nocodb. Nocodb has an url and an email field type that enforces URL and email. Do you plan to add something like that ?


In the SingleLineText field, you can choose to show as email, Any format verification (regex) will be introduced in the future.


Oh, I missed that, thanks !


You should maybe remove the 'X' symbol in your FAQ section because it looks as if the the things listed there are not supported.

E.g 1. I see 'Does Teable support SQL queries?' 2. I click on the list item 3. The accordion menu expands, the '+' symbol turns to 'x', as if to tell that Teable does not support SQL queries.


you are right, I'll fix it~


Can you join data from various tables and build a view?

Also - my team prefers airtable because of the calendar view.... would be great to see.


There is currently no "join" capability, but there is a "Link Field" to handle table relationships.

We also found the calendar view useful, as it sits in the middle of the requirements priorities


Can you build a SQL VIEW and access that from teable?


We have a plan to do it, we have a lot of user feedback, and we find it very useful


Can it do embeddable sub-forms and grids, like good ole MS Access? Like, I've got a grid on the main form showing multiple rows, I click on a row and it refreshes two sub forms, one showing a form view of additional fields of the selected record, and the other shows multiple rows from a child table?


If I understand correctly, this feature is currently supported. You can try the Sales CRM template https://template.teable.io/t/recHJEzSkIZ1IpjltNZ . In the first table named Opportunities, if you expand the first row, that might be exactly what you're looking for.


That's not quite as functional as MS Access could do (though, maybe it's possible but you don't have a demo), but it is quite nice.

This whole app looks extremely promising, for my purposes it looks very close to something that I could build a huge database on top of, I am going to keep it in mind and try to get some time to play with it, I hope you guys keep moving it forward because it is slick!

With adequate features, I could see this being something that consultants could use to go in and write impressive custom database software in a month or so for companies like used to be so common, I think it would be a great way for junior people to get into the IT business, with a few caveats of course.


"Postgres-Airtable Fusion" sounds like it runs on top of airtable. If this is not the case I suggest rephrasing this (e.g. to "airtable alternative based on postgres")

Also there are a number of other products in this space so it would be useful to have some sort of comparison.


I must say, this suggestion is fantastic, super grateful!


Nicely done! Easy to get started and super intuitive. Some bugs here and there (clicking the plus button is giving 404 on my end for example), but seems solid. Congrats.


Thank you!


Congrats on the launch! The product looks pretty cool.

Are there any plans to support data warehouses like Snowflake in the future?


can I use this as a collaborative grid component in my own project? that is, I don't want any of the no-code, spreadsheet etc features, I just want part of the frontend of my own app to be a grid that multiple people can edit, persisted in a database table that my own phoenix/rails/whatever process also has access to.


A more optimal approach is to utilize the SDK to use the table as a React component within the application. This capability will be iterated later. Teable's UI interface is all built on top of a standalone SDK. In theory, both component and collaborative capabilities can be exposed externally, but it will take some time.


thanks! i've been hoping for this functionality for years but none of the airtable replacements so far has provided it.


Technically feasible, if you deploy Teable under the same domain with your own app, the user sessions can be shared then you can use an iframe to embed the table into your application, and backend services can access table data within Teable through SQL or API.


This looks pretty nice.

Whats the pricing for the cloud version if I am bringing my own postgres database ?


In fact, we haven't seriously discussed commercialization yet; our main focus is on perfecting the basic functionalities. But I believe the price will definitely be very reasonable.


This is a non-trivial issue for any db product. I am not going to integrate this into my business, unless I feel very certain about what I can expect.

A couple of month ago, for example, Budibase introduced a fundamental license restructure, that (for our specific commercial use case and user structure) moved it from interesting to out of the question.

The product itself is useful and thoughtfully designed (as Teable is shaping up to be), I am sure there is a good reason for why they did it, and I am not even putting it past them that something could have been "worked out" — but this to me is completely unacceptable level of stress, when I have maybe already deeply integrated your tool into my business.


Plato (https://plato.io) is free for up to five users, then $20/user/month

(Disclaimer: I'm a founder)


Thanks will check it out.


I can't scroll the grid vertically using Firefox 124.0b3


Don't worry, it's been noted!


When should I use this over tools like, say, Retool?


It's kind of like collaborating directly on a database (Through the Grid that has been prepared) rather than building an application interface


at this point i dont even flinch when i see "open source and free" until I check the license.


This is exciting! What limits do you typically suggest? airtable had like a 50k record max or something laughable, so you also have similar limits??


In fact, Teable has no limit on the number of rows; you can always trust Postgres . Here's a table with 1 million rows [0], where you can experience the response speed as well as the feedback from filtering and sorting.

[0]: https://app.teable.io/share/shrVgdLiOvNQABtW0yX/view


I cannot scroll the example. I'm using Firefox.


I'm not having that problem on FF v123 on Linux Mint


I have the same version but on Windows


can't scroll on mobile kiwi browser


Fixed~


no mac support :-(


Can you share the detail? you mean cant deploy on mac?




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