Airtable vs n8n Comparison 2026
Both cover project management. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
At a glance
- Only Airtable has a free tier.
Side by side
Airtable | n8n | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $20 | From $20 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Airtable
A database that behaves like a spreadsheet
Airtable looks like a spreadsheet and works like a database, which is why so many content calendars, sponsor pipelines and asset libraries end up in it. Views, linked records and automations turn a table into something a small team can run on. Per-seat pricing gets expensive the moment collaborators outnumber the tables.
Our note
Portals for outside collaborators are priced apart from seats, starting at $120 a month for fifteen guests. If sponsors or clients need to see the calendar, price that line first. It can cost more than the whole team.
n8n
Automation you can host on your own server
n8n is a workflow automation tool whose source is public and which you may run on your own machine, which matters when the data passing through is a subscriber list or a client's files. Nodes cover the usual services and a code node covers everything else, so a workflow does not stop dead at the first thing nobody built an integration for. Cloud plans are billed by workflow executions rather than by task, so a long chain costs the same as a short one. Self-hosting is free under its own licence.
Only on this side
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.