[HN Gopher] Show HN: Teable - Open-Source No-Code Database Fusio...
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       Show HN: Teable - Open-Source No-Code Database Fusion of Postgres
       and Airtable
        
       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
        
       Author : bieberChen
       Score  : 188 points
       Date   : 2024-03-11 11:42 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | okcdz wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | I'm thrilled to hear that!
        
         | pif_ wrote:
         | Baserow[0] is really good!
         | 
         | [0]: https://baserow.io/
        
           | egeozcan wrote:
           | Baserow is open-core, and some views and JSON-export are
           | behind a subscription. Not a bad thing per-se but needs a
           | mention.
        
       | zem wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | zem wrote:
           | thanks! i've been hoping for this functionality for years but
           | none of the airtable replacements so far has provided it.
        
       | mistermann wrote:
       | 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?
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | warthog wrote:
       | What are the differences to Glide's data-grid?
       | 
       | https://glideapps.github.io/glide-data-grid/?path=/story/gli...
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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).
        
       | ramraj07 wrote:
       | 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??
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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
        
           | egeozcan wrote:
           | I cannot scroll the example. I'm using Firefox.
        
             | jszymborski wrote:
             | I'm not having that problem on FF v123 on Linux Mint
        
               | egeozcan wrote:
               | I have the same version but on Windows
        
       | snisarenko wrote:
       | This looks pretty nice.
       | 
       | Whats the pricing for the cloud version if I am bringing my own
       | postgres database ?
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | jstummbillig wrote:
           | 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.
        
         | mgummelt wrote:
         | Plato (https://plato.io) is free for up to five users, then
         | $20/user/month
         | 
         | (Disclaimer: I'm a founder)
        
       | jskherman wrote:
       | How does this compare to NocoDB[0] which is already quite
       | established?
       | 
       | [0]: https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | MitPitt wrote:
       | 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?
        
         | Cilvic wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | anoy8888 wrote:
         | They are not true open source if they have a pricing page
        
           | nsonha wrote:
           | lol what
        
           | sneak wrote:
           | 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).
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | resoluteteeth wrote:
       | "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.
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | I must say, this suggestion is fantastic, super grateful!
        
       | jitl wrote:
       | 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?
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | d0100 wrote:
       | I can't scroll the grid vertically using Firefox 124.0b3
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | Don't worry, it's been noted!
        
       | bram2w wrote:
       | What are the main differences compared to Baserow
       | (https://baserow.io/)?
        
       | Cilvic wrote:
       | Can you share the motivation behind it? Why did you open source
       | it? Is there a commercial version where some feature will be
       | paid?
        
       | foxbee wrote:
       | 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
        
         | nolongerthere wrote:
         | Looks like they used framer.com based on a pop up I see on the
         | bottom right, so maybe that's a template?
        
           | djfdat wrote:
           | 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.
        
             | bieberChen wrote:
             | Sure we will, this week.
        
               | sigmarule wrote:
               | 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.
        
               | foxbee wrote:
               | 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?
        
               | sigmarule wrote:
               | 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.
        
               | foxbee wrote:
               | I'm sorry to hear about your years of torment.
        
             | esafak wrote:
             | 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.
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | byteofbits wrote:
           | 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...
        
           | sigmarule wrote:
           | 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.
        
         | fkyoureadthedoc wrote:
         | > 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)
        
           | foxbee wrote:
           | The others are open source
        
       | kgodey wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | hodanli wrote:
         | your demo seems to be offline
        
           | kgodey wrote:
           | 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.
        
       | neeleshs wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | ccorcos wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | lxe wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | bieberChen wrote:
         | Thank you!
        
       | culiao wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | bieberChen wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | christoff12 wrote:
         | 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).
        
         | johnchristopher wrote:
         | 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 ?
        
       | christoff12 wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | tudorg wrote:
         | Hey, SQL over HTTP is possible now in Xata, and direct Postgres
         | access will be possible _real soon_.
        
       | gorkemcetin wrote:
       | 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).
        
       | nextworddev wrote:
       | When should I use this over tools like, say, Retool?
        
       | abdullahkhalids wrote:
       | 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?
        
       | rareitem wrote:
       | 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.
        
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