Obsidian Bases turns a folder of notes into a filterable table, and for a while that felt like the missing piece. Then the vault grew. A recent XDA piece walked through swapping Bases for a proper database tool after Bases slowed to a crawl on a few thousand notes, and the story matches what a lot of people are hitting: Bases is a view on top of YAML frontmatter, not a real relational engine, so once you want typed columns, cross-note relations, and rollups that still feel fast, you outgrow it. This roundup covers seven Obsidian Bases alternatives for Windows, macOS, and Linux, aimed at people who love Markdown but need a real database next to it.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Starting price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anytype | Local-first knowledge base with objects and relations | Yes, personal use | Optional paid tier for extra sync | Typed objects with true relations, offline by default |
| AppFlowy | Open-source Notion-style databases | Yes, self-host free | Cloud plan under $10/user/mo | Runs fully offline, self-host without a subscription |
| NocoDB | Turning an existing database into a spreadsheet UI | Yes, self-hosted | Cloud plan around $10/user/mo | Puts an Airtable UI on Postgres, MySQL, or SQLite |
| Baserow | Airtable-style bases without the price ceiling | Yes, generous row cap | Paid plan starting under $10/user/mo | Formula fields, linked tables, and self-host build |
| Notion | Teams that want polish over principles | Yes, personal | Paid plan around $10/user/mo | Mature relations, rollups, and views |
| Fibery | Multi-domain relational modeling in one workspace | Free for solo use | Paid plan starting near $10/user/mo | Deep entity graph, custom views per role |
| Capacities | Note-taking with typed objects instead of a database | Yes, generous | Pro plan under $10/user/mo | Object-based, no table view required |
Why people leave Obsidian Bases
Bases is not a bad idea, it is a young idea. The complaints show up in the same places every week.
Performance on large vaults
Users on Reddit report Bases queries that were snappy at a few hundred notes turning into multi-second table renders past three or four thousand. That is the point where Bases stops being useful for daily review.
No real relations
Bases reads YAML fields, so a link is a wikilink string, not a foreign key. There is no rollup, no bidirectional link with typed context, and no way to compute a value from a linked note without a community plugin.
YAML rigidity
Every property lives in frontmatter, so schema changes ripple through hundreds of files. Renaming a field is a find and replace across the vault, and a typo in one note silently drops it from the base.
Plugin conflicts
Dataview, Metadata Menu, and Bases overlap on the same YAML surface. Users on the Obsidian forum describe queries that work in one plugin and break in another after an update, which is exactly the problem a dedicated database avoids.
Mobile and team gaps
Bases feels fine on a Mac and rough on a phone. It is single-user by design, so there is no way to hand a base to a teammate without also handing over the whole vault.
Anytype, best for local-first knowledge bases with real relations
Anytype treats every note, task, and contact as a typed object with real relations between them. Databases are just filtered views of those objects, so a “Reading list” is the same data as a “Books” gallery, only queried differently. Sync is end-to-end encrypted and peer-to-peer, so a vault lives on your machines, not a company server.
Where it falls short: the object model has a learning curve, and importing a large Obsidian vault means mapping YAML frontmatter to Anytype relations by hand. Templates help, but a smooth Bases-to-Anytype migration does not exist yet.
Pricing:
- Free: unlimited local use, personal sync across your devices.
- Paid: an optional membership tier for extra storage and a personal name space, well under a mainstream subscription.
- vs Obsidian Bases: cheaper if you were paying for Obsidian Sync on top of Bases, since Anytype rolls sync into the free tier.
Migrating from Obsidian Bases: no direct importer. The pragmatic route is exporting a base as CSV, creating an Anytype type with matching relations, and pasting rows in. Expect an afternoon for a mid-size setup.
Bottom line: pick Anytype if the appeal of Obsidian was local-first, and the appeal of Bases was structure. Skip it if you need a shared team workspace today.
AppFlowy, best open-source database with a Notion feel
AppFlowy is the closest thing to Notion that runs entirely on your machine. Grid, board, and calendar views sit on top of the same table, formulas work in cells, and everything can be self-hosted with Docker or used through AppFlowy Cloud. The desktop app is a native Flutter build, so it feels closer to a real app than an Electron shell.
Where it falls short: the mobile apps still lag the desktop on feature parity, and the AI features are gated behind the paid tier. Migrating a heavy Bases setup with custom formulas needs a review pass, since a few functions are named differently.
Pricing:
- Free: full desktop app, unlimited local workspaces, and unrestricted self-host.
- Paid: AppFlowy Pro adds cloud sync and AI credits at a monthly rate under $10 per user.
- vs Obsidian Bases: free if you self-host, cheaper than Obsidian Sync plus Bases if you use the cloud plan.
Migrating from Obsidian Bases: CSV export from Bases imports cleanly into an AppFlowy grid, and links become URL cells. Rollups and formulas need to be rebuilt, which is a couple of hours for a busy vault.
Bottom line: the best fit for anyone who wants a Notion-style database without a subscription. Not the pick if you need it to also be a full note-taking replacement for a Markdown vault.
NocoDB, best for turning an existing database into a base
NocoDB wraps a spreadsheet-style UI around Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, or SQLite. It is the right tool when your data already lives in a database and Bases was trying to reinvent that. Views, forms, and API endpoints come out of the box, and the self-hosted image runs in a few minutes.
Where it falls short: it is a database front end, not a note-taking app. Long-form writing does not belong in a NocoDB row, so most Obsidian users pair it with something else for prose.
Pricing:
- Free: self-hosted, unlimited rows and users on your own server.
- Paid: managed cloud plans in the low double digits per user per month.
- vs Obsidian Bases: cheaper if you have a spare Raspberry Pi or home server, since the free tier caps only on the cloud side.
Migrating from Obsidian Bases: export the base as CSV, import as a table, and the schema comes across. Formulas need to be written in NocoDB syntax, which is closer to SQL than Dataview.
Bottom line: pick NocoDB when the “base” you want is really a database. Skip it if the data was always going to live in Markdown files.
Baserow, best Airtable-style base without a row ceiling
Baserow is a fully open-source Airtable alternative, and the free tier is generous enough to run a medium project without paying. Linked fields, formulas, and Kanban views all work, and the self-hosted build is a one-command Docker run. The plugin system lets teams add custom field types without touching the core.
Where it falls short: real-time collaboration is present but not as smooth as Airtable, and the mobile web experience is best on tablets, not phones.
Pricing:
- Free: hosted plan with a large row cap for personal use, unlimited on self-host.
- Paid: cloud plans starting under $10 per user per month.
- vs Obsidian Bases: comparable price if you self-host, since Bases is bundled with Obsidian and Baserow is bundled with your own server.
Migrating from Obsidian Bases: CSV import handles the base, and linked note fields become linked table cells. Rollup functions map to Baserow formulas without much rewriting.
Bottom line: the safe pick if you want an Airtable clone that you can leave on your own hardware. Not ideal if you were relying on Bases for inline note context, since Baserow rows are records, not documents.
Notion, best if polish matters more than principles
Notion still sets the bar for database ergonomics. Relations, rollups, formulas, timelines, and synced blocks all work as advertised, and the AI features have become useful rather than gimmicky. For a small team that wants to stop tending Obsidian plugins, this is often the easiest landing.
Where it falls short: everything lives on Notion’s servers, exports are HTML or Markdown zips that lose relation data, and pricing per seat adds up quickly on a growing team.
Pricing:
- Free: personal plan, unlimited pages, limited file uploads.
- Paid: Plus plan around $10 per user per month, Business and Enterprise above that.
- vs Obsidian Bases: more expensive per user than Obsidian, but the built-in sync makes the effective comparison closer than the sticker price suggests.
Migrating from Obsidian Bases: Notion imports Markdown well, but Bases relations do not survive the export. Plan on rebuilding the schema and using Notion’s inline databases in place of Dataview queries.
Download: Site
Bottom line: the right choice for a team that will trade local-first for a workspace that just works. Wrong choice if leaving your data on a vendor’s servers is a non-starter.
Fibery, best for connecting more than one domain in a single base
Fibery is what you reach for when Bases is being asked to model too many things at once. Projects, features, customers, and notes can all be their own entity types with relations that span the whole workspace, and the query language handles cross-domain reports that would be a Dataview headache.
Where it falls short: the surface area is large and the setup work is real. A solo user with a small vault will find Fibery heavier than the problem calls for.
Pricing:
- Free: solo plan with a small user cap, useful for evaluation.
- Paid: standard plan starting around $10 per user per month, with a discount on annual billing.
- vs Obsidian Bases: pricier than Bases at the seat level, and worth it only when you need cross-entity relations that Bases cannot express at all.
Migrating from Obsidian Bases: import Markdown as documents, then build the entity model in Fibery. Bases queries do not translate directly and are better rewritten as Fibery views.
Download: Site
Bottom line: the answer when Bases has quietly become the ledger for your entire operation. Overkill if all you wanted was a filterable reading list.
Capacities, best if you want objects instead of a table view
Capacities is the outlier on this list because it does not lead with a spreadsheet grid. Every piece of content is a typed object, so a Book, a Person, and a Meeting each have their own template and relate to notes without needing a Base to hold them. It is closer to how Obsidian users actually think about their vault, just with the structure built in.
Where it falls short: no self-host option, and the desktop app is Electron. If a “real” database view is what you want, you will miss it.
Pricing:
- Free: generous personal plan with all core object types.
- Paid: Pro plan under $10 per month when billed annually, adds AI features and larger storage.
- vs Obsidian Bases: modestly more per month than Obsidian alone, but you drop the Bases plus Dataview plus Metadata Menu plugin stack.
Migrating from Obsidian Bases: Markdown import brings notes across, and object types replace Bases queries. The mental switch is bigger than the technical one.
Download: Site
Bottom line: the pick when Bases felt like the wrong shape and you never really wanted a table. Not the pick if you specifically want to query a base like a database.
How to choose
Pick Anytype if local-first was the whole point of Obsidian and you want structured objects on top of that principle. Pick AppFlowy if you want a Notion-style base experience without a subscription and are happy running Docker for the self-host build. Pick NocoDB when the data really lives in a database and Bases was patching around that. Pick Baserow for an Airtable-style workflow with a serious free tier and an easy self-host path.
Pick Notion when a small team needs to stop maintaining plugins and start shipping, and paying per seat is not the problem. Pick Fibery only when Bases has become a cross-domain workspace that Dataview cannot model cleanly. Pick Capacities if the honest answer is that you never wanted a table view, only typed notes that link to each other.
Stay on Obsidian Bases if your vault is under a couple of thousand notes, your queries are simple, and you rely on plugins that do not have a peer in these alternatives. Bases is still the fastest way to get a filtered list of Markdown notes when nothing more relational is needed.
FAQ
Is Anytype better than Obsidian Bases?
For structured data with relations, yes. Anytype treats objects as first-class citizens, so relations, rollups, and typed properties work without leaning on frontmatter parsing. For pure Markdown editing, Obsidian remains the more mature tool.
Can we import Obsidian Bases into another tool?
Not directly. Every tool on this list accepts CSV exports from a base, and most also accept Markdown imports for the notes. Relations, rollups, and Dataview-style queries need to be rebuilt on arrival, since the underlying models differ.
What is the cheapest Obsidian Bases alternative?
NocoDB, Baserow, and AppFlowy are free when self-hosted, with no row or user cap. If self-hosting is not an option, Anytype’s free tier is the closest to a no-cost daily driver.
Is there a free version of Obsidian Bases?
Yes. Bases is part of Obsidian and Obsidian is free for personal use. The paid pieces are Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish, both optional.
What do people use instead of Obsidian Bases?
Most switchers land on Notion or AppFlowy for a Notion-like database, Anytype for a local-first knowledge base, or NocoDB and Baserow when the data really belongs in a proper database. Fibery and Capacities show up in more specialized moves.
Can a team share an Obsidian Bases replacement?
Anytype, AppFlowy, NocoDB, Baserow, Notion, and Fibery all support multi-user workspaces. Capacities is stronger as a single-user tool today. For teams, the choice usually narrows to Notion for polish, AppFlowy for open source, or Fibery for complex modeling.
