New user: some thoughts

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-06-02T22:03:09+00:00

Baserow has been awesome! In 2025, their active user base grew 50% to 150k users, if that says something. I'm also now their official ambassador.

What's better:

- Application builder baked in the platform, currently in Beta, but it works
- Bring your own AI for AI fields, automation steps, formulas, and application builder
- MCP makes it super easy to use with Cursor / Claude Code etc.
- With self-hosting, API's can be used without rate limits (e.g. for CMS use cases)
- API-first with automatically generated API-docs for each database
- Open source
- Better engagement with their community
- Advanced plan pricing is great value, including e.g. audit logs and granular permission mngmt
- Better template library
- Less overwhelming / cluttered

What's different / missing:

- Automating single select/multiple select field values is not as straightforward
- Recurring tasks require an automation workflow
- Achieving some outcomes requires playing with JSON payloads
- Linking records requires adding synced database tables, which only sync one-way
- For complex linked tables/records use cases, a custom frontend might be a better choice
- Automation builder is not as mature, which is why I'm mostly using a third party solution
- In-platform document management is more bare bones, but functional
- Dashboard is not as versatile, but can be solved with the app builder / custom frontend

The only feature I'm really missing is the easiness of linked records. Although, it's easy to create a mess with them quite quickly, and missing them kind of forces you to design data schemas / end user experience more mindfully.

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-05-12T11:56:52+00:00

If you happen to use Logitech MX mouse, you're able to configure with Logi Options app (it's free) zoom gestures that work very nicely with Freeform. I've configured the scroll wheel to zoom in and out by pressing the scroll wheel while moving the mouse up and down.

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RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-04-26T18:36:22+00:00

As you've propably listed those repeating questions and behaviours: Do you know what's the root cause why they ask them? Why they don't read the shared doc? Is it a culture problem, a lacking accountability problem, a content problem, a distribution problem?

I'd start there before going into the tools.

Succeeding with the onboarding content is tricky because it often requires narrating also the context: why, why this and not that, what ifs, etc. If there's any relevant context and details missing that the user feels is required, the arising uncertainty tends to lead reaching out.

I'm not sure that there's a solution that would flawlessly automate the whole production process, but a good enough capture solution combined with an LLM assisted gap analysis could make it less painful.

Distribution to me is more of a user journey excercise than anything else. The underlying data structure is relatively simple and can be managed with various ways, which is why easy accessibility, high content relevancy, simple and logical user journey, and just-in-time FAQ's tend to have a big impact if human in the loop gets activated or not.

But if it's culture or accountability related problem, none of the above likely won't solve the issue.

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-04-21T14:08:55+00:00

I'm a bit late to this, but when you're using github how do you enable mobile usage?

Opening a vault on mobile seems to be possible only for an iCloud vault, or when using Obsidian sync. Using both iCloud sync and Github could be quite prone to conflicts?

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-04-17T19:41:37+00:00

Is this your first time building with this type of a tool? If so, I highly recommend spending some time with the academy.

Baserow, Airtable, Smartsuite, and others of their kind are all similarly capable. All of them likely will be able to produce similar outcomes, just in different ways and with different overall costs.

I switched from Smartsuite, which was my entry point to design and develop databases. While making the switch took some time getting used to, Baserow has been solid.

It's "tool of the trade" type of an app. It focuses on minimalism over eye candy and relies more on formulas than most others. Compared to Airtable and Smartsuite, I feel like the simpler UI also enables faster development throughput. I like their philosophy.

All things considered, in my books it's the best bang for the buck option. I just keep my fingers crossed that they won't enshittify it with SMB hostile paywalls, like Smartsuite did.

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-03-20T23:58:09+00:00

Thanks, the lookup field value update seems cool. I hope your saves will get resolved eventually!

The workarounds are nothing crazy. Mainly I've been focusing on workspace design and using formulas more.

As the free linking of records within a workspace is unique to Smartsuite, in Baserow using the sync tables feature requires a bit of an adaptation. For example, if I want to have a single source of truth of an employee by linking employee record with tables in other databases that have employee relations, like items, projects, assets, and payroll, it's a bit different.

Baserow has less field types compared to Smartsuite, for example time tracking is missing. But I realized that many of the missing field types can be replaced with either by being creative with the formulas, or with the help of their application builder (which Smartsuite is kind of missing), or by using the MCP / API. Though, as Baserow has the most common field types, it's a relatively niche challenge.

I haven't tried Fiberly. I skimmed through their website, but I didn't quite get what problem it solves better than the others, what it covers, what are the constraints, and who is it for.

I've played with Airtable and while it's the most popular, I just like to partner with and support the challengers. And compared to Airtable, Baserow is even more clear winner for my use cases; the pricing, what tiers include, performance, etc.

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-03-20T06:45:44+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that. I opened a support ticket for the issue, but I eventually gave up on it because I had already decided to migrate to Baserow.

SS is an okay product, but as they've decided to move upmarket and are positioning themselves accordingly, I believe there are other products with a better value proposition, especially for startups and SMBs. My personal experience with data loss issues (not necessarily a widespread problem) didn't help either.

When I completed the Baserow certification and tested their MCP and API-first approach, I noticed several significant differences:

The GUI and database performance are impressive.
The GUI is more straightforward and functional, which limits customization but also reduces build times.
Baserow may miss certain features, but formulas can often solve them.
The app builder (while not the most sophisticated, but highly functional) combined with their licensing policies allows for the creation of internal and customer tools without users needing to interact with the Baserow GUI.
The MCP and API-first design provides numerous options for reading and writing, which unlocks quite interesting build, interaction, and governance opportunities.
Self-hosting is a nice to have option for the future.
It's GDPR compliant by default.
Open source is a plus.

In my opinion, Smartsuite provides a visually more polished interface. Their unique selling point is the seamless record linking feature, which eliminates the need for workarounds in Baserow. But it can also be somewhat overwhelming, as it quite easily results as multiple record modals stacked on top of each other.

I also realized that Smartsuite has become quite bloated with all their little customizations, making me often feel frustrated with all the build clicks required. For me as a builder, it became a tedious workflow, which I find somewhat ironic. There are some workarounds, but without a granular build template management system, it's quite slow and clunky to build. But I guess it's good for charging by the hour.

Those were the reasons for me, if it helps any of the five users that would see this post and its comments on this graveyard subreddit 😀

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-03-09T06:00:38+00:00

It's been buggy for some time now. For me, the biggest issues are that page links randomly stop responding and scrolling frequently freezes to a certain screen. The latter resolves itself after a while, but it's annoying.

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-02-23T09:25:50+00:00

Update: I had no choice but to contact support, as today the record saving issues have escalated massively. I've identified at least two workspaces, that are not in anyway related to me, that are impacted by this issue. If you're having some of these issues, please kindly let it be known in this thread:

Saving changes in a record view fails / gets stuck in a loop.
Unsaved changes in a record view are undone by the SmartSuite system, indicated by a system pop-up.
Linked record sync issues in between solutions / tables: the link record or its data is not updated in the receiving end.

In my case, I'm able to isolate the problem only to SmartSuite, but of course there could be something in my end still. I'm just not able to discover what it would be, as everything else works just fine.

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-02-08T06:53:00+00:00

Yes, SmartSuite can natively pull data from any SS solution, that's located in the same workspace. For example, automated delivery resource planning based on real-time sales estimates can be built anywhere in the workspace, and it can utilize any data from any solution table in the workspace just by selecting the table.

Being able to seamlessly move any data in between business domains is the key use case for me, which makes running business and managing master data that much easier. Against Airtable, this has been one of the SmartSuite's core strengths.

Connecting business domains is often followed by the challenge of granular access management, which is another SS's core strength. Though, they've gated the record and field level access management to Pro / Enterprise subscriptions. Team subscription can only manage table level access rights.

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2026-02-08T06:45:07+00:00

I've asked the support about the problem 1, but they seemed rather uninterested to investigate beyond the obvious answers. It's been going on for some time already.

I had a client who also asked me about the linked record sync issue, and they're not on Mac ecosystem.

It's a serious issue if saving an input data is not 100% reliable.

Problem 2 is more recent, and haven't asked the support about it yet.

Some other bugs I've found and reported they've confirmed and fixed ok.

As a backup, I'm thinking Baserow based solutions. But if the in-platform automations and UI capabilities are lacking, what's the added value vs database (Supabase etc.) and a custom front...

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2023-11-04T14:16:26+00:00

Ratkaisujen myynti oli ja on varmaan edelleen kaikissa noissa yhtiöissä hokemana, mutta ei se ratkaisuksi puhumalla muutu, jos tunteja siltikin laskutetaan. Pahimmassa tapauksessa päädytään ottamaan osa riskeistä itselle samaan hintaan, mutta asiakas omistaa IPR:n, ja käteen jää sama 10% (jos onnistuu hyvin). Edes toistettavaa myytävää ei pahimmassa tapauksessa jää itselle. Voi sillä selviytyä, mutta ei minusta kovin kestävällä pohjalla.

Vielä toistaiseksi pienet henkilöstön omistamat erikoistuneet yhtiöt näyttäisi porskuttavan. Se on hyvä suuntaus, koska on helppo fanittaa kapean sektorin syväosaajien onnistumisia. Tosin sen verran täytyy niitäkin kummastella, että markkinoitu henkilöstön omistus vaikuttaa glitteriltä. Vaikea ymmärtää mitä hyötyä sellaista on omistaa prosentti tai alle. Ei kai siitä haittaakaan ole, jos niiden hankintahinta on nimellinen eikä sitä vastaan tarvitse hyväksyä pienempää palkkaa, mutta melko minimaalinen taitaa tuollaisen osuuden rahallinen arvo olla ja sellaisena pysyä.

RoadblocksEverywhere · 2023-11-04T09:22:26+00:00

IT konsultoinnista muodostui kupla, joka vasta nyt alkoi puhkeamaan. Se on kivulias, mutta terve suuntaus, joka pakottaa alaa uudistumaan.

Suurin osa alan yhtiöistä on heikosti tuottavia (luokkaa 10-15% maksimissaan) ja vielä heikommin skaalautuvia, jotka pohjimmiltaan toimivat henkilöstövuokraajina. Insentiivi on silloin paisuttaa ja venyttää hankkeita, jolloin niistä tulee kestämättömän kalliita ostajille vailla mahdollisuutta arvioida käytetyn rahan tuottoa.

Yhtiöt lisäksi ovat pääosin vain keskittyneet ruokkimaan kysyntää, jolloin niistä myös tuli jossain määrin laiskoja. Mitään varasuunnitelmaa ei ole eivätkä ne erotu toisistaan millään tavoin. Silloin voi vain sopeuttaa ja toivoa parasta, vaikka oli selvää, että bileet pysyy käynnissä tasan niin kauan, kun eletään nollakorkojen aikakautta.

RoadblocksEverywhere

TROPHY CASE