Mathesarvs
NocoDB
NocoDB: Also sits on an existing database, supports MySQL and others, and offers a hosted option
Mathesar
Spreadsheet style interface that edits an existing PostgreSQL database directly, with no schema of its own
As of 31 August 2026, Mathesar is free to use. Mathesar is a user interface for a PostgreSQL database you already have, using PostgreSQL roles and privileges as its own permission model rather than inventing one. Softwr lists it under Spreadsheets. Mathesar is available on Web, Linux.
Overview
What Mathesar does
Mathesar connects to an existing PostgreSQL database and presents its tables through a spreadsheet like interface with filtering, sorting, grouping, summarisation and record pages. It can also create and alter tables, columns, constraints and relationships, so it functions as a schema editor as well as a data editor, and it writes changes as ordinary SQL against the live database. The distinguishing decision is that it adds nothing between the user and PostgreSQL. Permissions are PostgreSQL roles and privileges, not an application layer that must be kept in step with them, so a database administrator who has already modelled access does not model it a second time. This is the honest answer to the row count question that the spreadsheet database category avoids: there is no hybrid store to outgrow, because the database is a real PostgreSQL database from the first row to the last. The buyers are organisations with a PostgreSQL database, often a nonprofit, research group or public sector team, who need non technical staff to read and edit data without writing SQL and without a hosted vendor holding it. The trade off is stark. There is no cloud offering, so somebody must run and secure the deployment, and the collaboration, automation and integration features that make the commercial products attractive are simply absent.
What people use it for
- A nonprofit or research group whose data is already in PostgreSQL and whose staff cannot write SQL
- Giving analysts a safe editing interface governed by database roles that already exist
- Replacing a hand built Django or Rails admin screen that nobody wants to maintain
- Editing production reference data where an export, edit and reimport cycle would risk losing concurrent changes
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Mathesar.
- There is no hosted offering of any kind, so a team without someone who can run and secure a server cannot use it at all.
- It works only with PostgreSQL, so a MySQL, SQL Server or SQLite estate is excluded outright.
- There are no automations, no webhooks and effectively no integration catalogue, so it edits data and does nothing else.
- Because it writes to the live database, a careless bulk edit or column type change is a production change with no staging step and no undo.
- Development is grant and community funded rather than commercially funded, so roadmap pace and long term continuity carry a different risk profile from a venture backed vendor.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Mathesar
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- MathesarvsBaserow
Baserow: Owns its own schema and offers hosting, if you do not already have a PostgreSQL database to expose
- MathesarvsDirectus
Directus: Adds a REST and GraphQL API, roles and flows on top of an existing database, at the cost of a heavier platform
Pricing
What Mathesar costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Self hosted open source
Free
- No licence fee
- No hosted option offered
- Connects to your existing PostgreSQL database
- Row limits are your database limits
- Community support
Capabilities
Features
Direct PostgreSQL editing
Reads and writes your live database with no intermediate storage or sync
PostgreSQL permissions
Access control uses database roles and privileges rather than a parallel permission system
Schema editing
Create and alter tables, columns, constraints and foreign keys from the interface
Data exploration
Filter, sort, group and summarise without writing SQL
Relationship navigation
Follow foreign keys between related records in the interface
Import of tabular files
Load CSV and similar files into new or existing tables
Self hosted only
Runs entirely inside your own infrastructure
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is there a cloud version?
No. Self hosting is the only option, and that is a deliberate project decision rather than a gap waiting to be filled.
How does it handle permissions?
Through PostgreSQL roles and privileges directly, so there is no second permission model to keep in step.
What is the row limit?
Whatever PostgreSQL can handle. Mathesar adds no storage layer of its own.
Does it support databases other than PostgreSQL?
No.
Can it replace Airtable?
Only for editing and exploring data. There are no automations, apps or integrations.
Keep looking
Where to go from Mathesar
- Mathesar alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Mathesar pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Mathesar badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Spreadsheets softwareThe full category
- Best Spreadsheets softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Spreadsheets software for
Compare Mathesar with
- Baserow
- NocoDB
- Teable
- Rowy
- SeaTable
- APITable
- Google Sheets
- Zoho Sheet
- Sigma Computing
- Redash
- Fibery
- Budibase
- Equals
- Coefficient
- Teable
- SeaTable
- APITable
- Sigma Computing
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Pricing on request12 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Mathesar, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Mathesar
Mathesar alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Mathesar pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Mathesar
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Mathesar badge
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