SeaTable vs Notion: Self-Hosted Database or Cloud Docs?

For SeaTable vs Notion, pick SeaTable if what you need is a relational database you host yourself. Pick Notion if you need docs, a wiki and light databases without running a server. The two only really overlap on tables. SeaTable is an Airtable-style app with a free three-user self-hosted license. Notion is a workspace that only runs in Notion’s cloud.

That distinction matters because most people searching this are halfway out of Notion and hoping SeaTable is the exit. For the database half of Notion, it’s a good one. For the writing half, it’s the wrong tool: SeaTable is built around bases, tables and rows, not pages. If most of your Notion is prose, go read our roundup of self-hosted Notion and docs alternatives instead and save yourself a weekend.

How they were compared

None of this comes from a lab. The comparison is built from each vendor’s own documentation, checked in October 2026:

• SeaTable’s admin manual for hardware requirements, server editions, architecture and row limits, and the backup and recovery procedure.
• SeaTable’s price list and Notion’s pricing page.
• Notion’s help center on offline pages and exporting content, plus its API request limits.

Any performance guidance below is SeaTable’s own, which makes it vendor data, so weigh it that way.

SeaTable vs Notion at a glance

Where SeaTable wins

Your data lives on your disk. Base content sits in files under /opt/seatable-server/seatable on hardware you own, and you decide who can reach it. That matters more than any feature for a home inventory, a homelab asset register or a small business’s customer list.

It behaves like a database, not a page with a table in it. You get typed columns and linked records, plus kanban, calendar, gallery, timeline and a tree view for hierarchies of linked records, according to SeaTable’s views overview. Page Design and Map plugins cover printable records and geodata. The optional Python pipeline runs scripts on your own hardware rather than on someone’s metered quota.

The API is yours to throttle. Notion’s public API allows an average of 3 requests per second on Free and Plus and 10 on Business and Enterprise. For a self-hosted server, SeaTable’s price list says you decide which API limits apply, if any. If you’re wiring n8n or a nightly sync script against your data, you’ll hit that difference quickly.

Small-scale cost is zero. Enterprise Edition is free for three users. Developer Edition needs no license at all. In exchange it’s capped at 200 concurrent connections to dtable-server and loses row and column permissions, custom roles, row archiving and the Prometheus metrics endpoint. Neither limit will bother a household.

Volume. The default backend holds up to 100,000 rows per base, a limit that comes from a 200 MB ceiling on each base’s JSON object. The Big Data backend handles millions of rows, but you lose real-time collaboration on that data.

Where Notion wins

Writing. Notion is built around pages: nested docs, wikis and meeting notes, with databases dropped in where you need them. SeaTable doesn’t really try to compete there.

No server. Nobody gets paged when Notion’s disk fills up, and that’s worth something. The cloud is a perfectly reasonable home for a reading list, a recipe database or a trip planner. Self-hosting those costs evenings you won’t get back, and it adds one more restore drill you’ll put off.

Clients and offline. The desktop and mobile apps work offline on every plan (browsers don’t), and paid plans automatically download pages you’ve recently visited or favorited. The catch for database users: offline downloads include only the first 50 rows of a database’s first view.

Polish and AI. Guest sharing, comments and a mature editor come standard. Business adds Notion Agent and AI Meeting Notes without you running anything.

What does self-hosting SeaTable actually take?

You need a four-core x86 machine with at least 8 GB of RAM and a 50 GB SSD, Docker with the compose plugin, and a hostname that points at the box. Those are SeaTable’s documented minimums for up to 100 users. The x86 part isn’t optional, because ARM is not officially supported.

An Intel N100 mini-PC lands exactly on the floor: four cores, four threads, and Intel lists 16 GB as its maximum memory. RAM is the constraint that matters. SeaTable keeps bases in memory, and the manual says extra CPU has “much lower impact.” On an 8 GB box, SeaTable is effectively the only tenant. On 16 GB it can share with the rest of your first five services. Raspberry Pis and ARM NAS units are out, so run it on the mini-PC and use the NAS as the backup target.

The official single-node install ships modular compose files plus one .env:

apt update && apt -y install curl pwgen tree wget tar nano
curl -fsSL get.docker.com | bash

mkdir /opt/seatable-compose && cd /opt/seatable-compose
wget -c https://github.com/seatable/seatable-release/releases/latest/download/seatable-compose.tar.gz \
  -O - | tar -xz -C /opt/seatable-compose
cp -n .env-release .env

for v in SEATABLE_ADMIN_PASSWORD MARIADB_PASSWORD REDIS_PASSWORD JWT_PRIVATE_KEY SECRET_KEY; do
  sed -i "s/^${v}=.*/${v}=$(pwgen 40 1)/" .env
done

Then edit .env:

TIME_ZONE='Europe/Berlin'
SEATABLE_SERVER_HOSTNAME='seatable.home.example.net'
COMPOSE_FILE='caddy.yml,seatable-server.yml'
# Optional: license-free Developer Edition instead of Enterprise
SEATABLE_IMAGE='seatable/seatable-developer:latest'

You also have to fill in SEATABLE_ADMIN_EMAIL with your own address. If you’re running Enterprise, request the free license with the curl command in the install guide. It arrives by email, it’s valid for two years, and it lives at /opt/seatable-compose/seatable-license.txt. Then run docker compose up -d. Don’t edit the shipped .yml files, because upgrades overwrite them. And swap latest for a specific version tag so updates happen when you choose.

Storage and backups

This is the part that bites around month nine. SeaTable’s backup docs are explicit: base data is not stored in MariaDB. The three databases (ccnet_db, seafile_db, dtable_db) hold accounts, file versioning, metadata and the operation log. The rows themselves live under /opt/seatable-server/seatable. Back up only the database and you’ve saved user accounts with no data behind them.

The manual wants the database first and the data folder second. Do it the other way round and the database can reference objects that aren’t in your copy, which can corrupt bases. The easy route is the Restic component: add restic.yml to COMPOSE_FILE and set RESTIC_PASSWORD, and you get daily encrypted snapshots, database dumps included, in /opt/restic/local. That’s still on the same disk, so set RESTIC_REPOSITORY to a REST server on your NAS or a B2 bucket. That gives you the off-box copies a 3-2-1 backup strategy calls for. Store the Restic password somewhere other than that server.

The restore drill: do a fresh install and stop it, start only mariadb, import the three dumps, rsync the data and compose directory back, run docker compose up -d, then the restore-all command for Big Data. Log in and open a base with file and image columns. Run the drill once before you actually need it.

Notion users aren’t exempt. You can export a workspace as Markdown and CSV or as HTML, but the download link expires after seven days. Notion also says you can’t recreate a workspace by uploading an export again, so treat it as an archive, not a restore.

Networking and updates

SeaTable bundles Caddy as its gateway, and Caddy handles TLS for SEATABLE_SERVER_HOSTNAME. Caddy’s automatic Let’s Encrypt certificate needs the hostname to be reachable from the internet. A box that’s only on your Tailnet won’t pass, so pick one: expose it, use a DNS-01 setup, or keep it on the LAN and come in over a VPN. Our WireGuard vs Tailscale comparison covers that trade-off. If Nginx Proxy Manager already owns ports 80 and 443, decide which proxy wins before you start. Two proxies fighting over ports is a classic first-evening yak-shave.

For updates, skip Watchtower. This is a database app: dump first, bump the pinned tag, read the release notes, then run docker compose up -d.

Which one to pick

If you mostly use Notion for writing, stay on Notion or move to a docs tool. SeaTable won’t replace it, and that’s fine.

If your Notion is mostly databases (inventory, CRM, habit trackers, a media catalog) and you want them on your own hardware, run SeaTable Developer Edition on an x86 mini-PC with 16 GB. Move to the free three-user Enterprise license if you need row or column permissions. Plenty of people end up running both: Notion for prose and SeaTable for structured data that scripts touch.

Skip SeaTable if your only server is ARM or an 8 GB box that’s already busy. Notion’s cloud is the better trade there.

FAQ

is seatable a good notion alternative

SeaTable is a good alternative to Notion’s databases, not to Notion as a whole. It handles relational tables, linked records, kanban and calendar views, scripts and API access well. It isn’t a page-based writing tool, so wikis and long-form notes need something else, such as Outline, Docmost or AppFlowy alongside it.

is seatable free to self host

Yes, SeaTable is free to self-host for small setups. Enterprise Edition is free for up to three users with a license file that’s valid for two years. Developer Edition needs no license, but it’s limited to 200 concurrent connections and lacks advanced permissions, custom roles and row archiving. Larger teams pay for an annual Server license.

can seatable run on a raspberry pi

No. SeaTable officially supports only x86/x64, so Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are out unless you’re a larger customer negotiating ARM support. The documented floor is four x86 cores, 8 GB of RAM and a 50 GB SSD, which an Intel N100 mini-PC with 8 GB or more meets.

can i import notion databases into seatable

Yes, but expect cleanup. Export each Notion database as Markdown and CSV, then import the CSV into SeaTable as a new base or table. The file must be UTF-8, and SeaTable doesn’t detect column types from CSV files, so set dates, numbers and selects by hand. You’ll have to rebuild relations manually.