Zenkit vs Airtable

Disclosure: Breeze publishes this comparison and is one of the tools discussed here. Breeze is not a database — no relations, no rollups, no formulas, no interface builder — so on the substance of this comparison it does not compete. That is stated as plainly as we can put it.

Review process: Written in late July 2026 from both vendors' pricing pages, including the per-plan quota tables that most comparisons skip, and Zenkit's published GDPR statement for the hosting claim. Zenkit's packaging had changed since older comparisons were written. Ratings are from Capterra.

Short answer: Airtable if the thing you are building is genuinely relational — linked records, rollups, formulas, interfaces on top. Zenkit if you mostly need to track work and see it several ways, want to pay about half as much per seat, or need data held in the EU. The number that decides it is not the seat price: it is records per base, and Airtable's free plan stops at 1,000.

Most people describing themselves as Airtable users are running one table with a link field and no rollups. If that is you, you are paying for a database platform and using a spreadsheet with better views — which is exactly the gap Zenkit is priced into.

Zenkit vs Airtable at a glance

Zenkit and Airtable compared on the points that decide this pair

Feature	Zenkit	Airtable
Best for	Tracking work across several views	Building relational apps
Free plan	None — 14-day trial	Yes, 5 editors
Team plan price	EUR 12/seat/month	$20/seat/month
Record ceiling	100,000 items on Team	50,000 per base on Team
Relations and rollups	Limited	Core capability
App building	Not offered	Interface Designer
Data hosting	Servers in Germany	No published EU-only option
Rating	4.6/5 on Capterra (235 reviews)	4.6/5 on Capterra (2,240 reviews)

Quick verdict: Zenkit vs Airtable

Choose Zenkit if:

• The job is tracking work, and the "database" is really a structured list
• EU data residency is a procurement requirement rather than a preference
• Per-seat cost matters more than relational depth

Choose Airtable if:

• Records need to link to other records and roll up across them
• You want to put an interface in front of the data for people who should not see the table
• Volume is heading into tens of thousands of rows with automations running on them

Choose Breeze if:

• The base you built turned out to be a project tracker wearing a database costume
• You need deadlines, assignees and hours rather than schemas and formulas
• Nobody on the team wants to own a data model

What actually forces the upgrade

Seat count is what buyers compare and record volume is what actually moves them up a tier. Both vendors publish hard quotas, and they are the most useful numbers on either pricing page.

Published quotas per plan, from each vendor's pricing page

Limit	Zenkit Plus	Zenkit Team	Zenkit Business	Airtable Free	Airtable Team	Airtable Business
Records	20,000 items	100,000 items	150,000 items	1,000 per base	50,000 per base	125,000 per base
Automation runs	300 per seat	3,000 per seat	3,000 per seat	100	25,000	100,000
Files	6 GB	20 GB	50 GB	1 GB per base	20 GB per base	100 GB per base
Users	Max 10	Unlimited	Unlimited	5 editors	Per seat	Per seat

Three things fall out of that table. Airtable's free plan is the tightest limit either vendor publishes — 1,000 records per base is a content calendar's first four months, and it arrives long before the team grows. Zenkit's quotas are per organisation rather than per base, which suits teams with many small collections and punishes anyone with one enormous one. And Zenkit meters automation per seat, so a five-person team on Plus shares 1,500 runs a month while Airtable Team gives 25,000 regardless of headcount.

The other trap is Zenkit's Plus plan, which looks like the cheap entry point and is capped at ten users. It also omits Gantt charts, custom fields, user roles and email-to-project. For any real comparison against Airtable Team, the relevant Zenkit plan is Team at EUR 12.

Key differences between Zenkit and Airtable

Airtable is a database that learned to be friendly. Tables relate to tables, rollups summarise across links, formulas compute, and Interface Designer puts a usable front end over the result. That is why it ends up running inventories, content operations and internal tools.

Zenkit is a work tracker that learned to be flexible. A collection holds items with custom fields, and the same items appear as a board, table, calendar, Gantt chart or mind map. It is quicker to get useful and does not pretend to relational depth.

Is Zenkit better than Airtable?

Zenkit is better than Airtable for teams whose data is a list with fields rather than a set of related tables, and for European buyers who need to answer a hosting question in one sentence.

Airtable is better than Zenkit whenever records genuinely relate to each other, whenever automations do real work, and whenever someone needs to use the data without seeing the table.

For the wider field, Zenkit alternatives covers the multi-view trackers and Airtable alternatives covers the database-shaped tools people compare it against.

If you are also weighing docs-and-databases tools, Zenkit vs Notion is the natural next read.

What is Zenkit?

• Pricing: no free plan; Plus EUR 8, Team EUR 12, Business EUR 21 per seat per month, excluding VAT
• Rating: 4.6/5 on Capterra from 235 reviews

Zenkit, from the German company Axonic, is built on collections of items you can render however suits the moment. Against Airtable's relational model, the trade is depth for immediacy: there is no formula language to learn and no schema to design before the tool is useful, and equally no rollups when you need them.

Two facts matter for this comparison. Zenkit no longer has a free plan — Plus, Team, Business and Enterprise with a 14-day trial, after which access can drop to data export only. And it runs in Germany: Zenkit's own GDPR page states that its servers are located there, under the GDPR, the European data protection directives and German federal law. Airtable publishes no equivalent commitment on its plan table.

What users say about Zenkit

"I found it very functional for tracking projects. I was able to develop and present my projects as I wanted until the delivery date."

Source: Capterra

What is Airtable?

• Pricing: free for up to 5 editors; Team $20 and Business $45 per seat per month billed annually
• Rating: 4.6/5 on Capterra from 2,240 reviews

Airtable is a relational database with a spreadsheet's manners. Where Zenkit gives you one collection viewed several ways, Airtable gives you several tables that know about each other — linked records, lookups, rollups and formulas — and Interface Designer to build a front end so that other people never touch the raw data.

The plan structure reflects that ambition. Gantt and timeline views begin on Team at $20 a seat; two-way sync, an admin panel, SAML single sign-on and App Sandbox arrive on Business at $45. AI is metered in credits, from 500 per editor a month on Free to 20,000 on Business, and guest-facing Portals are a separate add-on starting at $120 a month for fifteen guests.

What users say about Airtable

"I love the flexibility of Airtable. You can design the relational database of your dreams with no programming skills necessary."

Source: Capterra

Zenkit vs Airtable features

Both give you records with custom fields, several views and automations. Below is where the products genuinely part.

Where Zenkit and Airtable diverge on capability

Area	Zenkit	Airtable
Linked records and rollups	Limited	Core capability
Formula language	Basic	Extensive
App front ends	Not offered	Interface Designer
Mind map view	Yes	No
Gantt chart	Team plan and above	Team plan and above
Automation metering	Per seat, per month	Per workspace, per month
SAML SSO	Business, EUR 21	Business, $45
Data residency	Germany	Not published as EU-only

The automation-metering row is the practical one. Zenkit's per-seat allowance rewards larger teams and starves small ones; Airtable's workspace-level pool does the opposite. A three-person team running a busy content pipeline will exhaust Zenkit Plus long before it exhausts Airtable Team.

The SSO row is where the price gap narrows. Both put single sign-on on their third tier, but that tier is EUR 21 for Zenkit and $45 for Airtable — so for a security-reviewed rollout the difference is more than double, not the third it looks like at the entry plans.

Zenkit vs Airtable pricing

Both bill per seat, so these compare directly — Zenkit lists in euros excluding VAT.

Annual cost by team size, from each vendor's published rates

Team size	Zenkit Team	Zenkit Business	Airtable Team	Airtable Business
10 users	EUR 1,440	EUR 2,520	$2,400	$5,400
25 users	EUR 3,600	EUR 6,300	$6,000	$13,500
100 users	EUR 14,400	EUR 25,200	$24,000	$54,000

Zenkit lands at roughly half to two-fifths of Airtable at every size. Whether that is a saving depends entirely on whether you would have used the relational features, and the honest test is simple: count the rollup fields in your current base. If the answer is zero, the cheaper column is not a downgrade.

Zenkit vs Airtable ease of use

Airtable is easy to start and hard to master. A grid appears, you type into it, and it feels like a spreadsheet — right up until the point you need a rollup across a link field, where reviewers note the curve gets steep for anyone without database experience.

Zenkit asks less at that end and more at the beginning. Its reviewers describe the fine-grained customisability as daunting for new users and the interface as complex, though the pre-built views mean nothing needs designing before the tool is useful.

There is also a packaging problem worth naming: Zenkit is a suite — Base, To Do, Projects, Hypernotes — and buyers regularly land on the wrong product page before they reach the one they wanted. Airtable is one product with one entry point.

Zenkit pros and cons

Zenkit pros

• Roughly half Airtable's per-seat price at Team, and under half at the SSO tier
• Servers in Germany, where Airtable publishes no EU-only option
• Record quotas apply per organisation, not per base, which suits many small collections
• Mind map view alongside board, table, calendar and Gantt — Airtable has no equivalent
• Nothing to model before the tool is useful, unlike Airtable's schema-first approach

Zenkit cons

• No free plan at all, where Airtable's covers 5 editors indefinitely
• No real answer to linked records, rollups or Airtable's formula language
• Plus caps at ten users and omits Gantt, custom fields, roles and email-to-project
• Automation metered per seat, so small teams get a small allowance
• Confusing multi-product suite, against Airtable's single front door

Airtable pros and cons

Airtable pros

• Genuine relational modelling — links, lookups, rollups, formulas — which Zenkit does not match
• Interface Designer puts an app in front of the data, with no Zenkit equivalent
• Free plan for up to 5 editors, where Zenkit offers only a 14-day trial
• Automation allowances are workspace-wide and far larger than Zenkit's per-seat pool
• Very large ecosystem of extensions, syncs and templates

Airtable cons

• Costs roughly twice Zenkit per seat, and $45 against EUR 21 at the SSO tier
• 1,000 records per base on free is the tightest limit either vendor publishes
• No published EU-only hosting, which rules it out of some European procurement
• Steep curve for anyone without database experience, per reviewers
• Guest access is a separate Portals add-on from $120 a month

When Zenkit is the better choice

A twenty-person German or EU-based company tracking projects, clients and content in structured lists. Zenkit Team is EUR 2,880 a year against Airtable Team's $4,800, hosting answers itself, and nothing in the workflow needs a rollup.

It is also the better choice for teams with many small collections rather than one large base, because Zenkit's quotas are pooled at the organisation level.

When Airtable is the better choice

An operations team running inventory, or a content team where campaigns link to assets link to channels. Once records genuinely relate, Zenkit is doing manual work that Airtable does structurally, and the price difference stops being the point.

It is also the right answer when non-technical colleagues need to use the data without touching it. Interface Designer is a real capability and Zenkit has nothing like it.

Breeze as an alternative

Breeze is not a database. There are no relations, no rollups, no formula language and no interface builder, so if you are choosing between these two because you need to model data, Breeze is not the third option and this section will not pretend otherwise.

There is one common case where it applies. A large share of bases described as databases are project trackers built by hand — a table of tasks, a status field, a person field, a date. That is a product rather than a build, and Breeze does it with boards, timelines, built-in time tracking and client access, with no schema to maintain and no record ceiling to watch.

If the base really is a tracker, Breeze set against Airtable is the page that covers that specific swap and what you gain and lose making it.

What users say about Breeze

"It simplifies task management and project organization."

Source: Capterra

Which tool should you choose?

The decision in one line each

Choose Zenkit	Choose Airtable	Choose Breeze
Data is a list with fields	Records link to records	The base is a task tracker
EU hosting is required	You need an interface layer	Deadlines and hours matter
Per-seat cost is the constraint	Volume and automations are real	Nobody wants to own a schema

The test that resolves this faster than any feature list: open your current base and count the fields that reference another table. Zero means you have been paying for a relational engine you are not using, and the cheaper, simpler tool is a straight win. Two or more means Zenkit would turn structure into manual maintenance, and the saving would be spent in someone's afternoons.

The second consideration is exit cost. Airtable becomes the shape of a process — interfaces, automations, syncs that other systems depend on — and that is expensive to unwind later. Zenkit's collections are simpler and correspondingly easier to leave. Neither is a reason to choose, but both are worth knowing before you commit a department to one.

FAQ

What is the cheapest Airtable alternative with EU hosting?

Among mainstream tools, Zenkit is the usual answer. Zenkit states that its servers are located in Germany, which places it under the GDPR, the European data protection directives and German federal law, and its Team plan is EUR 12 per seat per month against Airtable Team at $20. Airtable does not publish a comparable EU-only hosting option on its plan table.

Does Zenkit support linked records and rollups like Airtable?

Not to the same depth. Zenkit gives you collections with custom fields that can be viewed as a table, board, calendar, Gantt chart or mind map, which covers most operational tracking. Airtable is a genuine relational database: linked records, lookups, rollups and a formula language, plus Interface Designer for building apps on top. If your work depends on joins, Airtable is the more capable tool.

How many records can you have in Airtable before you must upgrade?

1,000 records per base on the free plan, 50,000 on Team at $20 a seat, 125,000 on Business at $45 a seat and 500,000 on Enterprise Scale. Record volume, not seat count, is what usually forces the upgrade — a single content calendar or inventory table can pass 1,000 rows in a few months while the team stays the same size.

Is Zenkit a good Airtable replacement for a non-technical team?

For teams who mostly track work rather than model data, yes, and it costs roughly half as much per seat. The caveat is Zenkit's Plus plan, which caps at ten users and leaves out Gantt charts, custom fields, user roles and email-to-project — so the realistic comparison is Zenkit Team at EUR 12 against Airtable Team at $20.