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Nightclerk vs Airhistory
Airhistory writes Airtable snapshots into your own Google Drive or Dropbox. Nightclerk keeps the copy itself and sends a receipt of what changed after each backup. Neither can edit your base.
Last updated October 20, 2026
The short answer
Pick Airhistory if you want snapshot files in your own Google Drive or Dropbox, restores into a new base, and you have 5 bases or fewer. Pick Nightclerk if you want a daily email naming what changed, an alert when records vanish, search across past values, or more than 5 bases today: Keeper covers 10 for $10 a month. Airhistory's 20- and 50-base plans are listed as coming soon.
Side by side
| Nightclerk | Airhistory | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (1 base), Keeper $10/mo (10 bases), Vault $15/mo (50 bases) | Starter $19/mo (5 bases); Professional $49 (20 bases) and Scale $99 (50 bases) “coming soon” |
| 10 bases today | Keeper, $10/mo | No open plan; Professional is coming soon |
| Free option | Free plan for 1 base; 14-day trial with no card | “Start free trial”; length not stated |
| How often | Weekly, daily or every 12 hours by plan, plus Back up now | Daily, weekly or monthly in a shared daily window, plus manual snapshots |
| Where the copy lives | With Nightclerk; download any day's copy | Snapshot files in your Google Drive or Dropbox |
| History kept | 30 days, 1 year or 3 years by plan | Not stated |
| Attachment files | 100 MB, 5 GB or 25 GB by plan | Not stated |
| Put records back into Airtable | No; an import-ready CSV of the deleted rows | Restore into a new base; the original isn't touched |
| Airtable access | Read scopes only | Read-only OAuth, per selected base |
| After each backup | A receipt naming the records added, edited and deleted | Status emails (home page) |
| Alert when many records vanish | Keeper and Vault: 10+ records, or 5+ that are 5% of a table | Not stated; failure and lost-connection alerts cover the backup run |
| Compare backups | Every version of a record, and any day's copy of a table | Described on the home page; pricing lists snapshot compare only on the plans not yet open |
| Search past values | Yes, including deleted records | Not stated |
| Record comments, SOC 2 | Comments not copied yet; no SOC 2 report | Neither stated |
Airhistory's home page and pricing page differ. The home page describes field-level history, compare, status emails and failure and lost-connection alerts as current; the pricing page puts snapshot compare and failure emails on the Professional and Scale plans, which aren't open yet. The table follows the pricing page where they conflict.
Where Airhistory is the better choice
- You don't want the backup vendor holding your records. Airhistory writes snapshot contents to your Google Drive or Dropbox, picked per base, and keeps only metadata and encrypted connection details itself. We hold the copy ourselves, in the US (us-east-1), and let you download it.
- You want a restore that leaves the original alone. Airhistory rebuilds a snapshot as a new base. We never write to Airtable, so you import our CSV into a table yourself.
- You hand bases over to clients. The snapshot files already sit in a Drive or Dropbox you can share, and Airhistory's resources include a checklist for backing up before a client handoff.
Where Nightclerk is the better choice
- You need more than 5 bases now. Keeper covers 10 for $10 a month and Vault covers 50 for $15. Airhistory's 20- and 50-base plans aren't open yet.
- You want the changes listed for you. Airhistory gives you snapshot files and, per its home page, a compare view you open. We send a receipt after each backup that names the records added, edited and deleted, by email and optionally Slack.
- You want a warning while Airtable's trash can still undo it. Keeper and Vault alert when 10 or more records vanish at once, when one field is emptied across much of a table, or when an import grows a table by half. Deleted records stay in Airtable's trash for 7 days.
- You want to look up an old value without opening files. Search a year (Keeper) or three (Vault) of history in the browser, including records deleted long after the trash emptied.
- You want the limits written down. Our pricing page states history and attachment storage for each plan. Airhistory's doesn't say yet.
Moving from Airhistory, or running both
Both only read, so they can run on the same bases at once: Airhistory's files in your Drive, our receipt and alerts each morning. Airhistory's snapshots stay in your Drive or Dropbox whatever you do, but we can't load them, so our history starts from your first backup. Two tools reading the same base use Airtable API calls twice, which matters on a Free workspace's 1,000 a month.
For what to do with a snapshot or a CSV when something goes wrong, see Airtable snapshots and restoring Airtable from a CSV, or start with the free one-time export.
Questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to Airhistory?
Airhistory's only plan open today is Starter, $19 a month for 5 bases. Professional (20 bases, $49) and Scale (50 bases, $99) are marked coming soon. Nightclerk Keeper is $10 a month for 10 bases backed up daily, Vault is $15 for 50, and the Free plan backs up 1 base weekly.
Does Airhistory restore into Airtable?
Airhistory restores a snapshot into a new Airtable base and leaves the original untouched. Nightclerk doesn't write to Airtable at all: it gives you an import-ready CSV of the deleted rows, with links written as record names and the old record ID in its own column.
Is Airhistory read-only?
Yes. Airhistory connects with read-only Airtable OAuth to the bases you select, and says connection tokens stay encrypted and never reach the browser. Nightclerk also asks only for read scopes and never writes to a base.
Where does Airhistory keep backups?
Airhistory writes snapshot files to the Google Drive or Dropbox account you connect, chosen per base, and says it keeps only metadata and encrypted connection details itself. Scheduled backups run daily, weekly or monthly in a shared daily window, and you can take a manual snapshot at any time.
Does Airhistory show what changed between backups?
Airhistory's home page describes comparing snapshots to see added, modified and deleted records and field-level changes. Its pricing page lists snapshot compare only on the Professional and Scale plans, which are not open yet, so ask Airhistory whether Starter includes it.
Sources, checked October 20, 2026: Airhistory: home · Airhistory: pricing · Airhistory: resources and FAQ · Airtable: trash · Airtable: API call limits. Nightclerk is not affiliated with Airtable. Compare backup options.