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Nightclerk vs On2Air Backups
On2Air Backups puts CSV files in your own Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box; Nightclerk keeps the copy itself and reports what changed. Plans, retention and restore below, from On2Air's pages and help center and ours.
Last updated October 20, 2026
The short answer
Pick On2Air if you want backup files in your own Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Box, backups more often than daily, or a restore into new tables or a new base. Pick Nightclerk if you want an email each morning saying what changed, an alert when records vanish, and a way to search past values in the browser. For daily backups of 10 bases, On2Air's plan is $49.99 a month and Nightclerk's is $10.
Side by side
| Nightclerk | On2Air Backups | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily backups of 10 bases | $10/mo (Keeper) | $49.99/mo (Professional, up to 50 bases); 20% off yearly |
| Other plans | Free (1 base, weekly), Vault $15/mo (50 bases, every 12 hours) | Starter $9.99 (1 base, monthly), Essentials $29.99 (15 bases, weekly), Premium $79.99 (250 bases, hourly) |
| Free option | Free plan, a 14-day trial with no card, and a free one-time export | One-time backup of 1 base (10 tables, 100 records per table, 25 attachments), no card |
| How often | Weekly, daily or every 12 hours by plan, plus Back up now | Monthly, weekly, daily or continuous (formerly hourly) by plan |
| Where the copy lives | With Nightclerk, outside Airtable; download any day's copy | Your Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Box |
| File format | CSV and JSON per table, plus a STRUCTURE.md of fields, options, formulas and links | CSV per table, plus a JSON file with the backup time; linked records as record IDs |
| History kept | 30 days (Free), 1 year (Keeper), 3 years (Vault) | Daily: 30 days, then weekly and monthly copies up to 5 years (default) |
| Attachment files | 100 MB, 5 GB or 25 GB by plan | 25 to 1M files by plan (500,000 on Professional) |
| Put records back into Airtable | No. An import-ready CSV of the deleted rows, with the old record ID in its own column | To new tables or a new base, 1 to 10 bases a month by plan; attachments come back as links |
| Email saying what changed | Every morning, naming the records added, edited and deleted | Not stated |
| Alert when many records vanish | Keeper and Vault | Not stated; email notifications for errors |
| Find old values | Search past values, including deleted records; every version of a record | “View changes over time”; ProBackup says On2Air users can't browse backup data in the app |
| Record comments | Not yet | Not stated |
| Security | Read-only access, tokens encrypted with AES-256-GCM; no SOC 2 yet | Two-factor authentication; no SOC 2 stated |
| Automations, interfaces | Not copied | Not copied (also extensions and formula definitions) |
Where On2Air is the better choice
- You want the files in your own storage. On2Air writes every backup to your Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Box, so the copy sits in an account you already control and pay for. We keep the copy ourselves and let you download it.
- You need backups more often than twice a day. On2Air Premium runs continuous (formerly hourly) backups. Our most frequent is every 12 hours, on Vault.
- You want restore help. On2Air restores a base into new tables or a new base without overwriting anything, up to 10 bases a month on Premium. We never write to Airtable; you import our CSV yourself.
- You want copies kept for years. On2Air's default cleanup keeps monthly copies for up to 5 years, in your own storage. Ours is 1 year on Keeper and 3 on Vault.
- You have hundreds of bases. Premium covers 250, and On2Air takes larger accounts by contact. Our largest plan covers 50.
Where Nightclerk is the better choice
- You'd rather not open a folder of CSVs to see what changed. After each backup the receipt names the records added, edited and deleted in each base. On2Air's pages don't describe a change summary.
- You want to hear about deletions while the trash can still undo them. On Keeper and Vault we alert when 10 or more records vanish at once, so you can restore from Airtable's 7-day trash. On2Air describes email notifications for errors.
- You want to look things up, not open CSV files. Search a year (Keeper) or three (Vault) of past values, including deleted records, and browse any day's copy of a table in the browser.
- You want daily backups of 10 bases on a small budget. $10 a month, against $49.99 for On2Air's daily plan.
- You want restored rows to reconnect. Our deleted-rows CSV lists linked records by name, and every download includes the base structure. On2Air's CSVs list linked records by record ID.
Switching or running both
Nightclerk only reads, so it can run alongside On2Air on the same bases. Keeping On2Air's files in your Drive and adding our receipt and alerts is a reasonable setup. If On2Air runs hourly on Premium, most of a base's API calls are On2Air's; that only matters in a Free Airtable workspace (1,000 calls a month).
If you switch, your On2Air files are already in your own storage. We can't load them into Nightclerk; our history starts from your first backup. If you're restoring something now, our guides on recovering deleted records and restoring from a CSV work with any tool's files. To see our copy of a base first, run the free one-time export.
Questions
Does On2Air restore into Airtable?
On2Air's restore guide says it restores to new tables in the same base or to a new base, and never overwrites your data. Attachments come back as links to the files in your drive, and formula, rollup, lookup and button fields have to be converted back by hand. Plans include 1 to 10 base restores a month. Another On2Air help article says it does not automatically restore data in Airtable, so check with On2Air for your case.
Is there a cheaper alternative to On2Air?
For daily backups of 10 bases, On2Air's plan is Professional at $49.99 a month (up to 50 bases), or 20% less billed yearly. Nightclerk's Keeper plan is $10 a month for 10 bases daily. On2Air's Starter is $9.99 for 1 base backed up monthly; Nightclerk's Free plan backs up 1 base weekly.
Where does On2Air store backups?
In your own cloud storage: Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Box, on every plan. Each table is a CSV file with linked records shown as record IDs, attachments keep their original format, and a JSON file records when the backup ran.
How long does On2Air keep backups?
On a daily schedule On2Air keeps 30 days of daily backups, then two months of weekly ones, then monthly copies until a cut-off that defaults to 5 years. Weekly and continuous schedules thin out on a similar pattern.
Can On2Air back up automations and interfaces?
No. On2Air says it can't back up automations, interfaces, extensions or the formulas behind formula and rollup fields, though the values are kept. Nightclerk doesn't copy automations or interfaces either; Airtable's API doesn't expose them.
Sources, checked October 20, 2026: On2Air: pricing · On2Air: Backups · On2Air: what we back up · On2Air: what isn't backed up · On2Air: restore guide · On2Air: restore your base and data · On2Air: backup and cleanup schedule · On2Air: notifications · ProBackup: ProBackup vs On2Air · Airtable: trash · Airtable: API call limits. Nightclerk is not affiliated with Airtable. Compare backup options.