A Stacker alternative — Exepad
Same client portals and internal tools, no Airtable underneath. Exepad ships a native relational database, forms, transactional email, role-based auth, file storage, hosting, custom domain, and SSL in one subscription.
One subscription. Eight production components.
Everything you need in the plan. No add-ons, no separate vendor invoices.
Database
Forms
File storage
Hosting
SSL
Visitor analytics
Custom domain
Honest take, no bashing
What each tool does best, side by side.
What Stacker is good at
Stacker is the most direct path from an Airtable base to a white-labeled client portal or internal tool. The Airtable, Google Sheets, and SQL connectors are mature, the in-house authentication delivers a fully branded login flow, granular roles and external-user gating are first-class, and the AI portal generator drafts a working app from a plain-English description. Teams whose source of truth is Airtable get a polished portal without writing code.
Where Exepad fits differently
Exepad runs as one product where Stacker runs as a front-end over Airtable plus a per-internal-user, per-app tier ladder. The plan bundles a native relational database, forms with conditional logic, transactional email, edge hosting, automatic SSL, file storage, first-party visitor analytics, role-based authentication, a custom domain, and a REST + MCP API — without per-app pricing, separate Airtable seats, or feature gating tied to internal-user counts.
Exepad vs. Stacker
Side-by-side on the 14 dimensions that actually move the needle.
Time to first published app
Exepad
4–10 minutes
Stacker
20–90 minutes to wire Airtable + roles + branding.
Database included
Exepad
Native relational database, AI-modeled from your description.
Stacker
Built on Airtable, Google Sheets, or external SQL — no native primary store.
Authentication included
Exepad
Native auth with magic-link, social, role-based permissions.
Stacker
In-house Django-based auth + Auth0 for SSO customers; per-user metered.
Email sending included
Exepad
Transactional email — confirmations, automations, sender reputation managed.
Stacker
Email actions via integrations; bring your own SendGrid for higher volume.
Hosting included
Exepad
Edge hosting on Cloudflare, no app or user caps.
Stacker
Hosted; capped at 1 app on Starter, 3 on Plus, unlimited on Pro.
File storage included
Exepad
Native object storage served from the global edge.
Stacker
File-attachment fields handed off to the connected data source.
Form backend included
Exepad
Native forms with validation, conditional logic, direct database writes.
Stacker
Form blocks write back to Airtable / Sheets / SQL.
Visitor analytics included
Exepad
First-party analytics in every paid plan.
Stacker
Bring your own GA4 / Mixpanel via head-tag embed.
Search built in
Exepad
Site-wide search across pages and records, included.
Stacker
Per-list search filters; site-wide search not natively offered.
Custom domain
Exepad
Included on every paid plan; automatic SSL.
Stacker
Custom domain available; SSO + custom domain handoff requires support coordination.
GEO (AI citation) ready
Exepad
Schema.org JSON-LD, semantic HTML, direct-answer blocks ship by default.
Stacker
Internal-tool focus; head-tag schema and AEO surfaces require manual setup.
SSL + bank-level security
Exepad
Edge SSL, automated backups, 99.9% uptime, tenant isolation.
Stacker
SOC 2 on managed hosting; SSO + audit logs on higher tiers.
Lighthouse Performance score
Exepad
95+ guaranteed across pages.
Stacker
Typically 75–90; degrades with Airtable/Sheets-backed pages and rich record views.
Designed for non-technical users
Exepad
Describe in English; the platform generates schema, UI, and back-end together.
Stacker
Visual builder + AI portal generator; assumes external schema design.
Starting price
Exepad
$25/mo — unlimited apps, one USD wallet.
Stacker
Starter $39/mo, Plus $199/mo, Pro $349/mo.
Code export
Exepad
Not required — the platform runs the app; REST + MCP API exposes the data.
Stacker
No source-code export; data lives in the connected source.
Pricing snapshot May 2026 from stacker.ai/pricing. Stacker's Starter plan ($39/mo) caps you at 1 app, 50 external users, 5 internal users, and 10 tables. Plus ($199/mo) adds external SQL connections, more apps, and unlimited external users but still gates at 10 internal users and 3 roles per app. Pro ($349/mo) unlocks unlimited apps, users, and tables. An Airtable Team subscription to back the data typically adds $20–$45 per editor per month. Exepad bundles every line item into one invoice — see /pricing for current tiers.
When each one wins
Pick the right tool — both have legitimate strengths.
Pick Stacker when…
Your data already lives in Airtable and stays there.
Operations teams with mature Airtable bases, views, and automations that the team is trained on. Stacker's in-place portal layer avoids any migration and keeps Airtable as the source of truth.
You sell white-label portals to enterprise customers.
Agencies and enterprise teams who need a portal-per-customer with SSO, a custom domain per workspace, and a coordinated handoff with the Stacker team. The Pro tier and the in-house auth path support this directly.
Internal-tool patterns with rich roles and external-user gating.
Mid-market teams who need 3+ user roles per app, granular per-row permissions, and an unlimited external-user list while keeping internal editors small. Stacker is purpose-built for that shape.
Pick Exepad when…
You want a database, email, auth, and a custom domain in one bill.
Founders and small teams who do not already pay for Airtable Team and do not want to add Stacker's $39–$349/mo on top. Exepad ships a native relational database and transactional email in the same plan.
User counts or apps are growing past the Stacker caps.
Teams whose internal-user count crossed 10, whose app count crossed 3, or whose SQL/SSO setup would push them to a $349/mo Pro plan plus an Airtable Team bill. Exepad does not meter apps, internal users, or tables.
The portal sits on the public web and must rank in search and AI.
Marketing-led teams whose 'portal' is also a public membership site that has to rank in Google and get cited by AI Overview, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. Exepad ships semantic HTML, JSON-LD, and Lighthouse 95+ by default.
What the typical stack costs
Line-item breakdown of what most teams actually pay each month — and what the same setup costs on Exepad.
What the move actually looks like
Most Stacker-to-Exepad moves take a day. Export your Airtable bases as CSV, paste the schema and a description of the portal into Exepad, and let the platform generate the database, pages, forms, and roles. The in-house Stacker auth maps directly to Exepad's magic-link + role system; external-user invites move via CSV import. If your value lives in the Airtable view library the operations team has tuned for years, stay on Stacker. If your value is shipping a working public portal at a flat monthly cost, expect a one-day rebuild.
Your migration checklist
The concrete steps most teams follow when moving from Stacker to Exepad — usually a day, not a week.
Audit the existing Stacker workspace
List every app, every external data source, every role, and every integration (Make, Zapier, SendGrid) you rely on.
Export Airtable bases as CSV
One CSV per table; preserve linked-record IDs. Exepad imports each as a relational table and reconstructs the relations.
Describe the portal to Exepad in plain English
Paste the page list, the user roles, and the gated sections. Exepad drafts pages, schema, and a form layer in one pass.
Move auth and roles
Recreate Stacker's user groups as Exepad roles. Re-invite existing members via the new magic-link flow.
Re-point the custom domain
Update DNS to Exepad's edge. SSL provisions automatically. Keep the Stacker workspace live until cutover is verified.
Set 301 redirects from old portal URLs
Mirror the Stacker URL structure where possible so bookmarks, indexed pages, and AI citations survive the move.
Common mistakes
What people get wrong when evaluating Stacker alternatives — and what to do instead.
Mistake
Comparing only Stacker's headline plan price against Exepad
Fix
Add the Airtable seats, the email vendor, and any glue automations. That is the real monthly number.
Mistake
Trying to mirror Stacker's per-app workspace pattern in Exepad
Fix
Exepad runs multiple apps under one plan. Re-prompt sections rather than spinning up separate workspaces.
Mistake
Forgetting to map Airtable linked records to relational tables
Fix
Linked-record fields become foreign keys in Exepad. Plan the relations during import; the schema stays clean afterward.
Mistake
Skipping 301 redirects after cutover
Fix
Bookmarks, email links, and any indexed portal pages get lost otherwise. Redirect every URL before the Stacker workspace is paused.
Mistake
Keeping the Airtable subscription 'just in case' after migration
Fix
Once Exepad's native database holds the data, cancel the Airtable seats. The data is portable via REST and CSV.
Frequently asked
How much cheaper is Exepad than a typical Stacker stack in 2026?+
A realistic Stacker stack — Plus plan ($199/mo), three Airtable Team editors (~$75/mo), and an email vendor ($20/mo) — lands around $294/mo. Exepad bundles all of that into one subscription. See /pricing for current tiers.
Does Exepad require Airtable like Stacker does?+
No. Exepad ships a native relational database in every plan. If you want to keep Airtable as a source of truth, the REST and MCP APIs make two-way sync straightforward — but it is not required.
How does Exepad handle external users vs internal editors?+
Both via native role-based permissions with no separate per-user metering. You can grant external users (clients, partners) read or read-write access to specific tables and pages without bumping into a 50-external-user cap or a 10-internal-user cap.
Can I white-label my Exepad portal on a per-client domain?+
Yes. Multiple custom domains can point at separate Exepad apps under one plan, each with branded auth flows. White-label setup does not require contacting support to coordinate SSO and DNS.
How long does migration from Stacker take?+
Most teams cut over in one day. Audit the Stacker workspace, export Airtable as CSV, describe the portal to Exepad, recreate user groups as roles, re-point the custom domain, set 301 redirects.
Will AI assistants cite content from my Exepad portal?+
Yes when the portal is partially public. Exepad ships GEO-ready output by default — JSON-LD schema, semantic HTML, direct-answer blocks — so public pages can rank in Google and be cited by AI Overview, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Can Exepad fully replace Stacker for client portals and internal tools?+
For most client-portal and internal-tool use cases — yes. For teams whose source of truth must stay in Airtable and whose value is the analyst views the team has tuned over years, Stacker stays the more direct fit.
Move from Stacker to Exepad
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