A 10-person NZ team that already pays for Microsoft 365 has a database and app builder included: SharePoint lists plus Power Apps, licence cost $0. Airtable, Notion and monday.com are quicker on day one and bill per seat in US dollars forever. If the job is a system of record for the business, build the Power App once; if the job is boards, docs and a shared to-do list, one of the three will do it faster and cheaper than any build.
For a 10-person team
Verdict: for 10 people the entry plans run from about NZ$1,650 a year (Notion Plus) to NZ$4,128 (Airtable Team), forever and in US dollars. A Power App on SharePoint lists is $0 on top of Microsoft 365, and Dataverse is NZ$3,888.
| 10 users | Vendor price | Per month, NZD | Per year, NZD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airtable Team | USD 20 per seat, yearly | NZ$344.00 | NZ$4,128 |
| Airtable Business | USD 45 per seat, yearly | NZ$774.00 | NZ$9,288 |
| Notion Plus | USD 10 per member, monthly billing; up to 20% off yearly | NZ$172.00 (about NZ$138 yearly) | NZ$2,064 (about NZ$1,651 yearly) |
| Notion Business | USD 20 per member, monthly billing | NZ$344.00 | NZ$4,128 |
| monday.com Standard | USD 12 per seat | NZ$206.40 | NZ$2,476.80 |
| monday.com Pro | USD 19 per seat | NZ$326.80 | NZ$3,921.60 |
| Power Apps on SharePoint lists | NZD, included in Microsoft 365 | $0 | $0 |
| Power Apps on Dataverse | NZ$32.40 per user, yearly | NZ$324.00 | NZ$3,888 |
Vendor prices read from airtable.com/pricing, notion.com/pricing and monday.com/pricing (USD) and microsoft.com/en-nz (NZD) on 30 September 2026. USD converted at 1.72, the rate this site uses for every US-dollar price. Notion's yearly discount is Notion's own "up to 20%"; I have applied the full 20% for the yearly figure, so read it as a floor. monday.com sells plans from three seats and the page shows the same per-seat rate on both billing periods.
What each one is
| Tool | What it is good at | Where it stops | 10 people, per year, list price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airtable | The best spreadsheet-that-is-a-database: grid, forms, galleries, sharing with outsiders, automations in minutes | Per-seat pricing, record limits per base by plan, data outside Microsoft 365, no real row security on the cheaper plans | Team: USD 20 a seat a month yearly, about USD 2,400 |
| Notion | Writing and wiki with databases attached; the nicest place to document how the firm works | Databases are light: no enforced relationships, weak forms, no offline app for field work, USD per member | Plus: USD 10 a member a month billed monthly, less yearly; about USD 960 to 1,200 |
| monday.com | Project and task boards out of the box, timelines, automations, a CRM flavour | Three-seat minimum on paid plans, feature gates by tier, USD per seat, and a board is not a job register with invoices on it | Standard: USD 12 a seat a month yearly, about USD 1,440 |
| Power Apps on SharePoint lists | A form and screens shaped to your process, on phones and desktop, next to your files, email and Teams; included in Microsoft 365 Business | Somebody has to build it; lists are not relational; views throttle past 5,000 items without indexing | $0 on top of Microsoft 365; build $4,000 to $8,000 once |
| Power Apps on Dataverse | Everything above plus real relationships, row security and audit history | NZ$32.40 a user a month, and the same build | NZ$3,888 in licences; build $8,000 to $18,000 once |
Prices read from each vendor's pricing page and Microsoft's NZ price list in September 2026; the three USD tools show no NZD price, so add the exchange rate. Airtable and Notion discount yearly billing; monday.com's figures are yearly.
The question that sorts them
Is the thing you are building a system of record, meaning the business would be in trouble if the data were wrong, or a working surface, meaning a place to plan and write? Job registers, quotes, client files, compliance records, anything an accountant reconciles: system of record. Sprint boards, meeting notes, the content calendar, the onboarding checklist: working surface. Airtable sits on the line; Notion and monday.com are working surfaces; Power Apps is a system-of-record tool that can also do a working surface if you make it.
- Working surface, team lives in Microsoft 365: Microsoft Lists, Planner and Loop are already there; try them before paying anyone.
- Working surface, team lives in Google or nowhere: Notion for writing, monday.com for boards. Pay the USD and move on.
- System of record, under 10 people, nobody will fund a build: Airtable. It is the best of the three at data, and you can move to Dataverse later; the import path exists.
- System of record, Microsoft 365 tenant, money on the records: a Power App, on SharePoint lists if the data is simple, on Dataverse if it is relational. Build once, licence line stays where it is.
The two things the price table hides
First, the seat count grows. Ten seats in year one is fourteen in year three, and every one of the three USD tools bills the new seat monthly for as long as you use it. A Power App on SharePoint adds a user for nothing; on Dataverse it adds NZ$32.40 a month, which is still the same shape as Airtable's bill, only in your own currency and inside your own tenant. Second, the data lives somewhere. With the three USD tools it lives in their cloud under their terms, and your Microsoft 365 security, retention and audit settings do not apply to it. For a firm whose clients ask where their data is kept, that answer matters more than the price.
Where I would still say Airtable
A five-person firm with no Microsoft 365, a process that changes every month, and nobody who wants to commission a build. If the process is specifically manufacturing rather than a general database, a purpose-built free tier like Katana's, priced in NZ, is worth comparing before defaulting to Airtable. Airtable's first hour is genuinely better than Power Apps' first day, and USD 1,200 a year for five seats is cheaper than my smallest build for the first two or three years. The moment the firm has Microsoft 365 and a process that has stopped changing, the sums flip, and the migration path from a spreadsheet-shaped export into a list or Dataverse is short. The spreadsheet version of this decision is in replacing the spreadsheet that runs your business, and the licence maths behind the Power Apps rows is in what a custom Power App costs in NZ.
Common questions
Is Power Apps cheaper than Airtable for a small team?
If the team already pays for Microsoft 365 Business, yes, by the whole subscription: a Power App on SharePoint lists costs nothing extra, where Airtable Team is USD 20 per seat per month billed yearly, about USD 2,400 a year for 10 people. The trade is build effort: Airtable gives you the grid and forms on day one; a Power App has to be built, which for one process is $4,000 to $8,000 once, and then the licence line stays at zero.
When is monday.com or Notion the better choice?
When the team does not live in Microsoft 365, when the job is project boards, docs and light task tracking rather than a system of record, or when nobody is going to fund a build. Notion is the best writing surface of the four; monday.com is the best out-of-the-box board. Neither is a database you would run invoicing on, and both bill per seat in USD every month.
Can Power Apps do what Airtable does?
The data side, yes: a SharePoint list or Dataverse table with lookups, views and forms, on phones and desktop. What Airtable does better is the first hour: the grid, the instant form, the gallery view, sharing with an outside collaborator by email. Power Apps wins on the second year: no per-seat bill, real security roles, and it sits next to your files, email and Teams.
What does each cost a 10-person NZ team per year?
At list prices in September 2026, billed yearly: Airtable Team about USD 2,400; monday.com Standard about USD 1,440; Notion Plus about USD 960 to 1,200 depending on billing; Power Apps on SharePoint lists $0 on top of Microsoft 365; Power Apps on Dataverse NZ$3,888 (10 times NZ$32.40 times 12). The USD figures move with the exchange rate.
A working surface built this way is exactly what stops a lead pipeline going cold: how a real estate or architecture practice follows up automatically.
Where to start
Tell me whether the thing is a system of record or a working surface, and whether the team is on Microsoft 365. One free 30-minute call and you get the tool, or the build, with the yearly number. If the answer is Airtable, that is the answer you get.