What Is Airtable?
- Database and spreadsheet software
- Pre-made templates for efficiency
- Helpful for task management and tracking
- Offers multiple and customizable views
- Great for team collaboration
Airtable is a popular relational database software that aims to combine the flexibility of spreadsheets with the power of databases. It’s a cross-functional tool that allows users to create, share and manage databases in a visually appealing way.
Airtable’s intuitive interface can be seen as an upgraded version of a Microsoft Excel sheet as it makes it easy to create, sort and update tables, fields and views, which can be shared with team members to collaborate on projects. We rated Airtable as one of the best project management software of 2024 fit for data-driven companies.
Featured Partners
1
monday.com
Yes
From $8 monthly per user
Zoom, LinkedIn, Adobe, Salesforce and more
2
HubSpot
Yes
Available
Google Contacts, Mailchimp, Xero, Aircall, Airtable and more
3
Smartsheet
Yes, for one user and two editors
$7 per user per month
Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, Zapier and more
4
ClickUp
Yes, for unlimited members
$7 per month
Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more
What Sets Airtable Apart
The most notable feature of Airtable is perhaps its ability to be easily adapted to any organizational needs. Users attest that the program is highly customizable, allowing users to track different processes and create robust databases.
In addition, Airtable also offers a variety of views, such as calendar, gallery and spreadsheet views, which provide different ways of filtering, sorting and grouping information. Users can create their views to see what matters to them and monitor and track this information in one centralized location.
Pros
Airtable’s intuitive interface allows users to customize their database according to their needs. The platform offers numerous templates for common use cases including project management, CRM and content creation, making it easy to get started.
Airtable offers multiple ways of sorting and presenting data, which can be helpful for tracking information across multiple dashboards. Additionally, it integrates with a variety of third-party apps such as Zapier, Salesforce and Slack, which can enhance its functionality and streamline workflows.
Cons
Airtable’s scheduling tools are limited, particularly for complex projects. The Gantt tools are only available in the top-tier accounts (Pro and Enterprise), which may not be feasible for some users.
Plans also come with a database size limitation. This can be hindering, especially for users who consider the price per user per month to be high.
Airtable Core Features
Views
Airtable provides users with customizable views that allow them to analyze and organize their data in a way that best suits their needs. Some of these views include:
- List view: The List view allows users to organize their data in a simple, easy-to-read format. It’s ideal for managing tasks, tracking progress and creating to-do lists.
- Timeline view: The Timeline view lets users visualize their data on a timeline, making it easy to track projects, events and resources over time. It’s a great way to manage complex projects and ensure that everything is on track.
- Kanban view: The Kanban view is a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to manage their workflow in a visual, intuitive way. It’s ideal for team collaboration and project management.
- Gantt view: The Gantt view provides users with a comprehensive overview of their projects, including task dependencies, milestones and deadlines. It’s a great tool for managing complex or multistep projects.
- Calendar view: The Calendar view helps users keep track of key dates and deadlines associated with their data. It’s a great way to stay organized and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.
- Grid view: The Grid view is a flexible interface that allows users to group, sort and enrich their data in a way that makes sense for them. It’s a great tool for data analysis and organization.
- Gallery view: The Gallery view displays data with imagery for easy visual recognition. It’s ideal for showcasing designs and creative work in a comprehensive, organized format.
- Form view: The Form view allows users to create shareable forms that populate records in their Airtable base. It’s a great way to collect contact information or survey respondent data.
Role Assignment Features
Airtable’s role assignment features allow for granular control over what collaborators can and cannot do within a workspace or base. By assigning the appropriate permissions, you can ensure that your data remains secure and accurate, while also promoting healthy team collaboration.
There are four different levels of permissions for collaborators: Owner/Creator, Editor, Commenter and Read-Only. Each level has its own set of actions that can be taken, from basic actions such as accessing and viewing the base, to more advanced actions including creating or deleting tables, configuring automations or creating interfaces.
Reporting
With Airtable, users can create and customize reports using the platform’s out-of-the-box extensions. These extensions enable users to generate charts, graphs and top-line metrics to suit their team’s reporting needs. Airtable’s flexible UI also allows users to group or sort data in a way that makes sense to their business, making it easy to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
For those with coding expertise, Airtable’s developer tools offer unlimited possibilities for creating custom reporting systems. These tools include scripting, extensions SDK and robust APIs that provide developers with complete control over their reporting workflows.
Software Integrations
Airtable supports these integrations:
- Project management tools such as Asana, Basecamp and Trello
- File management tools such as Dropbox, Evernote and Google Drive
- Communication tools such as Email, Gmail, SMS, Slack, Twilio and Google Contacts
- Social networking tools such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter
Airtable can also be integrated with development tools such as GitHub, media tools such as SoundCloud, payments tools such as Stripe and customer support tools such as Zendesk. There are also integrations for forms, bookmarking, CRM, events and more. These integrations help to promote efficient workflows.
Airtable Pricing and Plans
Airtable Free Plan
Airtable’s Free plan is ideal for individuals and small teams who are new to Airtable. The plan provides unlimited bases, allows up to five creators or editors, unlimited commenter and read-only users and one extension per base.
Airtable Plus Plan
The Airtable Plus Plan is ideal for teams that want to build custom applications to manage their workflows efficiently. With three extensions per base and sync integrations, this plan offers 5,000 records per base and 5GB of attachments per base, allowing you to manage a vast amount of data.
Airtable Pro Plan
Airtable’s Pro plan is designed to provide advanced features for teams and organizations that require customization and efficient team management. At $20 per user per month, billed annually, or $24 per user per month, billed monthly, this plan offers 10 extensions per base, seven sync integrations, 50,000 records per base, and 20GB of attachments per base. Additionally, users can benefit from Gantt and Timeline views, granular interface permissions, one-year revision and snapshot history, personal and locked views, and field and table editing permissions.
Airtable Enterprise Plan
The Airtable Enterprise Plan offers organizations a comprehensive suite of features to ensure secure, scalable and customizable workflow management. With everything included in the Pro plan, the Enterprise plan also provides unlimited workspaces per organization and unlimited extensions, along with advanced interface controls, SAML-based single sign-on and an enterprise-wide admin panel.
Other features, such as Salesforce and Jira on-premises sync integrations, 250,000 records per base and 1000GB of attachments per base, make this plan ideal for departments and organizations that require a connected apps’ platform to stay aligned and move work forward.
Setup and Customization
Users have found Airtable’s setup to be straightforward and user-friendly. Due to its high degree of customization, users are able to tailor the platform to their specific needs and workflows. However, some users report a slight learning curve as it may take some time to get accustomed to the platform.
Ease of Use
Airtable is generally easy to use. Customers appreciate how quickly they can set up a database and create different views to suit their needs. They also find it easy to share and import/export data, and some users even use Airtable for complex tasks such as managing their entire business accounts.
In areas where users find Airtable less user-friendly, they struggle with certain formulas and calculations, and some find it challenging to set up connections between different tables.
Featured Partners
1
monday.com
Yes
From $8 monthly per user
Zoom, LinkedIn, Adobe, Salesforce and more
2
HubSpot
Yes
Available
Google Contacts, Mailchimp, Xero, Aircall, Airtable and more
3
Smartsheet
Yes, for one user and two editors
$7 per user per month
Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, Zapier and more
4
ClickUp
Yes, for unlimited members
$7 per month
Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more
Security
Airtable holds itself to the highest privacy and security standards, including ISO/IEC 27001 certification, SOC 2 compliance, and privacy compliance and data processing addendum.
Airtable’s data centers have round-the-clock security, automatic fire detection and suppression, fully redundant power systems and strict controls for physical access. In addition to protecting data at rest with AES-256 encryption, Airtable also protects data in transit with 256-bit TLS encryption.
Customer Service and Support
Airtable offers its customers a variety of support options, ranging from self-service educational resources to direct assistance from its internal support team. Its self-service resources include a help center with product and support documentation, FAQs, troubleshooting guides and feature overviews.
Airtable does not, however, offer phone support and primarily provides support over email. Its support team typically responds within one to two business days.
Additional Features
Customizable Templates
Airtable offers ready-to-use templates that are pre-built with customizable fields and functionalities tailored to specific industries, projects or workflows. Users can easily modify these templates to fit their specific needs, such as adding or deleting fields, changing the layout or integrating with other apps.
Milestone Tracking
Airtable’s Gantt view allows you to track tasks and milestones. Tasks represent work done over a period and have a start and end date. Milestones, on the other hand, represent a single point in time, such as a deadline, meeting or checkpoint, and only have an end date. With Airtable’s milestone tracking feature, you can easily keep track of important dates and deadlines.
Expense Tracking
Airtable’s expense tracking template is a valuable tool for individuals and businesses looking to streamline their expense tracking processes. It stands out as an alternative to spreadsheets or Google Sheets and makes it easier to monitor both small and large expenses.
Interface Designer
Airtable Interface Designer is a powerful tool that enables anyone to create custom interfaces without any coding skills. It allows teams to visualize, share and take action on data from their existing bases. This particular feature is available for all Airtable users.
Guest/Client Access
Airtable provides several options for working with external collaborators. One of the most useful features is the ability to create forms for collecting data from contractors, clients or volunteers without giving them access to your entire base. Forms are automatically generated from your existing table, and you can customize them by rearranging or removing fields.
Airtable Alternatives and How They Compare
Airtable vs. monday.com
While Airtable has a key focus on data management, monday.com is a popular software that focuses on work and CRM management.
At the core of monday.com are dashboards made up of various building blocks to create the desired structure for each team and its projects. It’s a great choice for businesses that want to manage their work, sales, marketing and CRM processes in one place. Airtable, on the other hand, is often used by businesses that want to create databases for event planning, inventory management and sales data management.
Airtable vs. Notion
Airtable and Notion are two project management software solutions that are designed to make it easier for teams to plan projects, delegate tasks, get things done and meet goals. They, however, have different functions.
Airtable is best for managing structured data, such as production schedules, invoices and inventory, while Notion excels at document organization, such as knowledge management, journals, personal web pages and wiki-style documents. Learn more about Airtable vs Notion.
Airtable vs. Jira
Jira is primarily used by software development teams, while Airtable is a flexible database tool that can be used for a wide range of data management. Jira allows for task and issue tracking, Agile boards, dashboards and reports, and integrations with other tools.
Who Is Airtable Best For?
Airtable is suitable for small businesses that are already familiar with using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets but require more advanced features for managing their projects.
Airtable offers ready-made templates, extensions and scripts for visualizing project progression in a more intuitive manner, including 3D models and pivot tables. Its visual appeal, user-friendly interface and versatile functionality make it an ideal solution for anyone looking to improve their project management and data organization capabilities.
Our Experience/Expert Take
After signing up on Airtable, we had a seamless experience importing Google Sheets to the software and playing around with different views, such as Grid, Form, Calendar and Gallery. We appreciate the software for its ease of use, customizable abilities, available templates, accessible help features and collaboration abilities. However, the Section feature and Timeline and Gantt views are restricted to Pro and Enterprise plans, which can hinder users.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Airtable good for?
Airtable is a great tool for organizing and managing data in a visual and intuitive way. It can be used for a wide range of purposes, such as project management, CRM, event planning, content creation and more.
Is Airtable a good tool?
Yes, Airtable is a highly rated tool that has received positive reviews from users and experts alike. It has been praised for its ease of use, flexibility and versatility. Airtable is used by individuals, teams and organizations across various industries, from startups and SMBs to Fortune 500 companies.
Is Airtable better than Excel?
Airtable and Excel are both powerful tools, but they have different strengths and use cases. Airtable is better suited for collaborative work, visual organization of data and real-time updates, whereas Excel is better suited for complex calculations, advanced data analysis and financial modeling. Depending on your specific needs, one tool may be better suited than the other.
Is Airtable better than Google Sheets?
Airtable and Google Sheets are similar tools in that they both offer spreadsheet-like functionality. However, Airtable is better suited for complex data organization, collaboration and customization, whereas Google Sheets is better suited for data analysis, reporting and integration with other Google products. Read our guide to learn more about the best project management software.
