Ease of usage

Airtable is easy to use for creating apps and managing data. You can use the tool without extensive coding knowledge. Its ease of use, flexibility, and ability to create apps without coding expertise make the software a popular choice for individuals and teams looking for a user-friendly solution.

The low-code platform offers a visual spreadsheet-like interface that allows you to create and customize databases, tables, and fields without writing any code. You may, however, need to familiarize yourself with the platform's features and explore different possibilities for their specific workflows. Airtable offers helpful documentation, tutorials, and community support to make the learning process smoother.

Also, the Airtable API allows for more advanced customization and integration with other tools. Knowing how to code or work with APIs is helpful if you want to extend Airtable's functionality or build custom and complex applications.

Flexibility

Airtable is highly flexible and lets you customize and manipulate data and apps to suit their needs. For example, you can customize the tool in many ways when creating a project management app. Airtable also lets you define various field types, such as text, number, date, and attachment, and customize them to capture the specific data you need. You can add formulas, apply validations, and set field formatting options.

Also, you can choose the view that best suits your workflow and project needs. Within each view, you can customize the layout, rearrange columns, resize fields, and apply filters to focus on specific information. This flexibility is especially helpful when working with large datasets or complex projects.

Versatility

The great thing about Airtable is that you can use it for different use cases, such as product roadmaps, team wikis, kanban boards, notes and task trackers, and databases. These are a few examples, but Airtable’s versatility extends far beyond these use cases.

Airtable also has a large community with more than 50,000 members who share ideas, guides, and templates. It integrates with third-party tools like Softr, which turns your bases into powerful databases for creating websites and apps. So, instead of just using Airtable internally, you can use it to build web apps your customers can interact with.

Existence of templates

Airtable provides a wide range of templates you can use as a starting point for creating your own and significantly speeding up the development process.

Whether you're managing projects, tracking inventory, organizing event planning, or running a content calendar, you can find templates that align with your needs.

These templates come with pre-defined fields, such as task name, due date, assigned person, and status, all of which you can customize based on your project requirements. This allows you to fine-tune details rather than having to build everything from scratch.

You can access these templates through the gallery, which offers various options for various industries and use cases. You can also create your own templates based on your existing bases to standardize processes across different projects.

Airtable has an active community that shares its own templates.

These community-created templates cover many use cases and can offer additional options and inspiration for your projects. You can explore the Airtable Universe to discover templates other users create and benefit from their expertise.

Time it takes to create an app with Airtable

30 minutes. That’s how long it takes to build an app from Airtable, on average.

One way to create your app with Airtable is to connect your base to Softr. This no-code platform lets you build web apps using your Airtable data, by integrating seamlessly with it. As a beginner, I took approximately 50 minutes to create an app using this method.

Softr provides a visual interface to your Airtable data, by allowing you to drag-and-drop pre-made components, customize colors and fonts, so you can build your web application according to your preferences.

Integrations

Airtable works well with other tools you already use, so you can easily move information between them, making your work even more efficient and organized.

This includes a wide range of software integrations across various categories, such as:

• Project Management Tools, like Asana, Basecamp, and Trello, by letting you synchronize data, tasks, and project information between platforms;
• File Management Tools, like Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive, by providing a centralized hub for managing and organizing your files;
• Communication Tools, like Email, Gmail, SMS, Slack, and Twilio, by letting you send notifications, updates, and messages directly from Airtable;
• Social Networking Tools, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, by streamlining your social media management processes;
• Development Tools, like GitHub, by letting you link and track development-related tasks, issues, and repositories within your Airtable bases;
• Collaboration and Productivity Tools, like Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), by enabling seamless collaborative workflows;
• CRM and Sales Tools, like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, by letting you sync customer data, leads, and other sales-related information between both tools;
• Marketing and Analytics Tools, such as Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and Zapier, by incorporating your campaign data into your Airtable bases;
• Data Visualization and Business Intelligence Tools, like Tableau and Power BI, by letting you connect your Airtable data to these tools;
• E-commerce and Inventory Management Tools, like Shopify and WooCommerce, by letting you streamline fulfillment processes.

As aforementioned, Airtable also integrates with Softr, allowing you to sync your Airtable bases and tables in real-time. You can use the data stored in your Airtable bases to dynamically populate your Softr app, thereby adding a frontend to your Airtable data. This includes displaying tables, records, and attachments.

Pricing

Airtable offers four main pricing plans: Free, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise.

Each plan has its own features, limitations, and pricing, but note the prices displayed are for annual billing, which comes with a discount compared to the monthly price.

Here's a quick overview of the plans available:

Customer support

Airtable offers multiple customer support options to help users with their inquiries and issues. These options encompass both self-service resources and direct assistance.

Airtable provides support through email, where users can submit their questions or problems and receive assistance from its support team. It also provides extensive self-service resources, including a knowledge base, help articles, tutorials, guides, on-demand webinars, and in-product tutorials.

Airtable also has an active user community where users can interact with one another, ask questions, share insights, and seek advice.

But all plans aren’t created equal.



Higher-tier plans often offer enhanced support options, such as faster response times and in-product support. You can check out the pricing plans to see the specific support levels available for different plans.

Security

Airtable offers authentication methods such as password-based logins and optional two-factor authentication (2FA) to help verify user identities and add an extra layer of protection to user accounts.

Plus, Airtable maintains advanced security and privacy features, including compliance with industry standards like ISO 27001 and SOC 2. These certifications are widely recognized and show Airtable's commitment to maintaining stringent security protocols. You can learn more about Airtable’s security on its site.

Automation features

Airtable provides features to help streamline and automate workflows, so you can get more time back in your day to do more meaningful work.

With Airtable's native automation, you can define triggers, conditions, logic, and actions to automate manual, repetitive tasks and processes.

Additionally, Airtable's integration with other tools further enhances its automation capabilities. When combined with platforms like Softr, actions taken on your live website can impact the backend of Airtable, triggering automated processes that run autonomously. This integration opens up many possibilities for automating tasks and creating seamless workflows.

Learn more about Airtable automation features.

Artificial intelligence features

Airtable AI is currently on a waitlist but will be released in the upcoming months.

With the tool, you can add AI fields to their Airtable base, applying them to various scenarios such as creating creative briefs, drafting blog posts, generating job descriptions, and categorizing budget expenditures.

The app’s potential seems promising, but we haven’t seen the tool in action yet.

Our Final Verdict

If you need to build an app with a flexible, visually appealing structure for managing complex data, consider choosing Airtable. Its customizable views, field types, and linked records can be valuable for organizing and analyzing large amounts of data.

Also, if collaborative work is a priority for you, consider Airtable as well. Its collaboration features are a major value add for teams. And if you are a tech-savvy professional with little to no coding experience, you’ll benefit from Airtable’s intuitive visual interface designer.

Combined with a solution like Softr, Airtable can be a robust backend for customer-facing projects ranging from simple websites to fully functioning web apps.

Ultimately, choosing Airtable should be based on your specific requirements, personal preferences, and objectives. Since Airtable offers free plans, we recommend signing up and creating apps on the platform to determine if it aligns well with your needs. That’s how you make a more informed decision.