Airtable is a tool that, for the non-technical user, will feel a lot like a spreadsheet — but, for the more technically inclined, it will feel a lot like a relational database. If you're ready to take your spreadsheet game up a notch, this is the tool for you.
We love the frictionless experience of using Airtable. To just get going, we have found the learning curve to be pretty low. However, after you've loaded in some data you'll start to see how powerful the tool becomes. When we're not using Airtable, we probably in Google Sheets — but Airtable does a lot of things spreadsheets struggle with (connecting your data and keep everything up to date across your whole file).
No doubt, there are heaps of "Spreadsheet on Steroids" or "Intuitive No-Code Database" tools on the market... but we use Airtable because it's an industry leader that's intuitive, feature rich, and can be extended to include functionality well beyond it's weight class.
Honestly, Airtable is like a gateway drug from spreadsheets to databases. They make it really intuitive to see the links between all of your data and which can lead to powerful insights. And since you're effectively dealing with a database, it's a lot easier to keep everything up to date throughout your whole document.
That said, if you have a bunch of users and extended functionality, Airtable can get a little pricy. Sometimes you just want to have a few people contribute to a single base (their term for a file)... and then you want to add a chart and another app (which will require a pro license) — and all of a sudden your four person base is costing you $98/month. So yeah, it can get pricy.
Another consideration... if you've got big formulas and financial analysis, you're probably going to want to stick with Excel. It's not that you can't do that type of stuff in Airtable, but you'll probably enjoy it a bit more in Excel.
In cases when we are not using Airtable, you'll probably find us leveraging Google Sheets.
Note: No Code Collab uses some affiliate links. While this can help us, it does not impact our reviews or recommendations.
I'm Kyle, founder of No Code Collab. Since building my first No Code workflow in 2015, I've signed up for more free accounts than I can count, stepped on a lot of rakes and learned a few things. I built No Code Collab as a place to keep track of tips, tricks and snippets acquired over years of building and tinkering.
Drop me a line if you'd like to collaborate or have any feedback/ideas.
