Airtable is an unconventional way to organize tasks and data as it brings both stunning online collaboration tools and databases on a single and epic project management platform empowering it with plenty of templates and features unmatched by its rivals.
Airtable is visually driven and thus, you would find everything neatly organized and color-coded with synching across all platforms.
It has an excellent collection of templates to choose from no matter you are a marketing agency or an event planning company or any other, Airtable has all you need.
From just a single platform, users can access, edit, update, manipulate, and delete data to keep a company/organization/agency progressing towards accomplishing its goals.
What is the one thing that Airtable lacks?
It lacks phone support which is one of the quickest ways to get out of the quicksand and since its rivals do offer it, Airtable gets another blow with it.
What are the alternatives to Airtable?
Although you won’t need it given that Airtable pretty much got you covered, there are a few alternatives to it that include Smartsheet, Asana, Basecamp, and Wrike.
What features does Airtable provide you?
Airtable brings a lot on the table that you would love to try out and we have mentioned a summary of it down below. So let’s get started with our review of Airtable in 2021:
Airtable Review 2021: Everything you need to know!
Firstly, Airtable has a few words it uses as its lexicon. Bases are nothing but independent projects that users can create with the ability to support 2GB to 1000GB of attachment space depending upon which plan you pick.
Bases contain all the data in their default spreadsheet format where everything is well-organized and color-coded.
You can start by choosing the right template from its catalog which includes product planning, product launch, digital video production, marketing campaign tracking, growth experiments, brand asset management to name a few.
Once you have selected the right template, you can rename it and commence in a simplified but visually impeccable spreadsheet called Grid View.
Based on your needs, you can switch to a Group View allowing you to group by selecting any field or parameter to group records.
Switch to a Calendar View allowing users to properly note their tasks, update status, and more while a Gallery View and Kanban View adds flair to it allowing users to simply check out important notes at a glance rather than digging into the spreadsheet trying to find the task assigned them today.
Airtable: Ease of Use
As said earlier, Airtable is modern and emphasizes on its quirky visuals rather than being powerful yet schematically dull-looking.
It prioritizes color-coding tasks and processors in all its views to categorize and contextualize tasks.
It has shared calendar tasks that enable various employees to keep an eye on what and when they are supposed to complete tasks with deadlines in mind.
Users can easily create rich data types, dropdown menus, checkboxes, and more to update the status of any task while sharing it with others.
What makes Airtable so lucrative is that it’s powerful and yet easy to learn. Fortunately, you don’t need a rocket science degree to make it work.
Airtable offers a tonne of content to consume to learn how it works and what it is capable of.
It allows creating different projects aka bases and set up databases with shared views allowing others to interact with the data on a single platform and converse either in a group or privately updating the context of any task and more.
It has a tonne of templates that makes it simple to get started selecting the template made for your project such as product launch or bug tracker and so on.
It has task cards to track that includes collaborators, client, task category, notes, and so on.
Airtable: Collaboration
There is a rich set of features set under the communication category. It includes a task commenting system, file sharing feature that offers the ability to upload all sorts of files including PDFs, images, videos on-board as well as custom-built spreadsheet categories to suit one’s needs.
Another great feature that Airtable offers is a great use of iconography and terminology allowing users to navigate through this project management tool via database and more without any hassle. Instead of crazy formulas, Airtable uses simple terminology to navigate.
Apps & Integration
First of all, AirTable is available and accessible from macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS readily synching across all participating devices without requiring any manual intervention.
Airtable also features a long list of apps or services that users can pair up with or use which includes Google Drive, Gmail, Salesforce, Trello, Asana, Box, Instagram, and the list goes on.
It supports Zapier or if you don’t want to use it, use IFTTT allowing users to connect apps that Airtable doesn’t natively support MailChimp, SoundCloud, YouTube, WordPress, and so on.
You can also use Integromat, Automate.io, and Workato to connect over 1000 websites and apps with Airtable.
Airtable: Storage
Depending upon the plan you pick, the amount of storage space you get varies. First, of up, Airtable allocates attachment space by the base and each tier offers unlimited bases or projects but with a usage cap on it.
The free tier has a cap of 2GB of attachment by base limit while the highest and expensive Enterprise tier allocated 1000GB of storage per base.
Moreover, Airtable offers a great solution to scale up storage which is a great feature for those who might have a higher storage requirement later but don’t need it now.
Security & Privacy
Airtable has maintained that everything it stores is secured. It uses strong encryption with TLS 256-bit and AES 256-bit that keeps the data secured.
Plus, it has SOC 1, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 certifications and runs bug bounty programs to plug loopholes.
Airtable doesn’t sell any data it stores on its servers to anyone as well. There are other features available including two-factor authentication, SAML-based Single Sign-On for Enterprise plan, and others.
Airtable: Service & Support
Airtable has a rich knowledge base accessible for users across all tiers right from Free to Enterprise.
Its Help Center has several options to pick up including well-written pieces of articles with images covering all aspects of using and troubleshooting Airtable.
You can attend a webinar from its database to learn and master the skills of hailing an advanced feature or two. There’s an active Airtable community where users discuss anything from issues to feature requests.
It’s the place where users can ask questions and get plenty of helpful material from other users and the team behind Airtable.
You can contact them via email in case of any requirements and help but unfortunately, there’s no phone support and instead, Airtable uses a quick response team that takes on any queries you have and resolve it at the earliest.
Airtable: Pros
There’s a lot of pros when it comes to Airtable. Firstly, a team of 15 people can access Airtable to track tasks and processor.
It has a huge app store to integrate apps while those that it doesn’t support natively are backed by Zapier that lets users connect to third-party apps.
Everything updated on Airtable is saved and synced across all participating members and devices on the go.
It’s light-weight, easy to use, visually impeccable, and offers wide-spread support that makes it a lucrative choice worth subscribing to
Airtable: Cons
As with any other tool or service you could even think about, Airtable has a few cons or negatives points and shortcomings as well.
The free tier offers all essential features on Airtable including a limited usage, however, the limits run out pretty quickly until you purchase its paid plan.
A minor feature missing would be Airtable’s inability to wrap text in a cell especially in grid view.
Airtable: Pricing
Airtable has lucrative subscription plans aka pricing that caters to companies both small and enterprise level.
Airtable: Free
The first is a Free plan that gives essential features free of charge. It includes unlimited bases, 1,200 records per base, 2GB of attachment space per base, and 2 weeks of revision and history.
Essential features include cross-platform usage, real-time collaboration, and commenting along with rich field types that include dropdowns, checkboxes, and others as well as gallery views, grid, calendar, etc. You email support with this plan.
Airtable: Plus – $12/mo ($10/mo annually)
Next is a Plus plan that offers unlimited bases with 5GB space per base. It has 6 months of revision and history features and offers 5,000 records per base.
Again, all the essential features are included in the Plus plan along with the increased allowance on usage.
Airtable: Pro – $24/mo ($20/mo annually)
Moving ahead in the comprehensive Pro plan, it includes unlimited bases with 50,000 records per base and 20GB of space with it. There’s 1 year of revision and history that stores and all the features from the Plus plan.
Additional features include custom branded forms, advanced calendar features, easy access to new features, personal and locked views, blocks, priority support response. There’s more than Pro plan offers on-board.
Airtable: Enterprise
This is the subscription plan for enterprises offering unlimited bases, 1000GB of attachment space available per base. There are 3 years of revision and history that users can access.
Apart from all the features on Pro plan, the Enterprise offers dedicated customer success manager, payment by invoice, SAML-based SSO, unlimited workspace, and more.
The pricing for this plan is on a custom-made basis for which you’ll need a contact sales team.
Final thoughts
Airtable is a fun project management and database tool offering a lot of useful and helpful features. It is a well-developed, easy to use, and visually stunning website and app available across four major OS i.e. macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS.
Airtable lets people collaborate on any project may it be from any industry or company with all essential features added into the free tier and the list grows as you go from free to plus to pro and the enterprise.
The project management tools use iconography and easy to understand terminology allowing users to navigate without the hassle and it is suitable for all kinds of business from small to large.
It does have some shortcomings but any other project management tool you try has its shortcomings as well.
Airtable is overall a great tool to use and does improve productivity by allowing better tracking in multiple views including ‘blocks’, collaboration, and data manipulation.
You must try it once and you will like it. Try the “Universe” feature on Airtable’s website to get a hands-on experience before signing up.
Even if you like the platform but are not ready to pay yet, you do have the option of starting out with the free version and then upgrading later on once you feel like it. This is one of the best parts of Airtable as per our opinion.