About Airtable
Airtable is a commercial platform that started as a spreadsheet-like database and has grown into a way for teams to build custom business applications without code. Data lives in relational bases whose records, fields and views connect information from different workflows.
The vendor lists AI app building and AI agents as new capabilities, along with portals for guests outside an organization, automations, databases and interfaces. It states that apps can be built on top of very large data sets of up to 100 million records. The site also announces a way to bring Airtable data into Claude, and it describes real-time collaboration and automation of repetitive tasks.
Airtable is hosted, proprietary software with a pricing page, and it is not self-hosted. It suits operations, marketing, product and project teams that want a flexible tool for tracking structured work and building lightweight apps on shared data.
Key features
- Relational databases with multiple views
- Interfaces for custom business apps
- Automations for repetitive tasks
- AI app building and agents
- Portals for external guest users
- Real-time team collaboration
- Scale to very large record counts
Good fit for
- →Operations teams tracking structured work
- →Marketing content calendars and campaigns
- →Lightweight internal business apps
- Tags
- database
- no-code
- spreadsheets
- app-builder
- automation
- collaboration
Airtable: questions and answers
- What is Airtable used for?
- Airtable is an app-building platform that combines a relational database with interfaces, automations and AI agents so teams can build their own business apps. It is a good fit for operations teams tracking structured work, marketing content calendars and campaigns, and lightweight internal business apps.
- Is Airtable free?
- Yes. Airtable has a free plan, and paid plans start at $20 per seat per month.
- Is Airtable open source?
- No. Airtable is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Airtable include AITable, Baserow and NocoDB.
- What are some alternatives to Airtable?
- Airtable competes with Smartsheet, Coda and Stackby. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Airtable alternatives.
Open-source alternatives to Airtable
See all
AITable
Database Tools
AITable.ai simplifies workflow automation with a visual database; connects to 6,000+ apps
AGPL-3.0vs Airtable★ 16k
Baserow
Database Tools
Build databases, automations, apps & agents with AI — no code. Open source platform avail
OSSvs Airtable★ 6.1k
NocoDB
Database Tools
🔥 🔥 🔥 A Free & Self-hostable Airtable Alternative
OSSvs Airtable★ 65k
Teable
Database Tools
✨ AI Spreadsheet for Business
OSSvs Airtable★ 22k
Grist
Database Tools
Grist is the evolution of spreadsheets.
Apache-2.0vs Airtable★ 12k
Mathesar
Database Tools
An intuitive spreadsheet-like interface that lets users of all technical skill levels view
GPL-3.0vs Airtable★ 5.1k
SaaS alternatives to Airtable
See all
Smartsheet
Project Management
Spreadsheet-style work management with grids, forms, automation and reporting
SaaS
Coda
Docs & Wikis
Documents that combine text, tables and automations with database-like views
SaaS
Stackby
Database Tools
Spreadsheet-database hybrid with API connectors and automations
SaaS
Ninox
Database Tools
Database app builder with forms, views and scripting for business data
SaaS
Ragic
Database Tools
Spreadsheet-like online database builder for forms, workflows and reports
SaaS
SmartSuite
Project Management
Work management platform built on customizable database-style tables
SaaS

