Airtable

I use Airtable personally to manage my volunteer activities, and professionally. I have used it to create purchase order forms using the design block and our company is using Airtable exclusively to manage contacts. Many projects at the company are using Airtable in numerous ways. Since I started using Airtable, about 2 years ago, I have seen many positive changes and I hope the company continues to expand and improve the user experience.

Puntos a favor

I've been using Airtable for a couple of years after finding an ad on Facebook. I made some bases for personal use and liked it so much I recommended it to colleagues at work. I work at a small not-for-profit and we have started using Airtable as our main contacts database. Several projects also use it. I like to use Airtable because it is so user friendly. It's easy to get a base up and running, either from scratch, or using a template. It's easy to pull the data you need and if you have a problem, the customer service is very responsive as well as the community forum. I think the best thing about Airtable is that you can try things without being worried about making a mistake. It's easy to copy a base for trying something or you can undo and make snapshots. It's user friendly and aesthetically pleasing.

Puntos en contra

At times I get frustrated by some of the things Airtable can't do, for example, finding duplicates as they are added. Also, I would love to be able to use a form in Airtable to keep contacts updated without using Zapier. Improved form features would allow me to use Airtable's forms instead of Google Forms. I would also like to be able to sort by colored records.

Another negative, in my opinion, is the pricing structure. We are a small non-profit and receive a non-profit discount, which is great, but we try to keep our costs down and it can be very confusing trying to pick the right combination of workspaces, bases, collaborators, etc. to keep the cost down.

I love it so much I support it financially, which is a big deal for me. I'm a very small business and a monthly subscription is always viewed suspiciously. But I love how they are constantly building in new features that make it more and more usable. Things I didn't even know I wanted until it existed. And there is a free option! I just wanted access to the premium features.

I'm currently using it for:
-production queue
-development outlines and goal setting
- inventory tracking linked with vendor management
- galleries of photos incorporated on my website and on Facebook
- managing home chores and tasks
- keeping track of any number of personal and professional lists

Puntos a favor

I like this software so much that I pay for it monthly, and I don't consider 25 a month "cheap" for me. But it has been so useful that I can't imagine not having access to all the features.

It's complicated to say what I like most because that entails an explanation of what it does. It basically combines spreadsheets with databases and then allows you to view your data in a multitude of customizable ways. And share just the parts you want to share, or all of it. You can also add collaborators or have clients input information directly through forms. You can take all of this and embed it on your website or on facebook.

The various views can be a gallery of photos, or a more standard spreadsheet, or you can output it to lists like an address list, or set it up to print labels of just the records you want to include.

You can use it for project management and production queues, keeping track of vendors or clients, sorting and updating inventories. It's really brilliant to the point that I've moved away from other spreadsheet programs, task management systems and photo gallery software in favor of using Airtable.

Puntos en contra

It's not perfect! There are a few things I haven't figured out how to do or it's fairly clunky still. But much of that is my own lack of skill in certain areas. I'd love to utilize API but I'm still too much of a novice to really figure it out. Once I do, though, I feel like it will take my website to another level.

One of the features is the ability to take a group of records and output it into a format you create. It would be great if there were some templates available for this sort of thing, but I'm not even sure how that could be implemented. It could just be my own laziness!