5 best Airtable alternatives in 2024
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BLUEPRINT
Updated 4:22 p.m. UTC Jan. 3, 2024
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While Airtable offers project-management essentials at an affordable price, it lacks some features, such as native time tracking and seamless real-time chat. Its breadth of features and learning curve may also be overwhelming for some users. For this reason, we’ve compiled a list of Airtable alternatives to meet different business needs and budgets.
Featured project management software offers
Monday.com
Monthly fee
$10 per user, with a minimum of three users
Free version
Yes, for two users
24/7 customer support
Yes, with paid plans
HubSpot
Free demo
Available
Free version available
Yes
24/7 customer support
Yes
ClickUp
Monthly fee
$10 per user
Free version
Yes, for unlimited members
24/7 customer support
Yes
Best Airtable alternatives
- ClickUp: Best for agile project management.
- Monday: Best for managing small business operations.
- Todoist: Best for customizable workflows and databases.
- Asana: Best for remote team management.
- Zoho Projects: Best for software development startups.
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Todoist
Asana
Zoho Projects
Featured project management software offers
Monday.com
Monthly fee
$10 per user, with a minimum of three users
Free version
Yes, for two users
24/7 customer support
Yes, with paid plans
HubSpot
Free demo
Available
Free version available
Yes
24/7 customer support
Yes
ClickUp
Monthly fee
$10 per user
Free version
Yes, for unlimited members
24/7 customer support
Yes
What is Airtable?
Airtable is a popular cloud-based project management software that works as a database and spreadsheet combined. It offers an array of database views, fields and customization options, making it great for data-driven businesses. However, it has some limitations in terms of functionality, with some more complex features only available on higher-tier plans.
Pros and cons of Airtable
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
|
|
Cost
Airtable offers four different pricing plans — here’s what you can get with each:
- Free: Airtable’s Free plan gives you unlimited bases, each holding up to 1,000 records and 1 GB of attachments. You can add up to five editors, complete 100 automation runs and access an interface designer.
- Team: The Team plan is billed at $24 per seat per month. You’ll get everything from the Free plan, plus up to 50,000 records and 20 GB of attachments per base, as well as 25,000 automation runs. You also have access to the standard sync integrations, a range of extensions, more views and customization options.
- Business: Airtable offers a Business plan at $54 per seat per month. You’ll get Team plan features, plus 125,000 records and 100 GB of attachments per base, 100,000 automation runs, premium integrations and a range of security features.
- Enterprise Scale: The Enterprise Scale plan is only offered at custom pricing and increases your allowance to 500,000 records and 1,000 GB of attachments per base, 500,000 automation runs and a raft of advanced features, such as audit logs, an enterprise API and advanced admin controls.
Features
While the functionalities you’ll have access to will depend on your plan offerings, most plans grant access to some or all of the following features:
- Basic features: All plans have unlimited bases, collaboration in real-time and mobile apps. However, the Free and Team plans are limited to one workspace, and the Free plan also limits editors and commenters per workspace.
- Views: All plans offer grid, calendar, form, Kanban, gallery and list views, but the Free plan doesn’t give you access to Gantt and timeline views, personal and locked views and the ability to organize your views in sections.
- Customization: All paid plans allow you to customize your database with branded forms, options for formatting and color and extra calendar features. All plans come with web API access, while you get Enterprise API access with the Enterprise Scale plan.
- Permissions: Paid plans also allow you to restrict permissions by password or email domain and limit permissions for field and table editing and interface access.
- Integrations: The Free plan doesn’t allow integrations. The Team plan offers standard integrations, while the Business plan adds premium integrations and the Enterprise Scale plan gives you on-premise integrations.
Support
The availability and quality of a provider’s customer support is crucial. All Airtable plans give you access to the online help center and community support, as well as in-product support. However, email support is only available on the Business and Enterprise Scale plans — and businesses on these tiers can also add professional services to their plan.
Choosing the best project management system
Finding the best project management system for your business is key to ensuring your team can create efficient workflows and manage projects with ease. However, you’ll need to consider certain factors to find the software that fits your business best.
What is your budget?
Arguably the most important factor to consider is how much you want to spend on a project management system. But it’s key to think for the future, so keep scalability in mind when choosing software to ensure you’ll get the best value for money when the time comes to expand operations.
To do so, look for a variety of plans that you can grow into as your needs grow and evolve. Also consider whether you can pick and choose features that you will use while avoiding having to pay for the rest. For example, evaluate whether the provider offers custom plans or add-on features you can use or avoid based on your needs.
What features do you need?
When looking at the features and functionality of a project management system, think about:
- Views and formats: Whether it comes down to personal preference or specific requirements for the work you do, keep in mind what kind of views and formats your software offers. For example, you might want to be able to present workflows in Gantt charges or Kanban boards.
- Customization: Most project management systems will offer a degree of customization, ranging from styles and fonts to branding and formats, but you might need to pay for higher-tier plans for full flexibility.
- Time tracking: Not all businesses need time-tracking, but if you do, then a project management system with integrated time-tracking features can let you monitor time spent on work and budget with more accuracy.
- Reporting: More advanced project management systems also offer reporting functionality, allowing you insights into productivity and progress.
- Collaboration: Allowing team members to communicate efficiently is key for any project management software, so ensure your chosen provider’s collaboration features suit your team.
- Integrations: If you use any third-party apps to manage your work, it can help if your project management system allows integrations to keep data synchronized.
- Security: Evaluate the security features offered by your project management software, including permissions and access, data encryption and industry compliance.
What type of business do you run?
Different project management systems will be better suited to different types of businesses:
- Your business/industry type: Some project management systems are built with certain industries in mind. For example, designers might benefit from something more visual than Airtable’s largely spreadsheet-based format.
- Your expertise: If you’re a startup or you have relatively little expertise in running wide-scale projects, then your needs are likely to be less complex than a bigger company with more employees and workflows.
Why you may choose Airtable
Airtable is likely to be a good choice for your business if:
- You run a data-driven business: Airtable’s focus on spreadsheets with advanced functionality compared to other software like Excel or Sheets make it a fantastic choice for data-driven businesses. It also comes with plenty of integrations, including advanced integrations with the Business or Enterprise Scale plans, allowing you to easily sync data across internal systems.
- You need a degree of flexibility and customization: With multiple views and formats available, Airtable is adaptable to a range of different project management needs.
Why you may want an Airtable alternative
You might find other project management software to be a better choice if:
- You don’t want a learning curve: Airtable’s extensive data management capabilities may present a learning curve to users with relatively little experience or expertise in project management.
- You need advanced functionality: Airtable lacks in-depth time tracking and reporting features as well as collaboration features like real-time chat. If you need a more well-rounded project management system, then it won’t be the best option.
Best Airtable alternatives
| CLICKUP | AIRTABLE | MONDAY | TODOIST | ASANA | ZOHO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lowest paid monthly plan (billed monthly)
| $10 per seat
| $24 per seat
| $10 per seat
| $5
| $13.49 per user
| $5 per user
|
Free version
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
|
Gantt charts
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Through third-party apps
| Yes
| Yes
|
Kanban boards
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
|
Dependencies
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Through third-party apps
| Yes
| Yes
|
Time tracking
| Yes
| No
| Yes
| Yes, via an extension
| Yes
| Yes
|
Real-time chat
| Yes
| No
| No
| Through third-party apps
| No
| Yes
|
Methodology
We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.
We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the best project management software.
Featured project management software offers
Monday.com
Monthly fee
$10 per user, with a minimum of three users
Free version
Yes, for two users
24/7 customer support
Yes, with paid plans
HubSpot
Free demo
Available
Free version available
Yes
24/7 customer support
Yes
ClickUp
Monthly fee
$10 per user
Free version
Yes, for unlimited members
24/7 customer support
Yes
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Microsoft offers its Lists product that provides similar functionality to Airtable. Microsoft Lists allows you to build and manage databases rather than focusing on workflow management like other systems such as Asana.
Airtable is used by globally renowned companies, including Expedia, TIME, BuzzFeed and Levi’s.
You can use Airtable as a customer relationship management tool by creating a customer database, storing and organizing data such as names, contact details and account types.
You can use it to track how you interact with different customers, capture data in forms and make use of automation features and third-party integrations to streamline workflows.
No, Airtable doesn’t support SQL queries directly, but you can use different views to achieve similar results. You can also integrate a range of third-party apps that support SQL queries.
Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.
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