VIDEO: The Pros and Cons of Airtable for Project Management

Hello Project Managers! I’m Mackenzie, and today I’m reviewing Airtable. Despite what the name implies, it doesn’t have anything to do with air hockey. That’s a shame because I really wanted to beat my high score. However, it is a popular online project management software that enables users to build and customize projects using real-time, shared data. From what I’ve seen in ads, Airtable sounds and looks like a great tool. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the perfect solution for every individual and team.

So to better understand the ins and outs of Airtable, here are all the pros and cons you’ll need to know. Let’s begin with the advantages of Airtable. The first one is users get Real-Time Data Accessibility. Airtable functions like a relational database where teams can see and collaborate with centralized data as it changes or gets updated in real-time. The data can also come from both internal teams and integrated sources from other platforms, which allows users to view or use the most up-to-date information to complete their work and make accurate decisions.

It also includes an Intuitive App Builder. Airtable’s no-code and low-code architecture allows users to build the tools that will meet their needs and won’t force them to alter their workflows. The interface designer enables a user to create and share custom interfaces intuitively with clicks and drag-and-drop manipulation instead of writing code. Along with that, Airtable offers a Quick Setup of Work Views. Users can quickly choose how to see information with ready-made project view types including Kanban, Gantt, Calendar, Grid, Gallery, and Forms.

Plus, teams can switch between view types to analyze the same data in different ways in order to find the insight that is relevant to them. Depending on what action a user wants to take, these views help teams track progress, meet deadlines, plan for events, spot trends, showcase images, or capture data in a standard way. Lastly, Airtable has Built-in Automation and Integration features. Every automation uses trigger and action logic to streamline manual processes and allow users to create versatile workflows.

Teams can also increase their efficiency by letting the software work on tasks it can handle by itself so people can work on tasks only humans should handle. As for integrations, teams can utilize more than two dozen apps and can connect with more by using Zapier, Workato, Integromat, Tray.io, or with Airtable’s API. Now that we’ve seen Airtable’s good side, let’s check out the bad. In my opinion, the most egregious con is that Airtable has Limited Project Management Features.

As a project management software, this is surprising. Most purpose-built PM tools typically include complex functions such as project budgeting, expense management, or critical path analysis, which isn’t the case for Airtable. It does offer a project planning template with a Gantt view, but Gantt and timeline views are available only on higher-paid tiers. And despite Airtable’s ability to simplify data, some users are not able to make connections among tables like from a full-blown database to create the customized project features they need.

In addition, Airtable has Segmented Collaboration Between Databases. This means that each database or ‘base’ has its own collaborators and comments, which can be overwhelming because each account gets access to unlimited bases. A sync functionality is available, but it will sync only tables within the same database. A workaround is to link one base to another base to create either a synced table or copy data to a new table, both of which involve complex steps.

Finally, we have Airtable’s Premium Extension Features. As I mentioned before, view types like Gantt and Timeline are available only on higher-paid tiers. Plus, other visualizations and functionality extensions are limited per plan. The lowest-priced paid plan includes only 3 extensions per base. Some examples of extensions are search, charts, pivot tables, summary, or description fields. So if you’re a team that prioritizes workflows like note-taking, wiki, content creation, or project reporting, then Airtable might not be an affordable option because more features means more cost.

And that’s a wrap on Airtable’s pros and cons. Though I don’t think it’s the best tool for me personally, that doesn’t mean it’s not the right software for you. If you want to explore Airtable further, then I recommend reading this article. Or go try Airtable for yourself. You can sign up for its free plan by clicking the link in the description. But before you go, don’t forget to click the like icon, hit the subscribe button, and visit project-dash-management-dot-com for other PM solutions. Thanks for watching!