Airtable: Clean, Pure Database
May 01, 2018
Airtable: Clean, Pure Database
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Airtable
We use Airtable to track the editorial flow and aggregate data for titles coming out of the SFI Press, the publishing arm of the Santa Fe Institute. Currently, it's in use just for Press staff, as our needs match closely with what Airtable provides: information storage, easy linkage of records, and progress tracking for any particular manuscript. We also use Airtable to maintain our lists of authors, editors, contractors, and printers.
- Airtable's database functionality allows us to ensure that information is entered only once, and then automatically updated in other fields. This avoids the problem of having to update many spreadsheets or other unreliable media.
- FILE STORAGE. By using Airtable attachments, we can standardize where documents are stored without relying on staff to name files consistently (something that is surprisingly hard to enforce!)
- PROGRESS TRACKING. The new Timeline feature and the Calendar feature are very helpful tools when we want to use our existing record-specific data to construct a big-picture report.
- Because our publishing deadlines often span over a year, it would be great to be able to zoom out of the monthly calendar for a "year-at-a-glance" view. Weekly, daily, 3-day views are already available, so this seems like a natural extension. Some of this functionality is already handled by the Timeline Block, but Timeline can be generated only with two dates (start and end) rather than giving a holistic sense of where various benchmarks/step-by-step deadlines might fall.
- It would be great to be able to nest records inside one another, e.g., have a checklist within a record. This would make task management a bit easier, although I understand that Airtable isn't necessarily the best tool for that (as it's more of a comprehensive database).
- It would be great to be able to "tag" records. Perhaps this exists and I haven't found it?
- Although we're too early in our process to report quantitatively, I can attest that since integrating Airtable into our workflow, things have been much more organized and we're much better prepared to onboard new team members.
Airtable vs. Asana: Asana is for task management; Airtable is for data management. The difference between the two is important. Asana is NOT for long-term data storage. It does have more integrations with other apps, but if you're looking for a pure database, Airtable is the way to go. Airtable does have change history, but it's much more about organizing your data than it is about managing tasks, people, projects, etc.
Airtable vs. Microsoft Access: Airtable has a far superior user interface, is much more intuitive and is much easier to set up. Access does have the upper hand in terms of extensive macros and customization, but for most cases, those advantages lag far behind what Airtable can offer in terms of streamlining and ease of access (no pun intended). Airtable is also less expensive than an Office 360 or SharePoint account but has many of the same backup and mobile features.
Airtable vs. Microsoft Access: Airtable has a far superior user interface, is much more intuitive and is much easier to set up. Access does have the upper hand in terms of extensive macros and customization, but for most cases, those advantages lag far behind what Airtable can offer in terms of streamlining and ease of access (no pun intended). Airtable is also less expensive than an Office 360 or SharePoint account but has many of the same backup and mobile features.