Notable companies like Medium, BuzzFeed, and Nike have started using Airtable to increase efficiency and cut costs.
So it’s clear that the tool’s superpowers are indisputable. But what is Airtable? What can you use it for and how can you elevate your experience with the platform?
In this article, you’ll learn all about the cloud-based platform, its impact on data visualization, and how to maximize efficiency of the popular app.
What is Airtable?
Airtable is a hybrid database management system that mixes the intuitiveness of traditional spreadsheets and the power and functionalities of databases.
The Airtable app has many innovative features. Here are some basic components that users love:
- Various customizable field options, including barcodes and formulas;
- Familiar spreadsheet-like interface;
- User-permission levels;
- Pre-made templates for plenty of personal or company-related task;
- Hundreds of integrations for datum management;
- Easy and quick custom views, such as grid view, gallery view, Kanban view or the traditional spreadsheet.
What is Airtable used for?
With several advanced features, Airtable is a powerful no-code tool that helps businesses and departments of all sizes and use cases stay organized and collaborate on projects.
Here are some examples of how big and small teams can use Airtable to improve your business:
- Calendar: Create a table to manage timelines with different calendar views;
- Project management: Assign tasks and project deadlines, or set up status updates;
- Marketing campaign management: Create a content plan, email marketing campaign and more;
- Product launch: Use collaboration features to stay organized and connect your product and marketing teams;
- Bug tracker: Maintain datum governance and identify potential malfunctions.
- And much more!
Also Read: Airtable Interfaces Vs Softr
There are so many ways to visualize your datum with Airtable.
To get a better view of what's possible with the cloud-based tool, here are the most popular Airtable templates used by different departments and teams.
What is a database?
Databases make it easy to store, manage, and retrieve your data. Some of the differences between a spreadsheet and database are:
They’re at the heart of most applications we use on a day-to-day basis.
Facebook, for example, has databases of users, groups, posts, events, and more.
Banks also have their own databases including client names, account numbers, and invoices.
There was a time when you’d need a coding background to create a database, and plenty of technical skills to use it, but that’s not the case now that no-code databases like Airtable exist.
Airtable key terms
As a beginner, the vast amount of must-know Airtable terminology can be overwhelming. We dug through the most common use cases and queries to define those must-know terms
Here's what you need to know to start using Airtable effectively.
Tables

Tables are fundamental Airtable features. Similar to spreadsheets, we create tables to store and manage data.
Typical Tables are in a grid view. They have columns, rows, and fields (which we'll get to in a minute).
Automations

You can have Airtable take action based on various triggers such as when a new record is added to a view, or when a record changes. Automations will save time by automating repetitive tasks and reducing the margin of error that occurs when they’re done manually.
Softr is an easy-to-use no-code platform that turns Airtable bases into powerful business apps, such as client portals or internal tools. Softr offers a way for you to authenticate your end-users, control access to your content and data based on conditional rules like roles, logged-in status, and subscription plans.
If you're using Airtable for inventory management, you can use a template to build a beautiful, secure frontend. Or maybe you'd like to build a custom Sales CRM, there's a template for that too!
Airtable’s spreadsheet-database hybrid solution allows you to streamline processes, workflows, and projects while easily creating a powerful database without writing a single line of code.
And if you have a use case that isn’t offered by the platform, you can fill in the gaps by upgrading your Airtable experience with Softr.
What is Softr
Join 700,000+ users worldwide, building client portals, internal tools, CRMs, dashboards, project management systems, inventory management apps, and more—all without code.