Airtable alternatives

1

Apologies if this is a bit off topic for a Mac forum, but Airtable has been mentioned a few times on MPU.

I am looking at how best to build and deploy a relatively simple system to track rental bikes for my son’s guiding business; on Windows the first port of call would be Access, so something like that.

The solution has to be web based as his whole operation runs on Google Workspace; chromebook, iPhone and iPad for end points.

I could probably build something in Google sheets, but it seems more of a database than spreadsheet problem and Google don’t have a simple DB/ forms system (please correct me if I’m wrong!).

Airtable looks like a potential answer, but it’s not an area I’m familiar with so before leaping in I thought I’d ask if there are any alternatives MPUers would recommend.

Thank!

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2

Notion is a database and a whole lot more as well

3

Maybe this is right up your alley?

4

If you’re familiar with database architecture, Notion would be my top recommendation. Airtable would also do a good job of it, and IMO it’s a bit easier to use. Notion is kind of nerdy, but really flexible.

5

This thread or this thread may be of interest. I still like Collections as I mentioned in those threads.

6

I’m a big Airtable fan and have used it for both work and personal applications. Highly recommended and I don’t think the learning curve is difficult for anyone familiar with basic office applications, etc.

7

Thanks for this suggestion, it could save a lot of effort and I shall investigate further.

8

I use AirTable every day and recommend it. It’s easy to learn, web based and has a multitude of uses for a business. I don’t know of any tool that’s better for what you need.

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9

I am a huge fan of Coda and am building a major project with it currently which involves writing some custom Packs.

That said - I would not recommend Coda because it is not fundamentally a database.

Coda can be used as a front -end to databases. It could be as simple as using Coda as the front end to a database maintained in Airtable or Coda or Google Sheets (each of which has a Coda pack).

But either way Coda would not itself be the database. And I don’t know that you would gain much with Coda if a database is the primary goal.