How to use Airtable

Airtable is a database that behaves like a spreadsheet: a base holds tables, tables hold records with typed fields, and views let each person see a filtered slice of the same data.

If you already live in spreadsheets, Airtable feels familiar for about ten minutes — until linked records and views appear. Those two features are the whole point, and they are what make a base outlive the spreadsheet it replaced.

What people actually use Airtable for

Replace a shared spreadsheet that keeps getting broken
Track inventory, content or applicants with typed fields
Collect submissions through a form straight into a table
Link customers to orders and roll up totals
Give each teammate their own filtered view of the same data

Airtable in five steps

1
Create a base and name the tables as nouns
Customers, Orders, Products. One table per kind of thing. Resist the urge to keep everything in a single wide table.
2
Set real field types
Single select for status, Date for dates, Attachment for files, Checkbox for done. Typed fields are the reason filters and automations work reliably.
3
Link tables instead of retyping
Add a Link to another record field from Orders to Customers. Then add a Rollup or Count so each customer shows their order total automatically.
4
Build views, and keep the grid clean
Create a filtered view per use case — My open items, This week, Ready to ship. Views are personal lenses; the underlying data stays shared.
5
Add a form and one automation
A form view collects clean data from anyone. One automation — Slack or email on new record — is usually enough to stop people checking the base manually.

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Common Airtable mistakes

One giant table

Everything in one table means duplicated customer names and no reliable rollups. Split by noun and link.

Text fields where selects belong

Free-typed statuses drift into "Done", "done" and "DONE", and every filter you build afterwards is wrong.

Editing shared views by accident

Changing filters on a collaborative view changes it for everyone. Use personal views for your own filtering.

Ignoring record limits

Plans cap records per base. Discovering that mid-migration is painful — check before you import 100,000 rows.

Airtable FAQ

What is the difference between a base and a table in Airtable?

A base is the whole database for one project. Tables are the collections inside it — one per type of thing — and records are the rows within a table.

Is Airtable better than Google Sheets?

For structured, relational data shared across a team, yes: typed fields, linked records and views prevent the breakage spreadsheets suffer. For free-form calculation, Sheets is still better.

Can Airtable handle large datasets?

Bases are capped by plan, and very large tables slow down in the browser. Beyond a few hundred thousand records, a real database is the better home.

How do linked records work?

A link field points at records in another table. Once linked, Lookup, Rollup and Count fields pull values across the relationship without copying data.

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