{"slug": "airtable", "name": "Airtable", "category": "databases", "category_name": "Databases", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.712, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-12-16", "latest": "2026-04-26", "why": "AirTable worked somewhat to keep moving projects forward, without growing unbounded.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "AirTable worked somewhat to keep moving projects forward, without growing unbounded.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.airtable.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Airtable"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 766672246, "item_id": 47917015, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917015", "by": "tekacs", "date": "2026-04-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Linear, Vercel, Figma, Notion, hell even Airtable... landed 'big'", "excerpt": "I would be curious what you think of the idea of Sail and Muddy being... small. Technically complex, but small in the mind of the user. Not lacking in features (you talked about that), but 'feeling small/bounded, and therefore with small divergence' to the user. Does that... fit at all with your mental model of them? I ask because I feel like Linear, Vercel, Figma, Notion, hell even Airtable... landed 'big' (felt lik", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lessons from Building Multiplayer Browsers"}, {"id": 749327201, "item_id": 46832950, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46832950", "by": "halfcat", "date": "2026-01-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "AirTable worked somewhat to keep moving projects forward, without growing unbounded.", "excerpt": "For what it\u2019s worth: - Workflowy is great for taking notes in meetings, allowing ad-hoc moving things around. It\u2019s also great for reference material (what was that long command SQL query I use). But yes it\u2019s also a graveyard. - AirTable worked somewhat to keep moving projects forward, without growing unbounded. But only when there is a workflow. That looks like: dump tasks into rows, then create the steps as views of", "context": "", "use_case": "task and project tracking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Do you also \"hoard\" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?"}, {"id": 740722112, "item_id": 46295132, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46295132", "by": "sltr", "date": "2025-12-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I suggest looking at Airtable and _maybe_ Linear. They have API and automations.", "excerpt": "Thanks for your reply. I suggest looking at Airtable and _maybe_ Linear. They have API and automations. You could likely get AI to rewrite your scripts. If those don't work, you may have a business case for building it. I'm a founder and dev looking to for a good problem to solve. If the need could be proven (e.g. 10 people with decision power said they wanted it), I'd consider making it.", "context": "founder and dev", "use_case": "tracking failures and root causes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: A software to track errors and group into root causes?"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "sltr", "context": "founder and dev", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46295132", "date": "2025-12-16"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["task and project tracking", "writing to databases via forms", "tracking failures and root causes"], "compared": [{"slug": "linear", "name": "Linear", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47910877", "title": "Lessons from Building Multiplayer Browsers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46826277", "title": "Ask HN: Do you also \"hoard\" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46546419", "title": "SQL Studio", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46280518", "title": "Ask HN: A software to track errors and group into root causes?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"compare": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 766672246, "item_id": 47917015, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917015", "by": "tekacs", "date": "2026-04-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Linear, Vercel, Figma, Notion, hell even Airtable... landed 'big'", "excerpt": "I would be curious what you think of the idea of Sail and Muddy being... small. Technically complex, but small in the mind of the user. Not lacking in features (you talked about that), but 'feeling small/bounded, and therefore with small divergence' to the user. Does that... fit at all with your mental model of them? I ask because I feel like Linear, Vercel, Figma, Notion, hell even Airtable... landed 'big' (felt lik", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lessons from Building Multiplayer Browsers"}, {"id": 749327201, "item_id": 46832950, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46832950", "by": "halfcat", "date": "2026-01-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "AirTable worked somewhat to keep moving projects forward, without growing unbounded.", "excerpt": "For what it\u2019s worth: - Workflowy is great for taking notes in meetings, allowing ad-hoc moving things around. It\u2019s also great for reference material (what was that long command SQL query I use). But yes it\u2019s also a graveyard. - AirTable worked somewhat to keep moving projects forward, without growing unbounded. But only when there is a workflow. That looks like: dump tasks into rows, then create the steps as views of", "context": "", "use_case": "task and project tracking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Do you also \"hoard\" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?"}, {"id": 744758369, "item_id": 46547398, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46547398", "by": "sroerick", "date": "2026-01-08", "stance": "compare", "quote": "It seems like the landscape is basically Airtable, Retool, Google Forms or roll your own", "excerpt": "This looks great, with postgres support I could see myself using this regularly. What is the landscape for simple tools for writing to databases? We used to have Access and simple CRUD tools. I saw a demo of Steve Jobs demoing NextStep which had this beautiful CRUD generator which obviously does not exist today. It seems like the landscape is basically Airtable, Retool, Google Forms or roll your own with a more sophi", "context": "", "use_case": "writing to databases via forms", "switched_from": "", "story": "SQL Studio"}, {"id": 740722112, "item_id": 46295132, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46295132", "by": "sltr", "date": "2025-12-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I suggest looking at Airtable and _maybe_ Linear. They have API and automations.", "excerpt": "Thanks for your reply. I suggest looking at Airtable and _maybe_ Linear. They have API and automations. You could likely get AI to rewrite your scripts. If those don't work, you may have a business case for building it. I'm a founder and dev looking to for a good problem to solve. If the need could be proven (e.g. 10 people with decision power said they wanted it), I'd consider making it.", "context": "founder and dev", "use_case": "tracking failures and root causes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: A software to track errors and group into root causes?"}]}