Transcription
Hello everyone.
Today we are here with the product comparison video, and we are going to compare some features of Google Sheets and Airtable. We will help you choose the spreadsheet program best suited for your project in less than five minutes. So let's get started.
Google Sheets is a web-based spreadsheet program that is part of the office suite of Google Drive. It also resembles a simplified version of Microsoft Excel. Airtable, on the other hand, is a relational database with a spreadsheet interface built on top.
Google Sheets is database-centric; it is focused on the spreadsheet. Airtable, on the other hand, has an interactive database. With Airtable, you can easily switch the view of each table to show things like a calendar or a Kanban board, etc.
Now, when thinking about your project, if you need to interact with your data in different ways, go with Airtable. If you just need a database to store your data, go with Google Sheets. Google Sheets is extremely functional; it has a huge number of formulas and functions to work with. Airtable also has a good enough set of formulas and is very visual with its interface.
Google Sheets is a classic Google product; it is as simple as it gets. As for Airtable, the nomenclature can be confusing at first, but it is pretty simple to use for basic templates. Things can, however, get ramped up in complexity real fast, and therefore Airtable has a higher learning curve than Google Sheets.
Google Sheets is familiar and simple, and because of this, it targets users of just about anyone. Google Sheets excels at its purpose of making tables and inviting collaborators. As for Airtable, user experience hinges on novelty rather than familiarity.
Airtable is incredibly useful for more advanced purposes like project planning and tracking experimental results. It is also remarkable educational for users wishing to learn more about such planning. For the purpose of simple tables, Airtable might be overkill.
In Google Sheets, you can store text, numbers, dates, links, charts, etc. In Airtable, you have many more field types such as checkbox, collaborators, barcode, etc. There is a good number of add-ons available for Google Sheets on Google Workspace Marketplace; however, there are a limited number of add-ons available for Airtable.
The degree of individual access can be modified only to three options, and those are viewer, commenter, and editor. Airtable has added more of a degree of control over users that you invite. They have added the tiers of creator and owner in addition to editor, commenter, and read-only.
Google Sheets is free with a Gmail account. Airtable has a free account but limits things like blocks, visual customization, team features, etc., to the paid version. So if you are on a budget, try using Google Sheets first.
The mobile version of Google Sheets doesn't quite have the same seamless experience, which can largely be attributed to the screen size. It can be an extremely frustrating experience having to pinch and squeeze just to see some cells in their entirety. The mobile version of Airtable runs into a similar problem; that is limited screen space. But even then, the Airtable app provides a much better user experience with its very visual interface.
That's the end of this video. We'll be back with another video discussing the use cases of Google Sheets and Airtable. If you have any questions regarding this video, please mention them in the comment box below. And if you want us to feature any no-code products, do let us know in the comment box below.