Airtable vs. Microsoft Excel

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Airtable
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Airtable is a project management and collaboration platform designed to enable content pipelines, product management, events planning, user research, and more. It combines spreadsheet,database, calendar, and kanban functionality within one platform.
$24
per month per user
Microsoft Excel
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application available as part of Microsoft 365 (Office 365), or standalone, in cloud-based and on-premise editions.
$6.99
per month
Pricing
AirtableMicrosoft Excel
Editions & Modules
Team
$24
per month per user
Business
$54
per month per user
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Excel with Microsoft 365
$6.99
per month
Excel for 1 PC or Mac
$139.99
perpetual license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AirtableMicrosoft Excel
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AirtableMicrosoft Excel
Considered Both Products
Airtable
Chose Airtable
Airtable is the best for structuring, automating and interacting with data, but only for internal use. For public-facing needs, other apps are required for their support of custom domains and styling.
Chose Airtable
Airtable is far more sophisticated than Sheets or Excel in terms of its functions. The interface is also much easier on the eyes. People are less familiar with it and there is a bit of a learning curve, but overall, Airtable empowers us to do more and to better understand our …
Chose Airtable
Airtable is more presentable and fluid both in terms of project management and scheduling :)
Chose Airtable
I think it's way more robust than google sheets.
Chose Airtable
Airtable is the most user-friendly and adaptive. It's UX/UI is the most aesthetically pleasing (which matters a lot if its what you're staring at every day), and the customizability of having different views and perspectives of the same record is extremely helpful.

It's also a …
Chose Airtable
It is not comparable because we use it as a bridge those tools and our platform. So, in our use case, Airtable works more as a connector between the different tools we use and as a complement to eliminate repeated tasks trough automation. We are also exploring the possibility …
Chose Airtable
AirTable does a great job at Project Management. You can easily create tasks and set up reminders, including automated reminder emails, when deadlines draw near. You can group the tasks and can also group tasks in a variety of ways (not started, pending, completed or …
Chose Airtable
Airtable was a really good fit for this specific use case as it provided a huge number of collaboration features in an intuitive and pleasant-to-use interface. The free tier worked initially with our work, and the upgrade pathway was fair and made sense for us.
Chose Airtable
There's a saying that spreadsheets were never meant to be databases, and Airtable provides the missing piece for nontechnical users who need to hear that saying. It's more performant and provides more custom view options, for example, than Excel or Google Sheets.

Retool …
Chose Airtable
Salesforce Lightning Platform, Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Adobe Marketo Engage
Chose Airtable
Airtable is as powerful, if not more than these competitors. It has a simple interface like Asana or Trello but has robust data functions and tracking of Jira or ShotGrid (now called Flow). While I haven't found it as profoundly integrated as Jira, Airtable feels much more …
Chose Airtable
While a very capable tool, Smartsheet ultimately didn't provide the ease of use we required for our scenario. Monday was a great tool that felt very similar to Airtable, except its mobile app actually lead to some mismatched information and difficult use in time-sensitive …
Chose Airtable
Most comparable to Monday.com. Great, easy-to-use tool.
Chose Airtable
I have tried Trello, Monday.com, Meister Task, and even Google Sheets. They are all great and solid applications. Some even have really nice user interfaces. However, none of them have met my primary need of being able to view my current projects and associated deadlines at a …
Chose Airtable
Airtable is:
  • More customizable.
  • Simpler to use than Excel or Sheets—you don't need to write formulas
Chose Airtable
Airtable is a great collaboration tool, Its kanban boards facilitate me to add a texture to my projects. There is so much to talk
Chose Airtable
Airtable is so far the best project management tool I've used so far—it is way more visually appealing to the eye and offers the most customizations.
Chose Airtable
Airtable exceeds all competitors I’ve seen. The feature set is full and only growing. The UI is intuitive for non-tech employees. Any competitors that match Airtable are really operating in a different space. Airtable is the industry leader in this category. Period.
Chose Airtable
Asana is a great piece of software but it ultimately had too many features and offerings. Our main focus was having a 'smartsheet' that easily allowed for collaboration at a very affordable price. Airtable was the best fit for what we were looking for at the time. If we ever …
Chose Airtable
We have tried to use smart-sheet before but it is nowhere as good as Airtable. The user interface with Airtable is much better and it also has much more functionality.
Chose Airtable
The only similar thing that I have used is Google Sheets, and Airtable is much better than this as it provides way more abilities and creation of automation.
Microsoft Excel
Chose Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel It's the choice of professionals who delve into intricate financial models, statistical analyses, and other complex analysis. Its strength lies in its depth, offering a vast array of functions and features that can handle the most demanding tasks. Its pivot …
Chose Microsoft Excel
I find Microsoft Excel easier to use than either LibreOffice Calc or Google Docs because I use Excel regularly and know where to find the functions that I need. I find that other companies have an easier time opening Excel files than others.
Chose Microsoft Excel
My preference will always be Google Sheets, however, as the interface in Sheets is faster, smoother, and more aesthetically pleasing. Excel is part of the package with Outlook, and that tends to be the main reason why I’ve encountered companies who choose Excel over Sheets, but …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Excel is one of the tools I use for everyday work but fits alongside all the other programs I use. I keep Excel as a way of tracking projects from start to finish as well as document content strategy and audits. There are not many programs like Excel that I can think of other …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Lists allows for users to keep lists, but the functionality cannot be compared to Microsoft Excel. There are far more options for data manipulation, analysis, and creating outputs in Excel. Anything that can be done in Lists can be done easily in MS Excel. The key …
Chose Microsoft Excel
The integration Microsoft Excel has within the other Microsoft applications makes it top choice for me. I have worked in Google Sheets, however I prefer working in desktop version of software with full capabilities. Microsoft Excel provides this.
Chose Microsoft Excel
It isn't as collaborative or detail oriented as other platforms, or at least it doesn't market itself to be used that way. But it is still useful in its own ways
Chose Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel has its "niche" use cases, but it was the other way around. Its been many years since Microsoft Excel became the niche, while Google Sheets now is the mainstream data analysis application. I use Microsoft Excel today only because I am forced by my company to do …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Arcsight by OpenText, Google Sheets, Oracle Aconex, Oracle Analytics Cloud, Oracle BPM Suite, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Primavera Unifier, Primavera EXPRESS, PrimaveraReader, Oracle Primavera Submittal Exchange and Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management
Chose Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is superior to these as it has a wider range of functions and is used corporately
Chose Microsoft Excel
Like I've put in previous questions, Microsoft Excel seems more advanced. I'm always going to prefer using Microsoft Excel if it's just me working on a task. If I have to work with other then Google sheets is going to be preferred. The online version of Microsoft Excel seems to …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that is used for analyzing and organizing complex data. It offers advanced capabilities for data analysis, financial modelling and complex calculations. Excel can be used in offline form making it use flexible for users who want to use it …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets sync nicely with Google Workspace and can be accessed easily online. But Google Sheets is clunky and no where near the gold standard which is Microsoft Excel.
Chose Microsoft Excel
I think it stacks up very well, Clickup ha a better user interface however Microsoft Excel has a more sophisticated back end and formula approach. In my opinion, Clickup however does provide less of a need to 'learn' formulas as there is more of a click application approach …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Excel stands out from Google Sheets and Apple Numbers with its extensive range of advanced functions, including financial, statistical, and data analysis tools, surpassing the capabilities of its competitors. As the universally recognized industry standard, Excel offers better …
Chose Microsoft Excel
No any comparison, Excel are far better.
Chose Microsoft Excel
PowerPoint is excellent for displaying information in a far more visually engaging, relatable manner. However, where it is lacking is the ability to get to that point in analyzing competing deal information, building formulas around it, things of that nature.

Apple has its own …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Compatibility is the main issue. It is frustrating to send an Excel workbook to someone who can't open it. Also, user interfaces are not as slick and intuitive.
Chose Microsoft Excel
i have used many Microsoft products like Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Teams, Windows, Yammer etc., but I can say that every product is different from each other and each product solves different professional day-to-day work problems quite efficiently, although I …
Chose Microsoft Excel
I find that Microsoft Excel ranks higher than Microsoft Powerpoint because of it's ability to handle large amounts of data the fact that it has keys tools to helps streamline information. It does however not have the same capabilities as Microsoft Powerpoint when it comes to …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is much easier to use, but CloudDrive is much safer from hackers. Sometimes I create a spreadsheet in Excel and then upload it to CloudDrive.
Chose Microsoft Excel
Much easier to edit the data that is imported for a report. Adobe has limited choices for font and styling.
Chose Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets is a comparable product to Microsoft Excel and it's more flexible when it comes to sharing because it can be shared with anyone who has the link or Google Drive access to it. However, Google Sheets does not have all the functions, especially when it comes to …
Chose Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel stands out amongst its peers for the service they provide and with every latest update, they tend to ensure that even the minor issues impacting their users are managed to make the software efficient for people like me to use. The software's user-friendly …
Features
AirtableMicrosoft Excel
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Airtable
7.1
Ratings
7% below category average
Microsoft Excel
-
Ratings
Task Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access3.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AirtableMicrosoft Excel
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
Airtable
Airtable
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
Airtable
Airtable
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AirtableMicrosoft Excel
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AirtableMicrosoft Excel
Likelihood to Recommend
Airtable is well suited for cross-functional teams who all have an interest in data site - it's democratizing who owns data. Especially if there will be a need to add input on a cell-level basis view comment functionality with the expectation of @mentioned parties respond. Airtable is less suited for teams who need to run functions, jobs, and macros across a data set; they're best suited for Excel.
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I find it easier to use than Google Sheets , though it's easier to collaborate with other teams using Google Sheets. I also feel like Microsoft Excel is more suited to deal with complex formulas. The best way to put it, if I have a project that I'm solely working on, I'm going to use Microsoft Excel. If it's going to be shared, then I'm using Google Sheets.
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Pros
  • I can create tables, create and customize fields
  • Airtable has capabilities commonly found in spreadsheet applications, but also has some of the features found in databases.
  • The ability to filter fields. I set up a filter on the status field, so when a project is marked, complete, on hold, or canceled, that record is hidden from my current projects table view. If it is marked complete, the record is moved to the completed projects table view. In this way I can easily access a record of past projects
  • Being able to duplicate tables and create alternate views
  • Collapse and expand records. When I collapse the rows, I can easily scan current projects, next steps, project status, and due dates. When I expand the row, or field, I can see more detailed information about that field or record very easily. I can also expand or open the entire record. This is is helpful, when I am entering a lot of information to multiple fields in that record.
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  • Excel is the most fully featured spreadsheet software you are likely to find.
  • The software is compatible with a large number of file formats so using data from nearly any source is possible.
  • It can handle large data sets.
  • It can save your files in a variety of file formats.
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Cons
  • Airtable does not integrate with collaboration services with which it is possible to review live changes within each spreadsheet (in the case of keeping them closed).
  • Does not automate analysis traffic.
  • It does not include any section where it is possible to communicate with the other editors.
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  • Excel offers collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on the same spreadsheet, but managing changes made by different users can be challenging. Excel could improve its features by offering more granular control, better tracking of changes, and more robust conflict resolution tools.
  • Itcan be a barrier to productivity when importing and exporting data from other applications or file formats. To improve its features, it should offer better support for standard file formats and more robust error handling and reporting tools.
  • Excel can be challenging for finance students and working professionals, but it can be improved by offering more robust tutorials, better documentation, and more user communities and support forums.
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Likelihood to Renew
We love Airtable for how we use it and we know there are probably tons of other ways we can implement it for other departments. We just haven't gotten there yet (due to bandwith) Customer Support is also super helpful and overall ease of use is fantastic
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Excel remains the industry standard for spreadsheets and has maintained simple and straight-forward formula writing methods. Although there is a learning curve to do more complex calculations, there are countless help sites and videos on the Internet for almost any need.
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Usability
Airtable is a simple and intuitive tool. However, when you first set it up, you need someone who is curious and able to design a system that works for your organisation's use case. This takes some time, but it can be intuitive once it's set up.
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Overall I think the usuability is great and offers everything it should. I have never not be able to use it for what I wanted it for. However, it is so detailed and offers so much it can be difficult to use. Better descriptions or explanation to all the information could be helpful
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Reliability and Availability
I have rarely experience downtime, compared to other tools, and given how much time we spend on the tool. Even if there were to be, their updates on it are very timely, and our support team are able to provide any questions regarding
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I have rarely, if ever, had issues with its availability.
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Performance
I never had any issues with load time, even with the integrations that we use today (google sheets) However, I'm curious if adding additional layers of integrations would slow down performance. We do carry quite a bit of data in Airtable, but, again, no impact on overall performance
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Excel load and performs calculations immediately. It integrate well with all Microsoft Office applications and does not slow them down.
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Support Rating
Airtable has great support. They have a variety of support features to answer any questions. They have great self teaching instructions for templates and product tours. They also have support for teams and project management. They also have a fantastic customer help line. They are able and willing to answer customer questions and never have customers waiting long
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I have not had to use it often, but it is good.
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In-Person Training
This training was done in-house, but the Airtable team provided resources and how to guides to ensure that we covered all components of the system
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
Recorded trainings were provided by the Airtable team. Great as an evergreen resources to new team members and for anyone that wants to refresh their Airtable knowledge
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Training all users was an important part of the implementation, which did take considerable time and effort. At first glance without training, the content calendar can be overwhelming because of the amount of data. The features within Airtable seem to be endless but our team was able to identify the most important to be successful.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Airtable is the most user-friendly and adaptive. It's UX/UI is the most aesthetically pleasing (which matters a lot if its what you're staring at every day), and the customizability of having different views and perspectives of the same record is extremely helpful. It's also a great cloud-based storage place for marketing materials, as it goes beyond simple storage - you can group together, make notes, connect, and comment on assets.
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Excel is one of the tools I use for everyday work but fits alongside all the other programs I use. I keep Excel as a way of tracking projects from start to finish as well as document content strategy and audits. There are not many programs like Excel that I can think of other than Google Sheets and I find Excel is far better.
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Scalability
There are TONS of opportunity to scale, but I think it's a matter if you have the time and resources to do so because the initial setup can be fairly time consuming and prioritized dedication
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Each user can use it to whatever level of expertise they have. It remains the same so users can contribute to another's work regardless of whether they have more or less expertise
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Return on Investment
  • It gives us a real-time experience of working.
  • Through this platform, I always have the idea bout which of my team member is working on which particular part of the project, I can easily track their progress, and also I can easily correct them where it is required by adding sticky notes, by sending the attachments and URLs.
  • Quality services.
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  • It helps to me gather my thoughts, organize my research, and most importantly prioritize information in an easy to digest manner depending on what I am most interested to see at that time.
  • It helps me quite a bit to talk my clients through the financial implications of various office leasing transactions under consideration and coach them in a way that is very unbiased and fact-driven which I like.
  • It helps me to be more thoughtful as well when thinking about the various different situations in which I use Excel. And because it ultimately results in my clients getting comfortable ultimately pulling the trigger on a given deal, it directly leads to more commission in my pocket which I love!
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ScreenShots

Airtable Screenshots

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