# Airtable 22 Hacker News commenters recommended Airtable and 23 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended for letting non-programmers build flexible databases and trackers that feel like spreadsheets with more structure. Common caveat: price hikes, feature gating, and concerns about company stability. ## Why people recommend it - Spreadsheet-style database for non-programmers (3 comments): "reactive backends similar to Firebase, Airtable and Zapier, which come so close to almost working for normal people" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46900154)) "airtable and other "no code" systems fit this bill well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47857974)) "they feel like docs and sheets on steroids" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917380)) - Strong fit for shared, collaborative data (2 comments): "move quickly to a more stable database like Notion or Airtable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46724604)) "the closest is Airtable where you can collab on data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47285269)) - Long-term users recommend it often (2 comments): "It was a great product and I have recommended it often to small business owners over the years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49179151)) "Airtable's a killer product and I've been using and evangelizing it for nearly 10 years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49179457)) - Replaces custom CRUD apps and tracking (2 comments): "Frankly, Airtable has done more to disrupt CRUD apps than AI ever did." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45813664)) "wildly powerful things for tracking inventory and sales data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49171051)) ## What people warn about - Price hikes and opaque pricing (5 comments): "Opaque pricing and feature gating create a lot of friction as well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49166071)) "Airtable has got too expensive for all the weird limitations you end up either writing tons of weird hacks around" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49166406)) "gets crazy price hikes out of nowhere (or shut down) that's a disaster for a small company" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49809106)) - Breaks at scale, weak concurrency and transactions (5 comments): "it fell apart past 2 jobs per day - rate limits, webhook failures, state management nightmares" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108153)) "duct-taped tools like Airtable that fall apart once you need audits and real tracking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542595)) "The downside of not doing transactions is potentially dangerous data inconsistencies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47111352)) - Company struggles and acquisition worries (3 comments): "Shame that they never really did anything with their billions in funding. Interfaces were underwhelming" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50063739)) "It's really nice software but the company has struggled." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49170052)) "Another soon-to-be-abandonware dead company, after being acquired by BS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49166079)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Grist](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grist.md): 21 recommend - [Baserow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/baserow.md): 6 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.airtable.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Airtable", https://hackerapproved.com/p/airtable/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).