Airtable vs Monday 2023: Which is Best for You?

Features

So, what are the key features of these project management solutions? Do they share anything in common? Let’s find out.

Workspaces:

Both platforms have slightly different workspace structures.

With Airtable, you have:

• Bases: This is your spreadsheet.
• Tables: Think of these like different tabs within your spreadsheet. You can have multiple tables within your spreadsheet for different groups of data.
• Records: These are the number of rows on your spreadsheet.
• Fields: Think of fields as different columns. Your fields could include user names, notes, dates, links to another record, status, etc.

You can easily share information and records in your tables across different tables.

On Monday, you have:

• Workspace: Your department.
• Folders: Used to manage different projects.
• Boards: Projects.
• Groups: Used to manage tasks.
• Items: Tasks.

In addition to this, you also have columns and field types similar to Airtable where you can share and store information.

Winner = Draw

Customization:

Monday is one of the easiest yet fully customizable project management tools I’ve ever used.

You can edit your project board types, columns, and statuses, meaning you can fully personalize your workspace and board depending on the type of project you’re working on!

Monday even lets you add combo field types to combine multiple things, such as ‘Date + Status.’

Although I love Monday’s level of customization, there is limited permission control for fields and field formatting settings.

Check out my Monday vs SmartSuite comparison guide if you’re after an alternative that challenges Monday’s customization and permission controls.

So, what about Airtable?

I must admit; when I first opened a new Base in Airtable, I was met with a pretty plain ‘Excel’ lookalike.

However, when I played around with it a bit, I noticed you could change the color, name, and icon of your base and the color of statuses, add new field types, and more.

Plus, one of the cool things I love about Airtable is that you can change your record names to reflect what type of project you’re working on.

Some different record names are:

• Projects.
• Tasks.
• Approvals.
• Events.
• Campaigns.
• Requests and more.

It doesn’t look as pretty as Monday, and it takes a little more work to set up, but overall I think the customization level within Airtable is pretty good!

Winner = Monday

Templates:

Both platforms have a diverse range of templates catering to various industry-specific needs.

Airtable’s templates range from content calendars and project trackers to event planning and customer relationship management.

These are all excellent foundations to help you work collaboratively and efficiently, although can be pretty overwhelming. If you’re new to Airtable, I’d recommend starting a new Base from scratch.

Monday.com’s template library features ready-made, fully customizable templates for specific workflows, such as project management, sales pipelines, and marketing campaigns.

These templates mean you can jumpstart your projects and adapt them to your unique needs effortlessly.

Winner = Draw

Automation:

Monday.com is known for its stand-out automation abilities.

With Monday, you and your team can automate repetitive tasks more efficiently,  reducing time spent on manual efforts.

Monday.com’s automation features include custom workflows, notifications, and integrations with third-party apps.

You can automatically assign tasks, change statuses, and send notifications, among other actions, based on specific triggers.

So, how does Airtable stack up in comparison?

On the free plan, you’ll get up to 100 powerful workflows that trigger actions based on specific criteria.

For example, you could create an automation for an email to be sent to a specific team member when something has been updated within a record.

You can even run the same actions on a list of data with repeating groups.

Airtables automations are pretty good, but in my opinion, they don’t compare with what Monday has to offer!

Winner = Monday

Read more about Monday automations here.

Collaboration:

With shared boards and customizable views, teams can collaborate and communicate efficiently on Monday.com.

You can:

• Assign tasks.
• Set due dates.
• Add comments.

Plus, you’ll get real-time updates, activity logs, and notifications so that you can keep up to date with your projects in real-time.

Airtable also offers a similar environment for teams to work together. Multiple team members can collaborate, view, and edit data with shared bases and tables.

Plus, you get unlimited commenting ability and boards, all on the free plan!

While neither platform offers a built-in chat feature, both provide you with all the tools you need to share and collaborate effectively with your team!

You can, however, integrate both software with Slack, my favorite business communication tool.

If you’re after total productivity, collaboration, and communication project management software, my top choice is Basecamp!

Check out how to use Basecamp here.

Winner = Draw