HyperDB - what are you using it for?

Hey ​@JoeMontibello this post has some time now. But surprisingly enough I am not using HyerDB with my clients. I thought this would be a game changer, but the experience was not great in my opinion.

Would love to hear other experiences/thoughts.
 

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

​@JoeMontibello, ​@Mike_AutomaticN,

HyperDB sounded really great when first brought up by Airtable, having millions of records sounded like finally a way to properly scale operations specially in enterprise. The issue is that hyperDB is essentially a sync from a large database into your Airtable base. You still are restricted to the same 100k record limit per table. You are not able to properly analyze all the data at once. 
 

What I was hoping from HyperDB was an improvement to actual record limits. I think record limits need to be re-evaluated because even at 100k records, an interface dashboard page performance can be extremely slow and borderline not usable. 
 

Still curious if anyone has found a good use for it so far

Yeah, for people who are looking to quickly work with millions (or billions) of records at lightning speed, I would recommend using Apple's FileMaker Pro, the enterprise-grade (yet consumer-friendly) database app that has almost no limits at all.

I used to be a certified FileMaker expert for nearly 30 years before becoming a top Airtable consultant, so if anybody needs a FileMaker expert to help them get started, feel free to reach out to me through my website and I can put you in touch with some great developers:

- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

Wow FileMaker is still around? I haven’t heard that name in decades!

The biggest game changer for me with HyperDB is the ability to update data from another source without wiping out any corresponding data I’ve attached to the source data.

Maybe I’m just missing a better way to do this in regular Airtable, but this is one of the most common use cases for me to use Airtable:

1. Import data from external source via CSV (often the only option available to me)
2. Work with this data in Airtable and add additional context to it
3. Update this data from the external source

Pre HyperDB, I would have to:

• Import CSV into Airtable
• Create another base in Airtable to store data I needed to attach to the imported data
• Link that data through a lookup
• Whenever I need to update the original data, I’d have to delete the entire initial source and reload it
• I’d then need to use automations to reconnect the imported data to my base with additional data

With HyperDB, that need goes away.