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We have identified a critical need in the Airtable community for more flexibility when it comes to automation and instance limits. Many users, especially those on the Pro plan, are struggling with these limitations, resulting in bottlenecks and hampering their workflows. We propose an ad-hoc automation and instance limit enhancement to address these concerns.

What is the proposed idea/solution?

Our proposed idea is to introduce ad-hoc automation and instance limit enhancements for Pro users. This solution would allow users to purchase additional automations and instances as needed, without having to upgrade to the Enterprise plan. Users can maintain their current subscription level while still accessing the increased automation capacity they require for their workflows.

How does it solve users' problems?

By offering ad-hoc automation and instance limit enhancements, users can:

  1. Overcome the 50 automation limit that is currently causing bottlenecks in their workflows.
  2. Customize their automation capacity according to their specific needs, providing more flexibility and scalability.
  3. Avoid building their own software or switching to other platforms, as they can continue using Airtable with increased automation capabilities.
  4. Save costs by not having to upgrade to the Enterprise plan when they only require additional automations and instances.

How was this validated?

This need was validated through direct user feedback and community discussions, where many users have expressed their struggles with the current automation and instance limits. The demand for increased flexibility in automation capacity is evident, with users on the Pro plan actively seeking creative solutions to bypass these limitations.

Who is the target audience?

The target audience for this product enhancement includes:

  1. Pro users who have reached or are nearing their automation and instance limits and require additional capacity for their workflows.
  2. Businesses with unique automation requirements that might not necessarily require the full features of the Enterprise plan.
  3. Users who are considering building their own software or switching platforms due to the current automation limitations in Airtable.

Conclusion: Introducing ad-hoc automation and instance limit enhancements for Pro users addresses a critical need in the Airtable community. This product idea not only provides increased flexibility and scalability for users but also ensures that they can continue using Airtable without the need to upgrade to a higher subscription tier or seek alternative solutions.

I totally agree that this is a huge problem. 

We’ve been asking Airtable for years to let us purchase more automations (along with more automation runs and more records).

This is precisely why nearly all of my clients use Make's advanced automations & integrations for their Airtable automations… Make is infinitely more powerful than Airtable’s automations, it offers an unlimited amount of automations, and it offers the ability to purchase an unlimited amount of runs.

You can trigger a Make automation from Airtable WITHOUT using up any more automations in Airtable by clicking on a link in Airtable (or a button in Airtable) that opens up a webhook in Make, which would then run your automation. 

Without Make, many of my clients would’ve left Airtable already for FileMaker, which is the database app that I was a certified developer in for 30 years. 

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

Love this - more automations are necessary for our workflows. 

I just hit 50 automations today, so a big yes to this!

Has anyone heard anything from Airtable regarding this?

Definitely in need of this as well.

@ScottWorld I have been reading your comments for over 6 months, and they have helped me a lot.

Now I have discovered the 50 automations limit, and even though I am paying $50 a month (!), I find myself stuck in development.

I am familiar with Make, and I am asking if you believe that Make can somehow help me overcome the 50 automations limit. To provide a decent user experience I can't think of other ways than Airtable automations +webhooks > Make, which means I still need many Airtable automations, and the 50 limit is a problem.

Hi @jouejy,

That is correct that Make's webhooks are the only way to INSTANTLY trigger your Make automations from Airtable.

And you're right that if you use this JavaScript code to have your Airtable automation automatically trigger a Make scenario, you STILL have to create an automation in Airtable... which eats into your 50-automation limit.

You could try merging together multiple automations into a larger unified automation in Airtable, and then use conditional actions to trigger different Make automations.

Otherwise, to instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable without creating yet another automation in Airtable, you can create a button field in Airtable that opens the webhook URL. Your button's formula would be the URL that you want to send to Make. (You could also do this with a plain formula field, too.)

Clicking on this URL will open another browser tab, but you can use Make’s webhook response module to design your own HTML page to display whatever you would like to display to the user in that browser tab.

Even better, you can use the custom Javascript below as your webhook response to automatically close that new browser tab as soon as it opens. (Note that this only works in Chrome, not Safari.)

<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<script>window.close()</script>
</body>
</html>

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld 

Hanks, @ScottWorld 
Everything you said makes perfect sense, and I really appreciate your clarity and precision.

I have to admit, this news hit me hard and left me a bit disappointed. I love Airtable for its flexibility in changing data structures as my projects evolve, but knowing there's a limit on automations is a bummer.

I'm going to take some time to think about whether Airtable is still the right tool for me or if there's something better out there.

@jouejy 

Yes, it is discouraging that Airtable has chosen to take this approach towards its product and its customers, and this has been their approach since the beginning.

Another idea that I just came up with is for you to sync your data to ANOTHER Airtable base, and try to run some of your automations from that base instead.

Otherwise, you may want to take a look at Claris FileMaker Pro, which is the world’s most advanced database system with absolutely no limits whatsoever. And yet, it is still extremely user-friendly.

For nearly 30 years, I was one of the top Certified FileMaker Developers in the world (before switching to Airtable consulting in 2018).

If you’d like me to put you in touch with some fantastic FileMaker developers for you to have a chat with, please feel free to reach out to me through my website: ScottWorld

Hey @ScottWorld ,

Having a second base on Airtable introduces more issues than it solves, at least in my opinion. Everyone has their own style and vision, and I respect those who think it's a viable option, but it's not for me.

I've been around long enough to avoid paths I know will lead to trouble. There's already enough trouble in IT without me looking for more.
Do you agree with that?

On the other hand, I know FileMaker very well. I've loved and used it for 25 years, since 1995. It had amazing features even back then, and FileMaker scripts were, and still are, a joy—a true low-code solution years ago.

Yet, a few years ago, I moved away from FileMaker for two reasons: the high licensing costs (especially for the server) and the outdated interface. It didn't evolve with the web or the needs of responsive screens. The interface just couldn't compete with web-based solutions.

Sorry for going on about this, but FileMaker will always have a special place in my heart.

The good news is that the licensing costs of FileMaker are now cheaper than Airtable’s Business Plan, and FileMaker has come a very long way in terms of the web and responsive screens. But if it’s not for you, that’s totally fine! FileMaker and Airtable are the two apps that I am most familiar with.

Hi @ScottWorld ,

Thanks for all your advice. As much as I loved Filemaker and still think it has the best script editor for those who don’t want to dive deep into coding, I just can’t go back to those dull, gray interfaces 🙂

Over the past 25 years, web languages have revolutionized computing, and in my opinion, Filemaker hasn't kept up with the times. Their licensing plans are still complicated, and it's unclear if the desktop app syncs with a smartphone app or if a web user counts as a license, etc.

To me, Filemaker is part of the past—a past I remember fondly, but not the future. I could be wrong, though. If you have any resources I can check out, please share. I haven't found much on YouTube, to be honest.

Thanks!

This limit in terms of number of automations for a given database is really a problem. When we hit the limit we need to factorise some of them or use another tool such as Make.

But, to do that, we have to create at least one more automation. For the moment, it means deleting one existing automation to be able to create a new one either to call Make or to factorise some existing automations.

It would be very helpfull if the maximum number of automations only counted the ones that are turned on. This way, we could turn off one automation, do our job by creating the new one and delete the one that we turned off when we are ready.

Totally agree with you that this is a big problem in Airtable. In fact, this might be the biggest problem in Airtable that affects my clients. 

Although one very important thing to note is that you can actually trigger a Make automation from Airtable WITHOUT using up any more automations in Airtable by clicking on a link in Airtable (or a button in Airtable) that opens up a webhook in Make, which would then run your automation. 

Unfortunately, it will open up another browser tab, but you can customize what appears in that browser tab by using Make’s webhook response module. 

Thank you for this information, I will try it

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