Hi Limi!

I understand the frustration of not being able to share interfaces with non-Airtable users, and I agree that it can be a headache especially when you have spent hours creating beautiful dashboards! While I may not have the perfect solution you're seeking, here's a potential solution that can help you avoid the task of recreating all your metrics and graphs in a third-party tool.

Currently, the best option I can offer is to share the interface with external users as read-only participants. This means the individuals you share it with will need to create an Airtable Account. However, the good news is that they won't count as paid seats in your workplace. By sharing only the interface, they won't have access to your backend data, but they'll be able to view the dashboards you've set up. This allows them to interact with the information you've curated without compromising the sensitive data on the backend.

This article goes over how to add read-only users to interfaces, and this article describes the different levels of interface permissions. 

I hope this helps! 

Chantal

Thank you for this possible solution.  Sometimes airtable perplexes me.  What is the point of having something that can act like a database of records without the expectation that those records would be used to populate things like menus, directories, materials schedules, online stores and project inventory?  I can't be the only business owner in the world who has a B2C business, looking for a way to store, organize and present information to public customers (not a B2B "client" but individual customers).  I've run into this problem for several years now, every single time I find a software solution I think may work.  It's so frustrating and obvious that tech businesses have no clue how other businesses function outside of tech or that the term "client" does not always refer to another company.  I simply want a way for my clients (interior design clients) to see the products and materials we have compiled for their project but only view the fields we want them to view.   It seems like a fairly simple ask, yet impossible to find. 

Hi @MelissaNunes,  

If you are looking for a a way to publicly display products with a select number of fields, I would suggest looking into the gallery view that Airtable offers. This view can be shared externally without users needing an Airtable account, and if you configure your view correctly you can make it so only the fields you'd like to show are available to view. I have had previous clients use this feature to share data with external parties through the shared link as well as embedding the view directly to their websites. 

Help articles: 

Getting started with Airtable gallery views

Hiding fields (customizing cards) in gallery view 

Embedding Airtable views

I am also looking for this, spent days creating a beautiful 8 page dashboard for my corporate client only to realise that corporation blocked access to Airtable on their laptops so now I have to find another way to share the data...

hello,
thank you for your reply, but what you mean does not, however, address the need to be able to share interfaces effectively with external users. It would be a super feature that would avoid using other third party software and consolidate your base of paying users (like me) who instead have to find third party solutions to do this.

I ask you to strongly consider this sharing update, it would be revolutionary. Moreover, I note that many users are asking for it: it cannot be a missing feature in your backlog.

restricting an interface to authenticated users seems only normal to me – would be a huge security issue otherwise. if you share a google doc, don't you have to log in to Google first?

Hello Matteo, I agree with you that company data is important, but if I decide to share something publicly, I take responsibility for the action.

The case you bring up: if you share a google doc, don't you have to log in to Google first? the answer is NO.
A Google doc can be shared with anyone who has the link. Why shouldn't the same thing happen with Airtable interfaces?

I do not mean that a user from outside the organisation can edit/create the data, but being able to query an interface is the minimum. Don't you think?

Nope. Not happening. My clients are individual homeowners who have hired me as their architectural designer. I'm not going to require them to create a new account to a new software just to see the information I've commie l compiled for their project.

Nope.  That reveals all information for each record. There is some information I do not want my clients to see.  Hence, the curated interface.

I think you're imagining a B2B situation here.  Not every business is B2B.  You don't have to become an authenticated user to browse the contents of an online store, do you?  Their inventory is in a back end database but the store you're browsing is a curated presentation of only the data they want you to see. 

My bad, I guess Google does allow unauthenticated access. Still – I think you all are mistaking an enterprise database software for little business applications. AT is for big companies. You can still use AT as your backend, for unauthenticated (similare to a website) access there's a plethora of front-end apps.

Hi all,

Not sure if you are still looking for a solution (albeit, 3rd party) but I use Softr which integrates very well with Airtable, is affordable and SUPER easy to use.

I built a public app in a week, but you can also create user accounts and enable logins to show only that person's data.

This is the solution I found when I found interfaces too difficult to build with - Softr was 10x easier.

I hope this might help someone.

I'm throwing in my two pennies a bit late, but in one of my scenarios, which may pertain to some here - where you are sharing an interface on a read-only level with a revolving set of individuals - I simply create a guest account/login (I create an email alias under my own domain, so I don't have to pay for an additional Google Workspace account, but this can also be done with a throwaway gmail account) and share the login information with them.

This sidesteps the friction involved with getting someone to create an Airtable account (and subsequently get their inbox spammed by Airtable newsletters and marketing.)

This workaround means you set up the login using a password (NOT signing with Google or Apple ID) and do without 2fa. You would also want to set up a separate login for each collection of interfaces you'd be sharing with different groups. Each login gives access to specific sets of interfaces. 

For MANIPULATING data, I can understand why this requires an Airtable account (though the cost skyrockets the more separate editor accounts you need to add). For those scenarios, you will want to look into Softr and decide if you want to invest time setting up a 3rd party interface to save money. You are trading time for money, so the question is how much money are you saving, vs time spent building and fixing Softr when changes to the base structure are made on the AT side. AT interfaces break too, but at least you get some warning when that may happen. You'll get no warning with how changes impact Softr, so that requires more diligent monitoring.

Related thread...

https://community.airtable.com/t5/product-ideas/interfaces-need-public-sharing-option/idi-p/140951

@MelissaNunesJust to provide some slight clarification. You can make forms, also under interfaces, public. There you curate the fields and only allow the creation of records. You can also hide fields from an interface share(at the least when it's view only). The issue is even if you make a base completely public no one public can see the interface.

i hope airtable launches this function before our retirement dates.

I need this too!! Airtable please make it happen! It should be like a Google doc

I've spent days creating my interfaces and now I can't even use them because I don't want my users to have to login or create an account to AirTable! What a disapointment. 

This is the most strange decision on a software company I have come across in a long time... why on Earth would I share my data? why on Earth would I force my clients to create accounts? I just want to send a public link with the interface for them to have a snapshot of the data in a visual way.

Whoever is reading this from Airtable, please, can you escalate this to senior management, this is beyond silly.

Just replying here to keep this issues alive with whatever algorithm tracks these things. I run an event of hundreds of people every summer and had hoped to use an interface to share information about the calendar and event locations live with my attendees. It is simply not practical to add 500+ people to my AirTable to view a "public" interface.

Airtable Embeds are not mobile-friendly, and interfaces require an airtable account.

Some possible workarounds/solutions to display data to non-logged-in users are ByteLine.io, and for allowing them to edit you csn use softr.io and/or fiLLout.com

Hi all - I realise this is an old enough thread but I'm hoping someone on it might be able to answer my related question. I want to share my interface - providing colleagues with commentator access only - and I'm wondering is this possible if they all have free Airtable accounts? 

Also requesting this feature - just spent time building an interface only to find out i can't share it with non-Airtable users, really frustrating. If non-users can access a shared view why not an interface?

While AI is busy eating the world, here we are, the lesser mortals, still struggling to have non-users view our basic Airtable interfaces without login. 😭🙎 

I am not sure who needs to hear this but I just stumbled upon the BEST feature of Airtable I have seen in years and they haven't even promoted it yet.... 

PUBLIC SHARING OF INTERFACES - Including embed codes for your website

To say this just made my year in terms of work arounds that I can now take out is an understatement. 

ENJOY!