Commenters & read-only users on Plus plan?

[pressGO_design]

The Airtable pricing page says that the Free plan includes up to 5 creators/editors and unlimited commenters and read-only users. Do those apply to the Plus and Pro plans?

If not, why not? Am trying to get Airtable a paying customer and can probs get my client to go from paying $0/month to $10/month but they need those commenters and 1 creator (that’s me). I know that Enterprise is the latest and greatest thing, but they can’t afford $10K/year.

Thanks so much.

[kuovonne · Accepted solution]

All plans include unlimited read-only users for no additional charge.

Pricing for commenters is slightly different, depending on plan.

• “free workspace” commenters are free
• “plus workspace” commenters are the same rate as editors and creators
• “pro workspace” commenters are the same rate as editors and creators
• “enterprise workspace” commenters are free

Why this difference? I don’t know. Part of it is historic.

[pressGO_design]

Thanks. I appreciate the clarification. It’s frustrating and disheartening that the plus/pro plans are marketed as having everything in the free plan when that’s obviously not the case.

[kuovonne]

pressGO_design:

as having everything in the free plan when that’s obviously not the case.

Well, you can still have unlimited commenters in plus/pro plans. You just have to pay for them. Whether this is “having everything in the free plan” or not depends on your point of view.

A free plan can have 5 free editors/creators and no more (even if you were willing to pay), but a plus/pro plan can have 0 free editors/creators and no upper limit on the number of editors/creators (as long as you are willing to pay for each one).

[pressGO_design]

I love Airtable, I do.

And the marketing on this is, at best, misleading. I’ve had >1 client build bases and workflows that are dependent on <5 creators/editors and tons of commenters because they thought that, when they needed to upgrade, those creators/editors and commenters would remain free. They knew that they would have to pay for more records and additional automations and extensions and creators/editors because those things are not included in the Free plan.

They didn’t expect to have to pay for things that are included in the Free plan. They are understandably shocked when their anticipated annual investment of $120 for 5K records (or $240 for 50K records) winds up being exponentially more. The pleasant feeling they had about Airtable on Monday turns unpleasant on Tuesday because, in their minds, Airtable tricked them.

It’s not a great look.

[kuovonne]

pressGO_design:

in their minds, Airtable tricked them.

I am sorry your clients feel tricked.

[pressGO_design]

I contact sales and according to them, the Pro/Plus plans come with 5 creators/editors and unlimited commenters and read-only users.

I asked them to confirm that because it seems to contradict what is written in the billing page, “On the premium paid plans (Pro and Plus), any collaborator with a permission level of commenter, editor, creator, or owner — including collaborators added through Interface Designer— is classified as billable.”

Will update again when I hear from them.

[Mindy_Block]

have you heard anything?   I feel exactly the same way as prior comments.  When I went to upgrade, because I had commenters - I was being charged for all of them.  I have asked to clarify. I can't afford such an upgrade.

[pressGO_design]

Kuovonne was correct - there are 0 free seats on the Plus or Paid plans. I had an email conversation with sales about this in which I asked, in so many words, “can you please change the marketing language on this so that it’s not confusing” and was told that “it’s implied on the pricing page that plans beyond free are paid regardless of the capabilities.”

Having said that, if you’re interested in talking about staying with Airtable and figuring out other communication methods outside of commenting on records (which is both super-convenient and also not a great thing to do because comments aren’t searchable), feel free to PM me.

[tefi699]

Hi, 

This is really misleading, I also have the same issue. And while contacting your Sales team, they confirm that I will have the 5 free collaborators on the Plus account.  We cannot afford the plus version if every month we will need to pay for collaborators 

Thanks,