Paid plan for individual users

[Anonymous]

I am wondering whether Airtable team ever considered rolling out a paid plan targeted at individual users. By individual users I mean people who have the product for personal use, maybe only occasional and whose volume of data is really low. Such a plan could include some blocks useful for personal planning, like Timeline, Matrix or Map.

Let me share an example. When blocks were present in the Free Plan, I decided to use the Map block for planning a trip with my friends. I invited them to Airtable and we had a table with destinations each linked to the map. That was very convenient as everyone was able to overview the map.

The only problem is that blocks are part of the Pro plan which costs too much for individual users and their use cases. I think the key differentiator of those users is that the amount of records they work on is small. Literally tens of records per base. What will do for them is some reasonable fee for the features included in the Free plan + some blocks enabled. I would say 1,200 records/2GB of attachments per base is even too much.

[M_k]

Hi

I am a user of the free version for personal use and I am finding that the amount of records per base and attachment size are too low. I am having to split my base up, so I don’t have to pay, since it’s expensive for my own personal use.

I like having the free option, eventhough I’m grubling a bit. Although, having said that, it would be nice if they threw us a bone, every now and then, especially the block to catch duplicates and to be able to keep the field formats when importing CSV files. That would go al long way, in my opinion.

MK

[Jasmine_Ruth]

@Yuri & @M_k the billing plans for plus and pro are by user… so you’d only have to pay $10 a month for yourself for Plus, or $20/month for Pro. So not sure what you are looking for but if you want blocks, it’s available at the $20/user/month level and since it’s only you, that’s all you’d have to pay.

[M_k]

Hi Jasmine_Ruth

Thank you for the reply. I think that the fee is in USD, so there would be an exchange rate on top of the fee, plus taxes for where I live. In the end, it comes out to more than $20.00. I think that if you were to pay monthly (which is how I would do it) it’s a bit more, for both plans.

It seems that there are a lot of features on the Pro Plan that would be more geared towards a business, maybe not so much for personal use. I could be wrong, but if they would add some of the features I am looking for on the $10.00 USD (a bit more monthly), than maybe I would take a serious look at that option.

Although, it is good to keep this information in mind.

Thank you,
MK

[Anonymous]

I guess I was pretty clear about what I am looking for. I am very well aware of the existing plans and their capabilities. Current pricing for using blocks is $240/year which is simply no-go for consumer users.

What I actually expected to hear is the company stance on this. I can perfectly understand if it is not interested in individual users.

[Tarin_Yote]

I would personally like a family plan, where I could pay 1 fee for a small number of non-commercial users with access to the Pro features. For example, if I have a family of 4-5, it would not be at all realistic to pay $80-100 a month to give access to my whole family. In that scenario, it would be much, much cheaper to simply share a single account (but that obviously defeats the purpose of using the collaboration features).

So, as of right now, there’s no economically viable plan for family or personal use (collaborating with a few friends).

[Karlstens]

There absolutely needs to be some kind of non-commercial license available.

I have seriously considered the $240US per year, but when I step back from Airtable and look at other apps that I could spend $240US on (and keeping in mind this is annual & on going fee), Airtable simply doesn’t hold enough weight for me to subscribe. :frowning:

[Adam_Dachis]

Personally, I think the pricing plans are very reasonable for individuals. $10-20 each month is not that much if you’re using the product every day. I can certainly see how that would seem like too much if Airtable isn’t integral to your work or personal organization, though. I would, too, like to see Blocks available on all paid accounts. Perhaps Airtable could add new premium blocks for other accounts.

I think part of the problem with offering a lower-cost plan for individuals is that it would conflict with the business plans, and consumer revenue is both fickle and insignificant when compared with B2B. While I’m always in favor of offering options that can benefit everyone, if a $5/month plan included Blocks and additional records, then there’s little incentive for business customers to pay more. I think the free accounts are very generous, too, though I know I would find them too limiting myself.

But what do you think would be a fair cost and feature set for an account targeted at individuals? Maybe we can come up with something that could work. Perhaps if the account didn’t include any collaboration features but did include all paid features (though perhaps with a lower record limit, as individuals can probably get by with far fewer than 50k per base :slightly_smiling_face: ) that would work.

All of that said, you can really offset the cost of paid plans with referrals. Two referrals cover an entire month of service. Ask 12-24 friends to just sign up and you don’t have to pay for an entire year. I know that’s not a long-term solution but since the referral credits are instant and they only require a sign up—nobody needs to sign up and pay—it’s not that hard to get a bunch of people to sign up. I did it without trying.

I know that’s not idea, but it might be enough for now and perhaps we can come up with an individual plan that could work and Airtable might be willing to offer in the future. :slightly_smiling_face:

[Karlstens]

Local currency - $20 isn’t too bad (I’d be OK to dip into the pizza fund for an airtable hobby), but $20 USD puts the price point out of reach for me personally, and would require the sacrificing of beer to afford. :frowning:

[Mario_G]

I’m struggling to decide whether to pay or not for the pro plan. It’s a very fine line at 24$/month.

[M_k]

Hi Mario_G

Keep in mind, that would be in USD.

I don’t know if this might help:

What I have done with the free plan, is I split up my database into about 500 records, in each base (to accommodate future base growth) and then I just titled it, showing the range of unique numbers in that base, so I can see right away which base I need i.e. SCOTT# 1-500. I don’t know how that would work for you, but it’s one soluttion, without having to pay and you could still have as many records as you need. You can have up to 1,200 records and attach up to 2 KB per base. You can have as many bases you want.

MK