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.

[bob_aycock]

Now THAT’S a great idea!!

[Mario_G]

@M_k it would not be for me a problem with data (which is important too), but with search.
For my work I need the Search block, and that’s only in the Pro Plan.
Also, Airtable still has a very weak support for joins between tables, and formulas are quite primitive.
I’m using Bubble.is in parallel and for roughly the same amount of money per month, things are looking better there, but Airtable is so promising!

[M_k]

Hi Mario_G

You certainly have a point about the blocks. I would really like to have some block options in the free plan, i.e, duplicate block, even if I have to pay a very small amount. Otherwise, it is not economical to pay for a Pro plan, when I only use it for personal use.

MK

[David_Krizan]

I personally would like to see something akin to a Family Plan or Home Use program – much like Microsoft (e.g., https://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/home.aspx) or other companies provide – to provide Pro plan features for personal usage at a discounted price for existing business users. For example, I would personally like to use larger bases and Blocks for personal and family projects, but paying $480 a year for both myself and my spouse to do so is a non-starter.

[Heidi_Anderson]

As a freelancer on multiple projects, being able with the free plan to share views and bases is ideal. It’s also been a great way to determine what tool really works best for different teams to adopt. That’s where we hit the wall. Paying $10/month for no additional functionality is a ‘no-go’. Blocks and Colors should not be an all-or-nothing feature. It seems they could lend themselves to limited exposure per subscription level. To spend $10/month, I would need to see 1-3 colors, timeline, de-dup, a few simple bar/line charts, and a limited version of page designer. At that functionality and price point, I could drop Asana, Smartsheet, and Excel for much of my daily work, keeping me from bouncing through so many tools.

[Danielle1]

Replaying to this late post to add that I’d be willing to pay for personal use if the plus plan came with a few more features. I really just want the expanded color selections and the blocks, but that doesn’t seem worth $20 a month.

[Edson_Arantes]

I’m from Brazil, 20 USD is about 80 REAIS (our currency) this is 4% of my salary. There’s a lot of beers in there (a beer costs 4 REAIS).

You know, some places take this into consideration when billing, and they give a discount, but even with that, I’m not a power user, I just want some basic blocks available in the plus plan. I’m far from using 1200 records in my base.

[Anonymous]

Karlstens:

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.

Exactly. If anyone is considering alternatives, take a look at Fibery. Currently it is in private beta but progressing steadily and should be released to public by the end of the year. Already on par with Airtable in many areas, eventually it will be much more capable solution. The product has a very strong vision and there is nothing like it on the market at all.

[Anonymous]

Adam_Dachis:

Personally, I think the pricing plans are very reasonable for individuals.

A lot of individuals already expressed their opinions here. They speak for themselves and they don’t find it reasonable.

Adam_Dachis:

$10-20 each month is not that much if you’re using the product every day.

This is a mere manipulation that you are sold on. $0.65 a day is a real bargain! And hourly cost is less than 10 cents.

[Adam_Dachis]

Yuri:

A lot of individuals already expressed their opinions here. They speak for themselves and they don’t find it reasonable.

Of course they do and they’re welcome to their opinion. I was simply sharing mine as well. It doesn’t negate their opinions.

Yuri:

This is a mere manipulation that you are sold on. $0.65 a day is a real bargain! And hourly cost is less than 10 cents.

I can promise you I was not sold or manipulated on the idea that it’s only $0.65 a day. I wasn’t thinking about it that way nor does Airtable make any effort to sell its platform using that logic. I simply meant that I don’t think it’s a significant amount of money compared to the value the software provides me every day. I’ve been able to replace several services that I previously used for work, by building my own versions of those services using Airtable, and I save much more than $20 each month because of that. Without Airtable, I wouldn’t have had the time to do this. There are other platforms that can serve the same purpose but I tried several and this is the one I liked the most. Airtable improves my life more than an extra $20 per month would if I saved it or put it towards something else. That may not be the case for everyone, but I speak for myself and I do find the cost reasonable.

I also acknowledged that wasn’t how everyone felt and was curious what might be a good compromise that Airtable might actually implement. That’s why I posted in the first place. I only shared my opinion and personal experience for context.