The new airtable pricing, is quite, frankly, a joke.
We are now dealing with a company that is actively hostile to its user base. This is generally the users within small and medium sized businesses who are growing.
I don't know about you guys, but for me, I have recommended 3 other businesses join airtable, have personally onboarded one, and have my own business on it. Not only that, but I heard about this tool from another person who was in the not-for-profit space.
A huge slap in the face for us is the change in the Pro Plan, specifically that we have to move to Team Plan which has the following downgrades:
- Automation runs have been cut in half to 25,000 automation runs.
- API calls have been reduced from unlimited to 100,000.
- Attachment space has been cut in half from 20 GB to 10 GB.
- Multi-source syncing has been eliminated.
For a couple of businesses I know, that has killed them and they'll have to move to teams and pay for some of their users who have access to a single interface for the purposes of ordering steel, or sending an invoice to a client.
For now, you might be thinking, but, this is a small expense in regards to the overall revenue of a company right?
Yep. But its NOT ABOUT THAT. It is about CONFIDENCE IN A PLATFORM.
Airtable could be now considered hostile to its users. Airtable can now retroactively change pricing of the tool that you use as the foundation or a key part of your company's digital strategy. That is bad for the KEY INGREDIENT required in doing business - CONFIDENCE.
I am very open to hearing from airtable about this, especially in light of other changes such as the changes to their PDF linking and formulas which was a huge pain in the ass.
So, congrats I guess airtable? You want to up prices, try to get more enterprise, and kill growing SMB sentiment? Its a bold strategy, looking forward to see how it'll work out! You basically killed your word of mouth marketing, which to be fair is hard to track metric-wise (if you're lazy, but if you are a decent sales exec you will see your organic growth vs attributable to paid marketing growth but whatever) so for people like me and other SMB's we are **bleep** out of luck.
I absolutely agree. I've been a customer for more than 3 years, and have spent 1000s of man hours optimizing the system for our needs, and we just got a message that's basically saying that we have 3 weeks to move to another platform, or pay more than twice the money you've been paying just in order to keep things running.
That's exactly a slap in the face and done in such a way that really shows that they couldn't care less about their customers.
I understand if they came to the conclusion that current price tiers are not profitable, we're all working for money, but they should have for the very least announce something like that 6 months before.
Users would have time to rearrange. Maybe change their systems so they would work in the lesser tier, and have options. I really feel like they pointed a gun to my head.
So, yes, I will have to pay in order to keep my business running, but my first project would be to migrate to another platform.
Too bad.
What I don’t understand is the reason for it being so last-minute. And it actually concerns me.
There were clearly meetings about this, a discussion around some conference room table, and I find it difficult to believe that no one said “taking features away from the most expensive SMB plan is going to piss people off.” Clearly, this was brought up, considered, and they decided to do it anyway.
Maybe it was necessary because of costs of running the syncs. But they could have given us some warning - 6 months or until the end of our current billing cycle before the plan changes. The fact that they’re like “you have 3 weeks, figure it out,” to me, seems to imply cash flow trouble. Why would they risk alienating their user base so quickly if they didn’t need to? I’m really am struggling to see this as anything but a desperate grab for capital.
idk guys, I’m kinda worried our data isn’t safe in Airtable, even if we upgrade — if they’re having financial troubles, I don’t know if we should use their services at all.
+1000! “Actively hostile” is exactly right. You asked me about Smartsheet in another thread, and I moved away from it for 3 reasons (1) overly complicated and clients didn’t like to use it; (2) poor UX - unless you’re a developer; and (3) cost. But in the past several months, they’ve been improving and smoothing the functionality, rolling out low or no cost extensions, the support is great, and ** it now costs only slightly more than Airtable **.
Do better Airtable. I want to root for you but you’re making it really hard. And expensive.
Agreed... very disappointed with the short notice for this change. Our organization is relatively new to Airtable (~6 months), but we've already been jumping in hard to make this a central part of our workflows.
Another key downgrade for Pro Plans that @Sean11 did not list --> differentiating between Standard and Premium integrations. The downgraded Team plan cannot access Premium integrations.
Our organization is heavily reliant on Sync API, which is now considered a premium integration. Trying to move away from Sync API is a core architecture change with very little time to design, test, and deploy.
There's a strong chance we'll suck it up and pay double the cost (moving to the Business plan) to keep the same functionality.
Well, they are now on record as being more interested in enterprise clients, at the expense of small and medium businesses: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2023/09/14/unicorn-startup-airtable-lays-off-27-of-firm-shifts-focus-to-big-clients/
Airtable, the code-free software company that was recently valued at $11.7 billion, today announced that it will lay off 237 people, or 27% of the company. Howie Liu, Airtable’s founder and CEO, says the cuts are part of a plan to focus the company on winning large enterprise clients and get spending under control. The cuts follow a December 2022 layoff that shed 254 people.
Well, they are now on record as being more interested in enterprise clients, at the expense of small and medium businesses: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2023/09/14/unicorn-startup-airtable-lays-off-27-of-firm-shifts-focus-to-big-clients/
Airtable, the code-free software company that was recently valued at $11.7 billion, today announced that it will lay off 237 people, or 27% of the company. Howie Liu, Airtable’s founder and CEO, says the cuts are part of a plan to focus the company on winning large enterprise clients and get spending under control. The cuts follow a December 2022 layoff that shed 254 people.
Looks like a trend in this space... Make.com (formerly Integromat) has shifted to focus on enterprise sales as well.
@DaveR
Do you have a link to the Make announcement?
Anyone see which integrations will be moved to their "Premium" category after the change? Specifically Slack? I don't see it in their Standard list in the help documentation, nor is it in their Premium list. I can't imagine it would be considered a premium one, but with the recent changes my trust level is low.
So sad. They could probably have captured a huge individual and small-business market at roughly $20/month/owner with unlimited (ideally) editors per base for the basic product without all the questionable extensions. A huge strength of Airtable has been the ability to collaborate. This is unaffordable for most at $20/month/editor.
What I don’t understand is the reason for it being so last-minute. And it actually concerns me.
There were clearly meetings about this, a discussion around some conference room table, and I find it difficult to believe that no one said “taking features away from the most expensive SMB plan is going to piss people off.” Clearly, this was brought up, considered, and they decided to do it anyway.
Maybe it was necessary because of costs of running the syncs. But they could have given us some warning - 6 months or until the end of our current billing cycle before the plan changes. The fact that they’re like “you have 3 weeks, figure it out,” to me, seems to imply cash flow trouble. Why would they risk alienating their user base so quickly if they didn’t need to? I’m really am struggling to see this as anything but a desperate grab for capital.
idk guys, I’m kinda worried our data isn’t safe in Airtable, even if we upgrade — if they’re having financial troubles, I don’t know if we should use their services at all.
Yup, with moves like this it is better to steer around them in a very wide angle. Great to know there're more and more alternatives and the way most people will react (and they don't all post their feelings here) will be about indeed confidence and the assumption there is another reason to do this so abruptly. Very worrying and again, if you can, then find another solution. This happens once, think again...
Is there another platform we could switch to? Ive been looking I hate paying its so stupd
I'm just wondering, if smartsuite is a viable alternative to airtable? How do they compare for your use cases? For me, I'm using Airtable because I'm not at the level where it makes any material differences. I'm wondering if I would have problems mentioned above down the road.
Folks, any cloud provider that is interested in being profitable can and will do this as part of their long term business strategy.
This is why I'm keeping Grist and Budibase in my back pocket, for when an Airtable licensing change comes for me. Hopefully I get a few more years out of Airtable while the OSS platforms mature, but if I was starting my project over, I would do it there.
Hi everyone,
I wanted to share my recent experience and get your thoughts on Airtable's pricing model, which I find particularly challenging as a solo entrepreneur. Like many of you, I’ve invested significant time and effort into developing customized Airtable solutions for small businesses. However, the recent changes have made it increasingly difficult to continue using Airtable effectively without incurring substantial costs.
Here are my main concerns:
Multiple Licenses Requirement: As someone who manages customized Airtable solutions for various clients, the necessity to purchase two licenses (one for myself and one for each client) per workspace has dramatically increased my costs. This structure poses a significant hurdle for my business model.
Client Segmentation: To keep each client's data separate, I need to create individual workspaces for each one. This not only complicates management but also adds to the licensing costs, making it harder to scale my services efficiently.
Lack of Affiliation: Despite recommending Airtable to my clients and driving new business, there’s no formal recognition or benefit. I spend a considerable amount of time and resources onboarding and supporting clients on Airtable without any direct support or incentives from Airtable.
Limited Affiliate Consideration: If I were to manage all my clients under a single workspace, it would appear as though I am the sole user, thus not qualifying for any programs or benefits. This discourages me from continuing to promote Airtable to new clients.
Additionally, my business is still in the early stages, and I cannot deduct any costs yet. These pricing challenges make it even more difficult for me to get started.
When I reached out to Airtable to discuss these concerns, the response I received was less than encouraging. It felt like an "eat or die" scenario, with no flexibility or support for small businesses like mine.
It’s disheartening to see that Airtable is prioritizing enterprise clients at the expense of small and medium-sized businesses. This approach undermines the confidence we have in the platform. As a solo entrepreneur, this change feels like a significant setback.
I’m curious to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences and how you are coping with these changes. Are there any alternative platforms that you’ve found to be more accommodating for small businesses?
Looking forward to your thoughts and suggestions.
Markus
