Save the date! Join us on October 16 for our Product Ops launch event. Register here.
Aug 23, 2023 09:23 AM
4 pricings :
Free : No big change
Team : old Pro ---
Busiess : old Pro +++ (key feature from enterprise available : 2sync, more records, more storage, invoice...)
Entreprise : old Enterprise +++
First fellings :
I like it a lot.
Business is the new PRO (the way to go for SMBs)
Aug 31, 2023 11:01 AM
I hadn't even considered that – they have to have an ability to see where the API call came from, at least like the calling IP address. So it has to be possible to separate those out. If they didn't and we got blocked because of calls from their own product, well, that would be mighty silly
Aug 31, 2023 11:50 AM - edited Aug 31, 2023 11:51 AM
> ... if you build an api it's a lot easier to have your internal teams and consultants develop to that than directly. In that case, do actions on airtable tools such as interfaces and automations count as well?
They don't. Airtable [itself] is not built on the public API provided for customers. In fact, there is no common API for all customers; there is only a comment API endpoint that apparently distributes calls to bases in the context of each customer's Airtable instance. This is in stark contrast to other SaaS platforms that typically host API access for tenants in common. We know each API instance is tightly aligned with each customer's account because you can burden the entire customer instance, affecting your own user's performance without affecting other accounts.
> ... it creates a dilemma, and could explain the delay in making the numbers available.
Probably not the case.
> ... they have to have an ability to see where the API call came from
They don't, nor do they need to. Calls are calls and Airtable is not built on the public API. It's an indicator of load associated with your own account instance.
> ... and we got blocked because of calls from their own product, well, that would be mighty silly
This is not possible, but what is certainly silly is we pay for (x) service that runs inside of (y) container, which is designed to handle (z) load. Yet, Airtable has decided to expose a metric within the container and level of service we already paid for to create a new element that gates performance in a manner that affects the payment tier we choose. That seems silly. It's our paid instance and if we decide to burden it with 200,000 API calls and no end users or shared data, or any other activity, that should be the customer's prerogative.
I can understand if Airtable's position concerning these limitations was related to the common API endpoint gateway performance, but those types of services are usual and customary for a proxy, something that companies do very well, and load is generally not an issue. This is why I believe there should be no API limitations at all. If customers are okay with abusing their instance-based API, they should be free to do that. There are already adequate incentives to not abuse your service.
To be fair, there's one remaining out - Airtable could counter my argument by pointing out that they have a duty to protect customers from poor performance. After all, it does trigger support calls, and that is a cost Airtable must bear. Customers don't like performance issues. Gating API calls is likely the right knob for Airtable to turn if they've got data that shows people are abusing their instance-based APIs. You can't blame them for trying to keep you from killing your own performance because you chose a third-party portal product that has no regard for your API limitations.
I've tried to warn everyone for many years concerning the exuberant use of Make and Zapier and other platforms that incessantly poll every few minutes to see if anything's changed. My latest article is a flat-out indictment of the glue factories that make it very easy for you to engage in practices that only increase the likelihood you will see performance issues caused by API load.
Airtable has every right and, indeed, a duty to defend your service from our self-centered (sometimes lazy) interests in doing convenient things with external systems. Airtable has spent a lot of money building out the infrastructure to help us avoid using these external tools for every integration automation.
Aug 31, 2023 11:56 AM
@Bill_French Thank you for the detailed explanation.
Sep 01, 2023 09:12 AM
I already posted about this here, but we were given a free Pro account back in 2020 and told that we would have unlimited users and that there would be no time limit. Now they're saying that the program is over and they're downgrading us to a free account after I've built out extensive systems that our teams rely on. It's really infuriating. I don't know what recourse we have at this point. Even if they were to give us the Teams account, it wouldn't have the features that we've been using.
Sep 02, 2023 08:13 AM
> ... it seems wrong to have told us that there would be "no time limit" on it.
Correct, that was probably a mistake because nothing lasts into infinity. Your error was believing such a claim.
Over the past five years, I've helped 3,700+ people on this forum with answers to technical questions. I asked Airtable if they would comp me for a free Pro account like Coda, SmartSuite, and about 20 others do. I'm a tech writer, not a user. They said no - we don't do that. So, I've been paying them to help them. I don't think you're going to get a lot of sympathy concerning your plight.
Sep 05, 2023 02:25 PM - edited Sep 05, 2023 02:31 PM
@Bill_French You are awesome. Thanks for your help over the past five years. And you are 100% right about Airtable lacking to embrace the very people that supported them, early adopters, evangelists, contributors and grandfathered relationships. Its very sad just on this part.
Sep 05, 2023 02:41 PM
I completely agree!