Directual vs. Airtable. Reasons for combining and for migrating
Directual vs. Airtable. Reasons for combining and for migrating
August 11, 2020
Airtable is one of the pioneers on the no-code market. Using that “spreadsheet on steroids” a lot of people are automating such processes as CRM or applications collection. Airtable seems to be almost ideal table view for your data. But it is not almighty. Today we will figure out in which cases Airtable complements Directual capabilities and in which—it is reasonable to migrate your project from Airtable to Directual completely
Airtable vs Directual features
Viewing and handling data
Both Airtable and Directual offer a database features. Users can create interconnected tables with such fields as text, number, email, date, links to other table, etc.
Airtable approach
Directual approach
Airtable is an intuitive tool. You simply create a table and work with it
as with a familiar excel-like spreadsheet.
💪 Strong points:
Great grid-view with plenty of options for sorting, filtering and grouping;
Several data views: Grid (table), Kanban, Gallery, Calendar;
Airtable Blocks—visualisation and formatting tools like Gantt, Page designer, Org chart.
😔 Could be improved:
Few appearance customisation options. Some of them (e.g. record colouring) are
available only on the Pro plan;
No folders for tables;
Blocks are available only on the Pro plan.
Directual database section looks like a relational database.
💪 Strong points:
All the
essential features are there: sorting, setting up links, organising folders for structures (tables);
Web-page components
(actually, they are similar to Airtable blocks) includes several views, including Table view and Cards view.
😔 Could be improved:
Web-page components are in beta now—the components are being improved;
Not so user-friendly grid view;
No such data types as ‘image’ or ‘rating’. Sometimes it could be counterintuitive to store such data in ‘link’ or ‘string’ fields.
Here we can admit that the features for viewing and handling data in Airtable is almost perfect. But, as we see further, often that is not enough for meeting all the needs of modern app development.
Capturing data
Form in Airtable is one of the table views. Form in Directual is a web-page component (it has been announced recently).
Airtable approach
Directual approach
💪 Strong points:
WYSYWYG-approach to form building;
Limits to specific collaborators;
Conditions on other fields;
😔 Could be improved:
Field permissions are available only on the Pro plan;
No such controls as range sliders;
Few options for styling.
💪 Strong points:
Form is based on API-endpoint, which can be configured according to the role model (e.g. admin and regular user see different fields);
Online responce processing;
All the features are available on the the Free plan.
😔 Could be improved:
No conditional fields (based on other form fields);
File upload will be available in the nearest releases only.
Both Airtable and Directual have profound form-building features. We cannot choose the leader here.
Using as a backend
Basic backend is a database plus APIs (sure, often some backend logic is also needed—we will have a look at that a bit further). As we have seen, Airtable offers perfect database viewing features. Could it work as a backend? Let’s figure out!
No limits on quantity of records (limit on the Free plan is 2 GB, on the Business plan—200 GB);
Significant limits on requests (10k monthly on Free and 2M monthly on Business);
Strong user-based security.
😔 Could be improved:
We don’t know. If you do, please, describe your idea at hello@directual.com.
No doubts, Airtable can merely be applied as a backend platform for an app. Directual, in turn, was made as a low-code platform for building complex and scalable backends.
Realising business logic
App logic usually includes data transformation tasks, integrations, event-driven actions.
Interface seems to be rather complex. Flexibility has its cost! We are aware about that and work hard to make development on Directual easier.
Airtable supports the very basic automations, and on the Pro plan only. Directual scenarios are the heart of the platform. They are available to all the users. Scenarios are powerful and flexible enough to implement any business logic.
Combining Airtable and Directual
Criterion
Your app is going to be small (much less than 50k records in the database). You don’t need intensive data exchange experience.
Solution
Airtable works as a perfect interface to your data;
Directual covers all the other needs, including data transformation, integrations, etc.
Your Airtable-based app is growing. You need to connect additional services (e.g. Integromat or Parabola) to cover some backend-logic. API and database limits are about to be hit (or already have been hit).
Solution
Migrate your database from Airtable to Directual completely;
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage.
What is business logic?
What is business logic?
In computer software, business logic or domain logic is the part of the program that encodes the real-world business rules that determine how data can be created, stored, and changed.
Готовы создать приложение своей мечты?
Присоединяйтесь к 22 000+ разработчикам на Directual и создавайте то, чем будете гордиться — быстрее и дешевле. Визуальный интерфейс упрощает разработку, а мощные базы данных и бэкенд корпоративного уровня делают масштабирование легким и эффективным.