Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apple Numbers VS Airtable

Compare Apple Numbers VS Airtable and see what are their differences

Apple Numbers logo Apple Numbers

Numbers lets you build beautiful spreadsheets on a Mac, iPad, or iPhone — or on a PC using iWork for iCloud. And it’s compatible with Apple Pencil.

Airtable logo Airtable

Airtable works like a spreadsheet but gives you the power of a database to organize anything. Sign up for free.
  • Apple Numbers Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-14
  • Airtable Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-19

Airtable

Release Date
2013 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Andrew Ofstad
Employees
250 - 499

Apple Numbers features and specs

  • User-friendly Interface
    Apple Numbers has a clean and visually appealing interface that is intuitive and easy for users to navigate, especially for those who are already familiar with the Apple ecosystem.
  • Real-time Collaboration
    It offers real-time collaboration features, allowing multiple users to work on a spreadsheet simultaneously, making it ideal for team projects.
  • Beautiful Templates
    Numbers provides a variety of professionally designed templates for different needs, like budgets, invoices, and more, which can save time and help create visually stunning documents.
  • Seamless Integration with Apple Ecosystem
    Being part of the Apple ecosystem, Numbers integrates seamlessly with other Apple apps and services like iCloud, allowing for easy syncing across multiple Apple devices.
  • Free to Use
    Apple Numbers is free to download and use on MacOS and iOS devices, which can be a significant cost-saving over other paid spreadsheet software.

Possible disadvantages of Apple Numbers

  • Limited Compatibility
    Numbers is not as widely used as Microsoft Excel, leading to potential compatibility issues when sharing files with users who are not in the Apple ecosystem.
  • Feature Limitations
    While Numbers covers basic and most intermediate spreadsheet needs, it lacks some of the advanced features and functionalities available in Excel, which can be a drawback for power users.
  • Performance Issues with Large Files
    Numbers can struggle with performance when handling very large or complex spreadsheets, which can be a downside for users working with big data sets.
  • Learning Curve for Former Excel Users
    Users who are transitioning from Microsoft Excel to Numbers may face a learning curve because of differences in interface and functionalities.
  • Limited Third-Party Integration
    Numbers offers fewer third-party integrations compared to Excel, which can be restrictive for users who rely on various external tools and add-ins.

Airtable features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Airtable provides an intuitive, visually appealing interface that makes it easy for users to create, manage, and navigate complex data sets without extensive technical knowledge.
  • Customizability
    Airtable offers robust customization options, allowing users to tailor databases and views to their specific needs, including various field types, multiple views, and linked records.
  • Collaboration Features
    Airtable supports real-time collaboration, enabling multiple users to work on the same database simultaneously while tracking changes and maintaining version history.
  • Integrations
    Airtable integrates with various third-party applications and services such as Slack, Google Drive, and Zapier, allowing for seamless workflow automation and enhanced productivity.
  • Templates
    Airtable offers a wide range of pre-built templates for different use cases, which helps users get started quickly without having to build everything from scratch.
  • Mobile App
    Airtable's mobile application allows users to access and manage their databases on the go, ensuring flexibility and continuous productivity.

Possible disadvantages of Airtable

  • Cost
    While Airtable offers a free tier, many of the more advanced features and higher usage limits are locked behind a subscription model, which can become costly for larger teams or extensive use.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users have reported performance issues with Airtable when working with very large databases, including slow load times and laggy interface responsiveness.
  • Limited Offline Access
    Airtable relies heavily on an internet connection, and its offline capabilities are limited, which may be a drawback for users who need consistent access without reliable internet.
  • Data Export Options
    Data export options are somewhat limited compared to other database management tools, making it more difficult to extract data in certain formats for use outside of Airtable.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, the extensive features and customizability of Airtable can present a learning curve for new users, requiring time to explore and understand its full capabilities.
  • Lack of Advanced Features
    Airtable may lack some advanced features found in more specialized or traditional database management systems, making it less suitable for particularly complex or highly specific data management needs.

Analysis of Apple Numbers

Overall verdict

  • Apple Numbers is an excellent choice for users within the Apple ecosystem who prioritize design and ease of use. It is particularly suitable for individuals and small teams who do not require the most advanced spreadsheet functionalities.

Why this product is good

  • Apple Numbers is a powerful spreadsheet application that is part of the iWork suite. It offers a user-friendly interface with a focus on design and aesthetics, making it especially appealing for users who need to create visually appealing spreadsheets. Numbers provides a range of templates and tools for data visualization, including interactive charts and graphs. Its seamless integration with other Apple products and services, like iCloud, allows for easy collaboration and access across different devices. However, it may lack some advanced features and compatibility that power users require when compared to alternatives like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

Recommended for

  • Casual users who need to create simple to moderately complex spreadsheets.
  • Users who prefer visually appealing data presentations.
  • Individuals and teams using Apple devices that benefit from ecosystem integration.
  • Anyone who requires easy access and collaboration through iCloud.

Analysis of Airtable

Overall verdict

  • Airtable is a highly effective tool for individuals and teams looking for an easy-to-use, versatile platform to manage data and collaborate. It is especially suitable for users who need more functionality than a traditional spreadsheet but don’t require a full-scale database management system.

Why this product is good

  • Ease of use
    Airtable offers a user-friendly interface that combines the simplicity of spreadsheets with the power of a database, making it accessible for users without technical expertise.
  • Flexibility
    It provides flexibility in terms of creating customizable databases, allowing users to adapt it for various use cases such as project management, inventory tracking, and more.
  • Integrations
    It integrates with a wide range of third-party applications and services, enhancing its utility and reach.
  • Collaboration
    Airtable supports real-time collaboration, enabling teams to work together seamlessly and share updates instantly.

Recommended for

  • Small to medium-sized businesses
  • Project managers
  • Creative teams
  • Freelancers
  • Non-profits
  • Product development teams

Apple Numbers videos

Review of apple numbers (microsoft office excel alternative)

Airtable videos

Airtable Review | Features, Pricing & Team Use

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Airtable API Tutorial With cURL and JavaScript
  • Review - Airtable Blocks for Project Management
  • Review - Airtable vs. Google Sheets
  • Review - airtable review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apple Numbers and Airtable)
Project Management
6 6%
94% 94
Spreadsheets
100 100%
0% 0
No Code
2 2%
98% 98
Office Suites
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apple Numbers and Airtable

Apple Numbers Reviews

We have no reviews of Apple Numbers yet.
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Airtable Reviews

  1. Sanjana Shah
    · Data Scientist at Boston Institute of Analytics ·
    Airtable: Spreadsheets + Databases = Efficiency

    Airtable is a powerful cloud-based software that combines spreadsheets and databases, offering real-time collaboration and customizable features for efficient task management1.

    🏁 Competitors: monday.com, ClickUp, Smartsheet
    👍 Pros:    Free forever plan and affordable paid options starting at $10 per month.|Visually appealing and user-friendly interface.|Pre-made templates for easy setup and use.|Real-time collaboration and communication.|Customizable features for task management.
    👎 Cons:    Limited project customization without a paid plan.|Top-tier accounts required for gantt tools.|May take time to learn and grasp advanced features.

The Top 7 ClickUp Alternatives You Need to Know in 2025
Benefits:Airtable's ability to integrate various data sources into one platform allows teams to maintain a centralized source of truth while leveraging powerful visualization tools6.
Top 10 Notion Alternatives for 2025 and Why Teams Are Choosing Ledger
Airtable blends spreadsheets with database features, offering teams a powerful way to organize structured information. While its flexibility is impressive, it's not purpose-built for communication or team collaboration at scale.
25 Best Asana Alternatives & Competitors for Project Management in 2024
Airtable is one of the most popular Asana alternatives. It’s project management tool that helps teams create detailed databases for their work. Users can group and sort data in custom fields with views like Grid to include only the relevant project information.
Source: clickup.com
Top 10 Microsoft Power Apps Alternatives and Competitors 2024
Airtable Pricing: Airtable offers a freemium plan with limited features for individual users. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month for additional features and functionalities. Enterprise plans with custom pricing cater to large-scale deployments.
Source: medium.com
The 10 best Asana alternatives in 2024
If you're looking for a project management app that leans more toward data management, try Airtable. Out of the box, Airtable's default view looks like a spreadsheet. It offers a few project templates based on your team type (such as marketing or sales), or you can build a "base" from scratch. From there, you can add highly customizable fields (or columns) to each row, so...
Source: zapier.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Airtable seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 130 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apple Numbers mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Apple Numbers yet. Tracking of Apple Numbers recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Airtable mentions (130)

  • How to Build Internal Tools 100x Faster
    It is possible to speed up the development and delivery process for many internal applications by using no-code or low code tools. These vary in offerings from open source to SaaS, including popular ones like AirTable, BudiBase, Retool, NocoDB and others. These can all greatly help speed up delivery times. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Growing a side-project to 100k Unique Visitors in one week
    For the backend, I opted for Airtable as a database. It's a simple, no-code solution that I've used before. It's not the most powerful database, but it's perfect for a project like this. I could easily add, edit, and delete records, and it has an embeddable form functionality that I used for user submissions. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Airtable.com — Looks like a spreadsheet, but it's a relational database unlimited bases, 1,200 rows/base, and 1,000 API requests/month. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How to generate links to a record to view it in an Interface?
    The ?XXXXX part of the URL identifies the type of interface page it is. Just copy that and then your formula is just "https://airtable.com.../...?XXXXXX=" & RECORD_ID() I'm not sure it works in every type of interface page (where you've started from a blank page for example). There has to be something to identify the record viewed from the page, if you see what I mean. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Working on a personal app for data tracking. looking for suggestions
    So I started building something on airtable.com that would allow me to easily track updates for each batch. What in your experience would make sense to track that I may be missing? Source: almost 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apple Numbers and Airtable, you can also consider the following products

Microsoft Office Excel - Microsoft Office Excel is a commercial spreadsheet application.

Trello - Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It's free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.

LibreOffice - Calc - LibreOffice Calc is the spreadsheet program you've always needed. A fork of OpenOffice.

Asana - Asana project management is an effort to re-imagine how we work together, through modern productivity software. Fast and versatile, Asana helps individuals and groups get more done.

Google Sheets - Synchronizing, online-based word processor, part of Google Drive.

Basecamp - A simple and elegant project management system.