Airtable clicked for me the moment I stopped thinking of it as a spreadsheet and started treating it like a lightweight database with a UI that non-technical teammates can actually use. The multi-view setup (grid, gallery, kanban, calendar) on the same base is genuinely useful when different people need different ways to look at the same data.
That said, the record and automation caps on lower plans are real friction. We hit the row limit faster than expected and had to rethink the entire structure. Also the interface loads noticeably slower when a base gets large, which gets annoying quickly.
The AI features they've been adding are interesting but still feel a bit bolted on rather than core to the experience. Worth it if your team lives in messy data workflows, but probably overkill if all you need is a basic tracker.
AI Hive 