You might use Google Docs and Google Sheets a lot. They’re amazing tools, and a great demonstration of just how amazing a web app can be.
But it’s easy to push those tools — especially Sheets — far beyond its core competency. One of the ways that Sheets can get unwieldy is when you try to use it as a pseudo-database. Creating a lot of filtered views or sorted views for whatever thing you may need.
There’s a far better tool when you get to that point: Airtable. I discovered Airtable around a year ago and have added it to my virtual tool belt. It feels like something that belongs right next to Google Docs & Sheets. It’s simple, and the free version is so fully-featured, that most people will never need to even consider a paid plan. I’ve used it a lot and not needed to pay anything yet.
It really shines when you have lists of data that need to be sorted and filtered and re-sorted and re-filtered, or viewed differently by different people, or basically to have the underlying data separated from the presentation of that data. It’s as easy as Google Docs/Sheets when working with multiple people on the same data as well. It’s really a fantastic tool.
Take a minute and go check it out. They even have a great API for using your data as a back-end to web projects.
I’m not getting anything out of telling you about Airtable. I just believe it’s a great tool that developers should know about, and it comes in pretty handy quite often.
Happy Coding!
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