Airtable vs. ClickUp: Which is best for small teams?

Proper project management is essential for the success of any business, especially for small teams working towards common goals. While many diving into the world of business regard project management as an unnecessary expense, the value of tools that help your team finish projects cannot be overstated. These tools optimize the team's performance, improve collaboration, and increase efficiency and productivity. With the right tool and approach, small teams can maximize their potential and ensure successful outcomes.

There are many task/project management tools to choose from, which is why we are here to help you figure out which one is the best for you and your team. Let us introduce you to Airtable and ClickUp; both popular task/project management tools offering a wide range of features to help your team get more organized and productive.

Airtable is a cloud-based database tool that allows users to store, organize, and collaborate on information about projects, tasks, and team members in a way that makes sense for them. ClickUp is a project planning platform where users can plan, track, and manage any type of work with project management that flexes to your needs. Although they are two different management tools with different features offered, they share a common goal of helping teams streamline their workflow. Additionally, they both integrate with IFTTT, which can help enhance their capabilities.

While they share many similarities, there are many differences that make each one better suited for different types of teams. In this blog post, we’ll explore the key differences between Airtable and ClickUp to help you determine which is best for your small team.

PS. IFTTT is an automation platform for small businesses and soloprenuers. Starting connecting both Airtable and ClickUp with over 800 other tools today!

Table of Contents
- Airtable vs. ClickUp - Key differences
- Cost comparison
- Set-Up comparison
- Feature comparison
- Automation comparison
- Airtable automations
- ClickUp automations
- Airtable vs. ClickUp - Which should a small team choose?
- Airtable vs. ClickUp - Key differences
Airtable and ClickUp are both popular project management tools, but they have very different features. While both deliver impressive features and functionalities, they differ when it comes to certain key areas that are better suited for different teams.

Airtable is highly customizable and flexible. It offers the ability to create customized databases and tables like Microsoft Excel. This often makes it popular among creatives in fields such as marketing and design, and offers a vast range of templates and integrations. Additionally, Airtable's collaboration features revolve more around real-time data editing that enables team members to view and edit data live.

Clickup, on the other hand, offers an all-in-one platform for team collaboration. It includes features such as task management, calendars, documents and chat, which can be helpful for teams looking for a more centralized workspace. Additionally, Clickup has more advanced features like time tracking and project management.

Cost comparison

When comparing the cost of the two, the pricing plans are similar, but they come with distinct limitations. Airtable’s free plan and Clickup’s ‘Free Forever’ plan offers users basic features that most small teams need, such as both offering unlimited tasks and bases and collaborative features, but Clickup’s ‘Free Forever' plan is more extensive, such as unlimited free plan members while Airtable’s free plan has only up to 5.

Airtable pricing plans:

Plus ($12/month): With the Plus plan, users keeps all features from the free version, but with 3 extensions per base and sync integrations instead of 1, 5,000 records per base instead of 1,200, 5GB of attachments per base instead of 2GB, custom branded forms, and 6-month revision and snapshot history.

Pro ($24/month): Building on the Plus plan, users expand to 10 extensions per base and 7 sync integrations instead of 3, from 5,000 records per base to 50,000, 20GB of attachments per base, 1-year revision and snapshot history, and more editing, permission, and viewing features.

Enterprise (varies): The Enterprise plan comes with everything from the Pro plan, but comes with unlimited workspaces, extensions, and sync integrations, 250,000 records per base, 1,000 attachments per base, 3-year revision and snapshot history, professional services, and more.

Clickup pricing plans:

Unlimited ($9/month): With their Unlimited plan, it comes with features from the free plan, but with unlimited storage, integrations, dashboards, gantt charts, and custom fields, and a wider range and access of permission and viewing features.

Business ($19/month): Along with the Unlimited plan features, the Business plan comes with unlimited teams, Google SSO, advanced public sharing, automations, time tracking, and dashboard features, custom exporting, and many more.

Enterprise (varies): Building on the Business plan, the Enterprise plan offers white labeling, advanced permissions, Enterprise API, unlimited custom roles, team sharing for spaces, Single Sign-On (SSO), access to managed services, and more.

Set-up comparison

Setting up Airtable and ClickUp both have an easy set-up process. For both platforms, users will first have to sign-up, manage account configurations, such as setting up notification preferences, and users will pick if they want to either join or create a new workspace. After that, users then get to set up their space, and explore the features and functionalities the platform provides.

As we compare the two, ClickUp has an easier set-up process as it is straightforward along with a guide to help users navigate through the features. Additionally, ClickUp provides 3 options - a task list, a board, or a timeline view, to accommodate different team and project preferences.

Users may spend a little more time on Airtable’s set-up process as users start and design their workflows and templates from scratch, which may take awhile to do as it gives its users more flexibility and customization to set their workspace preferences. The tool’s versatile set of options allows you to create databases to store your information. Besides, Airtable lets you choose from different types of fields such as checkboxes, attachments, and formulas to name a few.

Feature comparison

Airtable is an easy way to create your own organizational databases. As it emphasizes in customization, teams can structure their data that caters to their own needs and preferences. Here are some additional features that Airtable provides:

Airtable features
- Offers integrations with over 200 tools including Asana and Slack.
- Customizable spreadsheet-style database, records, and fields, drag-and-drop attachments, commenting, and social media style interactions.
- Collaboration opportunities, such as messaging, commenting, and multiple
- Drag and drop ability.
ClickUp is a project management platform where users plan, track, and manage any type of work. It is a centralized hub to efficiently manage your team. Here are some additional features that ClickUp provides:

ClickUp features
- Over 1,000 integrations including Trello, GitHub, and Jira.
- Tracking, calendars, and goal tracking capabilities, such as Gantt charts.
- Allow guest/invitee and third party contractors access to your project.
Automation & integration comparison

Airtable and ClickUp can both be integrated with IFTTT to streamline workflows, save time, and stay organized. Better yet, IFTTT has pre-made automations for both Airtable and ClickUp that can easily be implemented and customized according to your team’s needs. For example, you can receive a notification when a new task is added to ClickUp or when a record is updated in Airtable. This can help you stay on top of important changes without having to constantly check each application.

Managing data and tasks can be difficult, especially for small teams. However, with the help of IFTTT, you can streamline data entry, save time with notifications and automate reporting. The possibilities are endless, and you can create custom IFTTT recipes based on your unique workflow needs.

Popular Airtable Automations & Integrations
Link to more Airtable IFTTT integrations: https://ifttt.com/airtable

Popular Clickup automations & integrations
Link to more ClickUp IFTTT integrations: https://ifttt.com/clickup

Airtable vs. ClickUp - Which is best for a small team?

Choosing the best project management tool for your small team can be difficult, but by comparing Airtable vs. Clickup, you're one step closer to making an informed decision. When deciding between the two, consider your team's size, budget, and specific needs, and weigh the pros and cons of each tool's user interface, features, integrations, and customer support. Ultimately, the best tool for your small team will depend on your unique circumstances, but by evaluating these key factors, you'll be on your way to finding the perfect project management solution.

At the end of the day, IFTTT’s pre-made automations and ability to create and customize Applets to cater to your small teams’ needs and preferences can help you be more confident in making a decision.

Here at IFTTT, our favorite app for small teams is ClickUp, but why?

First off, there are many services that integrate with ClickUp, such as Trello, Evernote, Todoist, Slack, and many more. As a result, this enhances collaboration and productivity as seamlessly connecting with various tools/services streamlines workflow management. Additionally, our team uses ClickUp internally for our project management and through our firsthand experience, we have to say that the features and functionalities this service provides has allowed us to efficiently plan, organize, track, and monitor our tasks and projects, such as knowing which piece of content will be published to what platform and when that will be published, who is assigned to what task, and when a certain task was started and is expected to be due. The structure and features ClickUp provides has helped keep our team aligned and organized.

Confidently manage your team’s projects with IFTTT

For small teams who are looking to streamline their workflow and automate repetitive tasks to stay organized, efficient, and productive, IFTTT is the ultimate answer for this. By streamlining communication, automating tasks, improving time management, simplifying reporting, and customizing workflows, small teams using IFTTT can confidently manage their projects. Then again, we even offer integrations that let users create and customize triggers with Airtable and ClickUp, which can help increase a team's workflow and productivity. So, what are you waiting for? Incorporate IFTTT into your project management system!