Excel is a traditional spreadsheet tool optimized for calculations and financial analysis with a one-time purchase model, while Airtable is a cloud-based database platform designed for collaborative workflows and relational data with subscription pricing. Excel dominates finance and analytics; Airtable excels at project management and team collaboration.
Excel vs Airtable — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Industry-standard spreadsheet software for calculations, analysis, and data visualization.
Cloud-based database platform combining spreadsheet simplicity with relational data management and team collaboration.
Pricing Model. Real-Time Collaboration. Data Relationships. Formula Complexity. Data Capacity (Free Tier). Learning Curve. Integration Ecosystem
Choose Excel if you need powerful financial calculations, advanced analytics, one-time licensing costs, and don't require seamless real-time team collaboration. Choose Airtable if your priority is team-based project management, relational data organization, cloud accessibility, and collaborative workflows where multiple users work simultaneously.
Microsoft Excel: $6/month (Microsoft 365) or $69.99 one-time | Airtable: $0 free tier or $6-$20 paid tier
Microsoft Excel: $72-$144 annually (or $699.90 one-time × 1) | Airtable: $720-$2,400 annually ($6-$20 per user)
Microsoft Excel: 500+ functions | Airtable: 50+ functions
Microsoft Excel: 5-30 seconds (requires manual save/sync) | Airtable: Instant (< 1 second)
Microsoft Excel: 2-4 weeks for intermediate use | Airtable: 0.5-1 week for intermediate use
Microsoft Excel: 1,000,000 rows (with slowdown) | Airtable: Unlimited (100,000+ tested)
Microsoft Excel: 0 (requires VBA coding) | Airtable: 500+ no-code automations
Microsoft Excel: 50,000+ add-ins (Microsoft Store) | Airtable: 6,000+ via Zapier + 50+ native
Microsoft Excel: No (workaround via VLOOKUP) | Airtable: Yes (linked records, many-to-many)
Microsoft Excel: 1.048 million | Airtable: N/A
Microsoft Excel: $70 one-time or $72/year (Microsoft 365) | Airtable: N/A
Microsoft Excel: Manual only | Airtable: N/A
Microsoft Excel: 50+ (via Power Query) | Airtable: N/A
Microsoft Excel: 4-8 hours (manual) | Airtable: N/A
Microsoft Excel: 2-4 weeks | Airtable: N/A
Microsoft Excel: 500+ (including VBA macros) | Airtable: N/A
Microsoft Excel: Limited (OneDrive/SharePoint) | Airtable: N/A
Microsoft Excel: $8.33 (Pro at $100/year) | Airtable: $20-50 (Pro/Team tier)
Microsoft Excel: Partial; slower sync, version conflicts common | Airtable: Native; live cursors, instant updates, comment threads
Microsoft Excel: Unlimited (desktop); 5GB cloud | Airtable: 1,200 records per base
Microsoft Excel: 95+ hours | Airtable: 15-20 hours
Microsoft Excel: No (requires manual linking) | Airtable: Yes (linked records, automatic relationships)
Microsoft Excel: Full offline support with sync on reconnect | Airtable: Limited; read-only offline, edits sync when online
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Free (limited)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: $20-$50 per base
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Advanced (Automations + Scripting)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Generous with tiers
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 5+ million
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Basic (attachments, linked records)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 500+ native
Starting Price Per User/Month (Annual Billing)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Free ($0) or Team Plan ($20/user)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 1,000 records per base
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 50,000 records per base
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Grid, Gallery, Calendar, Form, Kanban, Timeline, Map (7+)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Extensive with Zapier + native automations
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Moderate - requires data modeling knowledge
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Unlimited custom fields, formulas, and rollups
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: $540 annually ($45/month)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: $20 (annual billing)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 5 editors
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 250+ templates
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Not available
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 30 requests/second (enterprise)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: $0 (5 editors, 1,000 records)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: $20-24/user
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Unlimited on paid plans
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: No (third-party integration required)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 6+ (Grid, Kanban, Gallery, Calendar, Timeline, Form)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Comments and mentions only
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 1,000+ via Zapier and native
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Advanced automations, scripting, and workflows
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Airtable
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 5 (Pro plan)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Unlimited with relationships
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 500,000+
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Visual workflow builder (no code)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 15-20 (basic setup)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 5-7 hours
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: No, third-party only
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: $20/month
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 1,200 records
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 8,000+ integrations
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 8-12 hours
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Advanced (linked records, complex queries, rollups)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: AI Assistant on Team+ plans only ($30+/month)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Limited (gallery view only)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Unlimited with complex conditions
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 2 bases
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 2 GB per attachment
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Advanced linked records, lookups, rollups, and junctions
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Advanced visual automation builder with multi-step workflows
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 6 (grid, calendar, kanban, gallery, form, timeline)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Basic (timeline view only)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 20 GB per base
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 7 (moderate - requires database thinking)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 5 users
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Native linked records with rollups and lookups
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: REST API + Metadata API + JavaScript SDK
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Automations, Scripting, Extensions
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 25+ (including linked records, lookups, rollups, formulas)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 5 (Grid, Calendar, Kanban, Gallery, Timeline)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Limited (attachments only)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 1,200 rows
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Comprehensive REST + GraphQL APIs with extensive examples
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 25+ (conditionals, multi-step)
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: Unlimited linked records + lookups + rollups
Microsoft Excel: N/A | Airtable: 100+ simultaneous
How to choose between Microsoft Excel and Airtable
Excel vs Airtable — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Excel vs Airtable. Contains 117 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Excel vs Airtable — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Excel vs Airtable.
For most business workflows (CRM, project management, content calendars), yes. Airtable's relational database and collaboration features are superior. However, Airtable cannot match Excel for financial modeling, statistical analysis, or complex calculations. Finance professionals and data scientists still need Excel. Many organizations use both—Airtable for team workflows and Excel for analysis.
Airtable wins decisively. It offers native real-time collaboration with live cursors, instant updates, built-in comments, and automatic version history. Excel's cloud collaboration (via OneDrive/Microsoft 365) is slower, often creating version conflicts when multiple users edit simultaneously. Airtable was designed for teams from inception.
What's the total cost of ownership over 5 years for a 10-person team?
Excel: $500-1,000 (one-time Home & Student licenses or 5 years of Microsoft 365 at $100/year). Airtable: $12,000-30,000 (assuming Pro at $20-50/month per user × 10 users × 60 months). For small teams, Excel is far cheaper; for large teams requiring collaboration, Airtable's benefits offset the cost difference.
Yes. Simple migrations (flat spreadsheets) take minutes via copy-paste or CSV import. Complex migrations with multiple linked tables, pivot tables, and formulas require mapping relationships and rebuilding logic in Airtable's relational structure. Most teams spend 4-8 hours migrating a moderately complex workbook. Airtable provides import guides and supports bulk CSV uploads.
Excel dominates. Desktop Excel handles 1 million+ rows natively with good performance. Airtable's free tier caps at 1,200 records; paid tiers support 100,000+ records but performance degrades with filtering/reporting beyond 50,000 records. For big data (1M+ rows), Excel or data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery) are required.
How to Choose Between Microsoft Excel and Airtable
Pricing Model: Microsoft Excel has $70 one-time (Home & Student) or $100/year (Microsoft 365), while Airtable has $20-50/month per user (Pro/Team) or free tier with limits.
Real-Time Collaboration: Microsoft Excel has Supported but slower sync; conflict resolution can be cumbersome, while Airtable has Native real-time collaboration with live cursors and instant updates.
Data Relationships: Microsoft Excel has Limited to VLOOKUP/INDEX-MATCH; requires manual linking, while Airtable has Native relational database with linked records and automatic relationships.
Formula Complexity: Microsoft Excel has 1000+ functions; supports advanced array formulas and custom VBA/macros, while Airtable has 150+ functions; limited to automation; no custom scripting.
Data Capacity (Free Tier): Microsoft Excel has Unlimited rows (desktop); 5GB cloud storage in OneDrive, while Airtable has 1,200 records per base or 5GB attachment storage.
Learning Curve: Microsoft Excel has Steep; 95+ hours median to advanced proficiency, while Airtable has Moderate; 15-20 hours to proficiency; intuitive UI.
Integration Ecosystem: Microsoft Excel has 600+ third-party integrations via Power BI, Zapier, and native connectors, while Airtable has 500+ integrations via Zapier, Make, and native API.