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Airtable vs Wix: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Airtable and Wix are two popular platforms that serve different purposes. Airtable is a cloud-based collaborative database used for organizing and managing data, while Wix is a website builder that allows users to create and customize websites without coding. While both platforms have their own unique features and benefits, there are key differences that set them apart.
1. Pricing and Plans: Airtable offers a free plan with limited features, as well as paid plans that start at $10 per user per month. On the other hand, Wix offers a free plan with Wix branding and limited resources, as well as premium plans starting at $14 per month. The pricing structure and available plans differ significantly between Airtable and Wix.
2. Focus and Purpose: Airtable is primarily designed for data organization and management, making it a powerful tool for businesses and teams working with extensive data sets. On the other hand, Wix is focused on website creation and customization, making it an ideal platform for individuals and small businesses looking to build a professional online presence.
3. Customizability and Design: Wix provides a wide range of pre-designed templates and a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to easily customize the look and feel of their websites. Airtable, however, is not designed to create visually appealing websites and instead focuses on providing a flexible and customizable database structure for data organization.
4. Collaboration and Workflow: Airtable excels in collaborative workspaces, allowing multiple users to collaborate on the same database simultaneously. It provides a variety of collaborative features such as activity tracking, task assignments, and commenting. Although Wix does offer some collaboration features, it is primarily designed for individual website building and lacks the advanced collaboration options of Airtable.
5. Integration and App Ecosystem: Airtable offers a wide array of integrations with other popular tools and platforms, allowing users to seamlessly connect and synchronize data between different applications. Wix also supports integrations with third-party apps, but its ecosystem is not as extensive as Airtable's. Airtable's robust integration capabilities make it a preferred choice for businesses seeking to streamline their workflows and connect different systems.
6. Mobile App Support: Airtable provides dedicated mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices, enabling users to access and manage their databases while on the go. Wix, on the other hand, does not have a dedicated mobile app for website creation and editing. This key difference makes Airtable more versatile and accessible for users who require mobile access to their data.
In summary, Airtable offers a flexible and powerful database management solution with advanced collaboration features and extensive integration capabilities. On the other hand, Wix is a user-friendly website builder that focuses on design customization and ease of use. The choice between Airtable and Wix depends on individual needs and preferences, with Airtable being more suitable for data-centric workflows and Wix being preferable for website creation and customization.
I'm trying to set up an ideally "no- code" way to have a backend of 3 different tables and be able to find a value in table #3 (contains businesses & cities) by first finding a record in table #1 (7,000+ zip codes) that corresponds to a city (table #2 has the unique cities), and then finding which businesses are located in these cities ( in this specific, original zipcode lookup). And return the business and a description via an API to a front-end results page, which happens to be a WordPress page - but doesn't need to be. I've tried Airtable's API, AirPress (a finicky WordPress plugin for Airtable's API), and I've looked at Sheetsu and a similar spreadsheet as backend and a simple API. I run into the issue where they work fine when you just need to query 1 table, but when you need to use the result from that query in another query to a different table. I'm back in SQL land - where sure it could be done with SQLite - needing to probably create an intersection table or a JOIN and build an API off of that. Is there a way to accomplish what I want without going back to SQL queries and some API?
You're right that there isn't a great way to join tables with Airtable's API. The closest you can get is to use a linked record field, which acts as a pointer to another record. You still end up with the problem you mentioned of having to run another query on the second table separately.
Your best bet is to stick with an actual SQL database. Using an ORM should make your life significantly easier so you don't actually have to write raw SQL. If you still want a graphical interface to your data, BaseDash lets you view and edit SQL databases just like Airtable. A full API with join support is coming soon, so that could be your perfect solution to this problem.
Let me introduce you to integromat. It connects these services without you having to work any code. And it even has a decent database built inside it.
It makes is an easy process to develop multistep workflows with multiple services and it’s free tier is surprisingly functional.
I usually take a slightly different tack because the technical level of people I usually am dealing with is lower. I tend to be pitching to decision makers and not tech people. A bit of my standard answer is below.
Wix and Squarespace are proprietary systems meant for unsophisticated users who want to build their own websites quickly and easily. While they are good for that specific use case, they do not offer any way to move beyond that if your needs arise. Since they are proprietary closed systems if you need something more advanced at some point your only option is to start over.
WordPress is an Open Source CMS that allows much more freedom. It is not quite as simple to setup and create a new site but if you are talking to me then you are not looking to build it yourself so that is really a non-issue. The main benefit of WordPress is freedom. You can host it on virtually any decent web hosting service and since it uses PHP and MySQL you can have virtually any developer take over a project without problem.
I believe in open source because of that freedom. It is good for me as a developer and it is good for my clients. If something were to happen to me or my company you would have no problem finding another qualified WordPress developer to take over the site in a totally seamless fashion. There would be no need to start from scratch.
Additionally the extensible nature of WordPress means that no matter what your future needs, WordPress can handle it. Adding things like e-commerce and custom quoting systems are just two examples of advanced solution's that I have added to WordPress sites years after they were first built.
WordPress is used by tiny one person businesses all the way up to major websites like the NY Times and I think it is right for this project as well.
Pros of Airtable
- Powerful and easy to use19
- Robust and dynamic8
- Quick UI Layer6
- Practical built in views4
- Robust API documentation3
- Great flexibility0
Pros of Wix
- WYSIWYG12
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