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Shannon Toe

5 Airtable Alternatives for Resource Planning & Forecasting

If you've outgrown spreadsheets for resource planning, you've similarly outgrown Airtable. Here's a list of alternatives capable of replacing it and matching the needs of a growing company.

If you find yourself looking at Airtable alternatives and trying to spot greener pastures there, chances are high that Airtable is not able to keep up with your growing resource needs.

Although the tool is relatively easy to get started with, complications tend to tag along, especially if you underestimate its limitations from the beginning.

In this article, we're going to look at some of the reasons users say the tool is not making the cut for them anymore and consider the best-in-class Airtable competitors you can switch over to for improved resource planning & forecasting.

Why could Airtable be sub-par?

Airtable tool for project managers

Frustrations with Airtable vary, according to Capterra, but if you recognize your case in some of these, it's a tell-tale sign you need to look for an alternative with more advanced features.

  • Airtable feels like Spreadsheets on steroids, it seems that you have outgrown the features it provides and there is some critical functionality that you're missing in the tool
  • You lack certain design features, which complicates your user experience
  • Despite the concept of the tool being simple, the UI is still complex, the tool doesn't feel intuitive and you have trouble being efficient with it
  • You often run into Excel-like problems, something along the lines of being unable to type an extended sentence in one box
  • Setting it up or switching from one plan to another is too much of a hassle

So, here are some of the best alternatives to Airtable you should be looking at to scale your resource processes with more efficiency and ease.

1. Runn - Airtable alternative for advanced resource planning & forecasting in IT Services & Consulting

best Airtable alternative

Runn is resource planning and management software for the modern workforce. It helps you craft high-level schedules, forecast resource needs, accurately analyze resource capacity, make reports, and spot resource gaps before they turn into trouble.

Runn is by no means just a project management tool — it's your guide to efficient projects and productive teams, where everyone gets to enjoy work-life balance and some space to get creative at work.

Strategically, Runn will give you one-click insights into employee performance and productivity, resource capacity, and utilization. This means that your management group will always be able to make informed and data-driven decisions about the directions their projects should take.

But Runn is also very useful on the operational level. For project managers, it means easy planning, scheduling, and monitoring of their various projects and programs. All of that thanks to its user-friendly interface and abundant collaboration features.

Here's a review a user left on Capterra:

"Powerful and feature rich, yet easy to understand and set up. Modelling my team, projects, and resourcing took a remarkably short time and prompted one or two very good questions I hadn't considered."

With an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 on Capterra and 5 out of 5 for customer service, users love the increased visibility, control, and ease of use that Runn provides.

3. Float - Good Airtable alternative for creative agencies

project management tool for resource planning & forecasting

If you are looking for an advanced resource management tool but are still working with a small team, Float is the best option for you. Here you can easily manage schedules, do task management, assign tasks, create to do lists, track your resources and collaborate with them in real time.

The software is flexible enough to handle changes in your projects, allowing you to reallocate resources with ease. The time tracking tools help keep projects on track by monitoring the time spent against the planned time. It offers a clear capacity planning, scheduling overview, and basic reporting analytics.

Users rate it as 4.5 out of 5 and here's what one of them had to say about their experience with Float:

"I love the modern-looking UI and simple design, which makes our messy every day schedules seem more organized."

Read on: Runn vs Float - Putting the Best in Resource Planning to Test ➡️

3. Teamdeck - Airtable alternative for easy and transparent resource management

Airtable alternative to manage projects and people

Teamdeck is rightfully in the top-5 list of Airtable alternatives. It offers you 'a fully transparent view of the entire team and all projects', focusing on a range of useful features like time tracking, team scheduling, project planning, timesheets, workload & availability management.

With its intuitive user interface and customizable options, Teamdeck provides a seamless experience for managing productivity, budget tracking, resource forecasting, and workload planning.

However, some have criticized its reporting functionality and limited integration options compared to other software. Nevertheless, for most users it provides a positive experience and they rate it as 4.3 out of 5.

"It provides good analytics numbers for team managers. It helps checkout output of your resources very easily."

4. Mosaic - Airtable alternative with AI functionality

one of the most common Airtable alternatives

Similarly to Runn, Mosaic is an all-in-one platform where you can plan and optimize your projects and resources for maximum output. If there's one thing that will probably catch your attention, it would have to be Mosaic's AI, which analyzes your teams and helps you find the best project opportunities for your resources. Here you can also predict workload changes, look into resource demands, and potential revenue.

Other than occasional synching issues, you won't find too many flaws in this system as most users point out its ease of use and workload transparency. With that in mind, users give it 4.5 out of 5 and one of them left this review:

"I love the ability to organize all of my projects at a glance, while simultaneously keeping my team engaged with our tasks.

5. Kantata - Airtable alternative for professional services businesses

project management software that is alternative to Airtable

Kantana will be concluding our list of Airtable alternatives as it is also one of the top project management tools to consider if you're after the key features needed for resource management.

The tool promises to help you put people at the center, giving you extensive resource planning and management features. With this functionality you can see all of your resources within one platform, plan for changes in the resource pipeline, prevent burnout, and discover project areas that require improvement.

This popular project management software will help you replace all the fragmented tools and bring all of your resource-related processes to one table.

However, Kantana's pricing is not very transparent: it's difficult to understand if there's a free plan or a free trial available unless you fill out a 3-step form, which asks for your company details, phone, and work email. Users say it's a 4.2 out of 5.

"Great software that allows for us to complete a great project."

When your business is expanding and you're feeling frustrated with the restrictions of Airtable, you have at least these five alternatives to consider.

If you feel like starting with Runn on the journey, you can take advantage of a free 14-day trial to determine if it's suitable for you. Alternatively, schedule a demo with one of our experts to learn how Runn can streamline the management of your team, simplify resource planning, and fine-tune forecasting.

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