liveplanner vs Airtable
A free Airtable alternative
Airtable blends a spreadsheet with a database: typed fields, linked records and many views of the same base. liveplanner comes at the same work from a planner’s side, with boards of cards, real spreadsheets that can list those cards as rows, dashboards and forms, free to use.
At a glance
| Feature | liveplanner | Airtable |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature | Free plan, then paid plans per seat |
| Start without an account | Yes, create and edit as a guest | An account to create a base |
| Data model | Cards with typed fields, and spreadsheet cells | A relational database of tables and linked records |
| Formulas | Over 150 spreadsheet functions with A1 references | Formula fields computed per record |
| Forms | Public forms whose answers become cards or rows | Form views that add records |
Which to pick
Why pick liveplanner
- A real spreadsheet: cells, ranges, fill-down, named ranges and over 150 functions, with paste from Excel and Google Sheets.
- Cards as rows, linked both ways: change a cell and the card changes, move the card and its row follows.
- Boards with WIP limits and swimlanes, and Gantt and calendar charts drawn from the same cards.
- Dashboards of live slots, with a board, a sheet, a chart and a figure like a column total side by side.
- Forms on a public link, with sections, a cover and your tab’s look.
- Free for everyone, with no trackers, and ready without an account.
Where Airtable is the better pick
- Your work is a true relational database, with many linked tables and lookups between them.
- You build apps and interfaces on top of your data for other teams to use.
- You rely on built-in automations, scripting and a broad set of integrations.
Spreadsheet and board, one set of work
In liveplanner a card is one item wherever it shows. A board shows cards in columns; a Sheet can list the same cards as rows, a column per field, and the two stay linked both ways. Formulas can also read the cards directly, so a budget sheet can total the estimates on the board without anyone copying numbers across.
Sheets have the tools you would expect from a spreadsheet: number formats, sort, filter and freeze, dropdowns and checkboxes, rules that refuse a value that does not fit, conditional formatting and charts over the cells.
Where Airtable goes further
Airtable is a database first. Linked records between many tables, lookups and rollups, and interfaces built on top of a base are things liveplanner does not try to match. If your work is shaped like a database of related tables, Airtable is the better tool; if it is shaped like a plan with numbers beside it, liveplanner may be the simpler one.
Free, private, and yours to keep
Anyone can create a plan without signing up: a guest’s new plan is kept in their browser until they press Share, which syncs it in one step. A share link is an Editor, Participant or view-only link (a Participant can work on cards and cells, comment and vote without changing how the plan is set up), and it can carry a password or an expiry date.
liveplanner is free for everyone, with no paid tier, no ads and no third-party trackers. A board exports as CSV, an image, a PDF or a Markdown outline and a sheet as CSV, so your work is never locked in.
Airtable alternative FAQ
Is liveplanner a free alternative to Airtable?
Can I bring my Airtable data across?
Does liveplanner have linked records between tables?
Do people need an account to fill in a form?
See how it feels
No sign-up, nothing to install, free forever. Start a plan and judge for yourself.
Comparisons reflect each product’s general positioning and may change. Check Airtable’s own site for current details. Last reviewed .