The main real advantage for me are linked records, which allows you to keep your data normalized. Let's say you have a data model with 10 tables that have forei

The main real advantage for me are linked records, which allows you to keep your data normalized. Let's say you have a data model with 10 tables that have foreign keys among each other. For users it will be easier and less error-prone to link records using the Airtable UI rather than Google Sheets. You could do this with a "out-of-the-box" CRUD app in RoR or Django, but Airtable gives a ton of more flexibility and quick iteration if you data model is changing or adapting. It does have plenty of drawbacks so I wouldn't use it for every project.