project management tool · head to head
Airtable vs ClickUp
Comparison Summary
ClickUp scored 7.4 and Airtable scored 6.8 on our project management tool test script.
ClickUp and Airtable both have free plans, but they start from different places. ClickUp is a task manager with views, dependencies, recurring tasks and automation built in; Airtable is a database you shape into a project tracker with fields, views and automations. Our Airtable results come from the 14-day Team trial a new account starts with.
Airtable handled our data best: the 40 tasks pasted in one go, and CSV import and export kept every value of 200 rows. Its automations and AI were fast and accurate. ClickUp has things Airtable lacks: recurring tasks, subtasks, and a Gantt chart on the free plan.
Choose ClickUp for classic project management on a free plan. Choose Airtable if your projects live in structured data and you want reliable imports, exports and automations around it.
Key differences
Airtable
ClickUp - Our 8 scripted tasks
- Airtable:4 passed, 4 partial
- ClickUp:6 passed, 2 partial
- Views on the free plan
- Airtable:Grid, Kanban and calendar; Gantt and timeline on Team
- ClickUp:List, board, calendar and Gantt
- Recurring tasks and subtasks
- Airtable:No; scheduled automations and link fields instead
- ClickUp:Yes
- Dependencies
- Airtable:Team; flagged conflicts, no rescheduling
- ClickUp:Free
- CSV import
- Airtable:200 rows in 3 s, 500 in 1 s, every value kept
- ClickUp:200 and 500 rows with all fields
- AI
- Airtable:Omni: all three right, asked before writing
- ClickUp:Chat trial: summary, subtasks, overdue
- Memory and cold start
- Airtable:1.1–1.6 GB; about 8 s
- ClickUp:1.7–2.2 GB; about 14 s
- Free plan limits
- Airtable:1,000 records per base; 100 automation runs a month
- ClickUp:Unlimited tasks; 100 automation actions a month
- Paid plans from
- Airtable:$20 per seat a month, billed yearly
- ClickUp:$9 per user a month, billed yearly
- Left after uninstalling
- Airtable:About 63 MB, a protocol handler and firewall rules
- ClickUp:About 275 MB and a broken startup entry
Editor's Verdict
Choose ClickUp if…
Best for: Small teams that want lists, boards, Gantt charts, automations and AI in one free workspace and do not mind a busy, heavy app.
- Every view we needed is free: list, board, calendar and Gantt, with no upgrade prompt
- Automation, dependency and recurring task all worked on the free plan
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line
Choose Airtable if…
Best for: Teams who want a flexible database behind their projects, with automations and reliable CSV in and out.
- Paste a spreadsheet and the project is built, with select options created from the data
- CSV import and export kept all 200 rows identical, and 500 rows imported in about a second
- Automations fired in a few seconds, with schedules, conditions and many actions
Head to Head
Task by task
The same prompts, pasted word for word into each app on a clean Windows 11 PC. On the 8 tasks both apps were graded on, Airtable completed 4 and ClickUp completed 6.
| Task | Airtable | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|
| P1 · Build a project | Pass≈ 5 min | Pass≈ 200 actions |
| P2 · Views | Partial≈ 8 min | Pass≈ 2 min |
| P3 · Rules | Partial≈ 15 min | Pass≈ 7 min |
| P4 · 200-row import | Pass≈ 2 min | Partial≈ 12 min |
| P5 · Scale | Pass≈ 2 min | Pass< 2 min import |
| P6 · Permissions | Partial≈ 3 min | Pass≈ 5 min |
| P7 · AI | Pass≈ 4 min | Pass≈ 1–1.5 min each |
| P8 · Leave | Partial≈ 4 min | Partial≈ 7 min |
ClickUp ran on its Free Forever plan; a new Airtable account starts on a 14-day Team trial, and we noted where Airtable's results depend on it.
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | Airtable | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|
| Admin rights | No | Not needed |
| On disk | 552 MB | 643 MB |
| Starts with Windows | No | Yes, by default |
| 40-task project | ≈ 5 min | ≈ 200 actions |
| Views on the free plan | 3 / 4 | 4 / 4 |
| Cold start | ≈ 8 s | ≈ 14 s |
| Memory | 1.1 – 1.6 GB | 1.7 – 2.2 GB |
| CSV export | 200 / 200 | 771 / 771 |
| Left after uninstall | ≈ 63 MB | ≈ 275 MB |
Pros and cons
Airtable
+ What works
- Paste a spreadsheet and the project is built, with select options created from the data
- CSV import and export kept all 200 rows identical, and 500 rows imported in about a second
- Automations fired in a few seconds, with schedules, conditions and many actions
- Omni, the AI assistant, answered correctly and asked before creating records
- Per-user install with no prompts and no startup entries
− What falls short
- Gantt and timeline views need the paid Team plan
- No recurring tasks or subtasks; we used a scheduled automation and a link field instead
- Dependencies only flag conflicts; nothing moved when a predecessor slipped
- Free plan: 1,000 records per base and 100 automation runs a month
- New invites default to Creator, and an editor invite link is on by default
- First launch raised a Windows Firewall prompt and a bot check
ClickUp
+ What works
- Every view we needed is free: list, board, calendar and Gantt, with no upgrade prompt
- Automation, dependency and recurring task all worked on the free plan
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line
- 500-row CSV import in under two minutes, and the 500-task board opened in under a second
- Brain² summarised our project accurately, answered “what is overdue?” correctly and asked before adding subtasks
- Full CSV export in under a minute: all 771 tasks, with comments and subtasks
- Removing someone's access took effect immediately
− What falls short
- Heavy: about 14 seconds from launch to a usable list and 1.7–2.2 GB of memory
- The CSV import matched none of our seven columns automatically and needed status values mapped by hand
- The import offers to invite everyone whose email is in the file
- Starts with Windows by default and leaves about 275 MB and a broken startup entry after uninstalling
- Free AI chat is a one-off trial that does not reset
- The export drops dependencies and recurrence settings
- Busy setup: nine onboarding screens, a phone-number request, an invite nudge and an AI pop-up for every new list
Privacy and security
What we saw on our own test PC. Each review also lists what the vendor states about data handling, training and certifications.
Airtable
Signed installer
Signed by Formagrid, Inc.; the certificate had expired but the signature was timestamped.
Firewall prompt
First launch asked to accept connections on public and private networks; declining did not affect the app.
Generous sharing defaults
Invites default to Creator and an editor invite link is on until you turn it off.
AI asks first
Omni showed new records and waited for Approve before creating them.
ClickUp
Starts with Windows
The installer adds ClickUp to Windows startup without asking. It adds no services or scheduled tasks and only listens on the PC itself.
Contacts are pushed, not required
Setup asks for a phone number for promotional calls and messages, and the CSV import pre-fills the file's email addresses as invitations. Both can be skipped.
Full deletion is opt-in
Deleting a workspace keeps it recoverable unless you tick a separate box to delete it and its third-party data permanently.
Left after uninstalling
A 133 MB profile folder, a 143 MB updater cache, the clickup:// link handler and a startup entry pointing at the removed program.
Features & Pricing
| Airtable | ClickUp | |
|---|---|---|
| Web | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | — | ✓ |
| iOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paid from | $20/mo | $9/mo |
Airtable plans
- Free$0
- Team$20/seat/mo
- Business$45/seat/mo
- Enterprise ScaleContact sales
From Airtable's pricing page, checked Oct 31, 2026.
ClickUp plans
- Free Forever$0
- Core$9/user/mo
- Business$17/user/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
From ClickUp's pricing page, checked Oct 29, 2026.
Who makes them
- Company
- Airtable:Formagrid, Inc. (Airtable)
- ClickUp:ClickUp (Mango Technologies, Inc.)
- Headquarters
- Airtable:San Francisco, California, USA
- ClickUp:San Diego, California, USA
- Founded
- Airtable:2012
- ClickUp:2017
- Funding
- Airtable:Venture-backed private company.
- ClickUp:$400 million Series C in October 2021 at a reported $4 billion valuation.
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: Airtable · ClickUp.
FAQ
Which is better, ClickUp or Airtable?
ClickUp scored higher for project management because recurring tasks, subtasks and a Gantt chart are free. Airtable did better with data: imports, exports, automations and AI accuracy.
Which has the better free plan?
ClickUp for project work: Airtable's free plan has no Gantt or timeline and caps each base at 1,000 records.
Which imports a spreadsheet better?
Airtable. It guessed field types and kept every value of our 200-row CSV, and exported it back identically.
Read the full reviews
This page compares the two side by side. Each full review has the complete test log, every screenshot, the scoring notes, pricing, security and company details.
Airtable reviewSituational 6.8 Airtable is a database that makes a capable project tracker: our 40 tasks pasted in one go, CSV import and export kept every value, imports took seconds, automations fired quickly and its AI got everything right and asked before adding records. The trade-offs: no recurring tasks or real subtasks, dependencies that only flag conflicts, Gantt and timeline on paid plans, a free plan capped at 1,000 records per base, and a desktop app that greeted us with a firewall prompt and a bot check. Read the full review → ClickUp reviewRecommended 7.4 ClickUp passed every step of our project-management test on the free plan: all the views, a working automation, dependencies, recurring tasks, a 500-row import and an AI that got the facts right and asked before changing anything. It is heavy, though: the Windows app needs about 14 seconds and up to 2 GB of memory, and the import and setup make you do more by hand than they should. Read the full review → Project Management Alternatives
Notion Situational Individuals and small teams who want tasks living next to their docs and wiki, and who are happy to build their own setup 6.9 Read reviewReview 
Asana Situational Teams ready to pay for Starter or Advanced who want a polished, fast-to-learn project tool with strong import and export 6.7 Read reviewReview 
Linear Situational Software and product teams who live on the keyboard and want a fast issue tracker with a capable free AI agent 6.5 Read reviewReview 
