Updated: October 16, 2021 
Notion vs. Airtable
1. How They work
Think of Notion, as powerful Evernote where everything works in blocks. A block is an area to enter data in a variety of formats like text, image, videos, links, etc. in a variety of ways like boards, sheets, calendars, notes, todos, and so on. Every information you enter forms a block and then you can manipulate that block however you want. You can move it, link to it, delete it, and so on. Think of Airtable, a big database where everything works inside a base. A base works like a database or a spreadsheet where again, you can input data in a number of formats and manipulate it however you like. Like notion, you can create boards, calendars, and other areas to capture information. Each base has columns and each column can hold data like text, attachments, and so on.2. How Notion and Airtable Handles Data
This is probably the single biggest difference between these two modular productivity suite. Airtable is database driven where you will be working with a spreadsheet for managing data from different sources. In the example below, you will see multiple sheets open in different tabs, with the option to manipulate that data by different variables. You can also add blocks from the sidebar menu as we saw earlier.
This is how Airtable functions, as a relational database where every piece of data is related to something or someone else. This makes Airtable more suitable for people working in a CRM environment where you have data incoming in variety of formats or sources. For example, contacts and emails from marketing campaigns. You get the picture.
Notion is more about creating a hub of knowledge or a knowledgebase. Sure, you can also create spreadsheets, tag people, pull in data using Zapier like in Airtable, but that's not its key strength. It's more suitable for creating Kanban boards, writing articles or creating an entire wiki, and to-do lists.
Notion acts as an online modular document where you can create and capture data in a variety of formats like todo lists, wikis, articles, boards, and even calendars. This gives you more flexibility and when you tag team members, you can assign roles and responsibilities to them, and check items off as they are taken care of. An easy way to track whats happening across the board, who is working on what, and where do you, as a team stand.
Because Airtable functions like a spreadsheet with rows and columns, it is not suitable for writing long form content or text based notes. You can't create wikis or write articles. Heck, it is not suitable for taking notes like we do in Evernote and OneNote. On the plus side, you can connect with Salesforce, Trello, and HubSpot among other apps to query data.
Also Read: Best Airtable Alternatives for Collaboration and Project Management
