Share Access to Limited Data – Introducing Airportal

A massive complaint that I hear from Airtable users is that they can’t grant partial access to their data. For example, imagine this case:

1. A company has consultations with clients that are recorded
2. Consultations are then shared with clients
3. Clients want to see when they have another consultation, check previous versions, schedule new appointments, etc.

This is a pretty common style of problem. And yes, Airtable is great for storing and organizing this data – but is it a good solution for sharing it with clients?

I’d argue that in fact, no, it isn’t. Sure, you can make a view that’s specific for each client, but there are two BIG reasons I don’t like that solution. First, it means that for every new client, you have to manually create a new view. This is not advisable because it’s time consuming and in the case where a view is disrupted, suddenly your client can see ALL of your data. Second, this doesn’t allow your clients to interact with the data. When you share a view, you are restricted to ‘read only’ status, which means that clients are unable to make changes as needed. In short, it’s a half-baked solution.

Enter Airportal

Currently in beta (I seriously only got my hands on this LAST WEEK!), Airportal is here to revolutionize the way we work with Airtable. This new platform sits on top of your Airtable database and offers log-ins to the people you’ve granted access to. Imagine you have a table of contacts – you can now give each of those people the ability to see only the data that is linked to them! And here’s the thing… this is all automatic – no manual views need to be created. You can also grant them access to edit specific parts of the data. AND, as if that wasn’t enough, you can customize your portal with your logo and brand color so that your clients feel like they are logging into your specific membership site. Talk about an all-in-one solution!

Airportal is definitely going to turn the Airtable community on its head. The new possibilities are still taking me time to wrap my head around! If you’re interested in checking it out, apply for access to their beta test using this link!