An Airtable CRM is a CRM you built yourself: tables, views, formulas, and automations you have to design and maintain. Orbit is a CRM that already exists, with one AI assistant, Hiro, that drafts follow-ups and invoice reminders. The free plan needs no credit card. Stop building a CRM in a database. Start using one.
Airtable is a wonderful database. Linked tables, rich field types, views, and automations let you build almost any system, and plenty of people build a CRM in it. The early version feels custom and clever, exactly the way you want it.
Then maintenance arrives. The formulas need tending. The automations break when a field changes. The views multiply. New activity does not log itself, so the timeline is only as current as your discipline. You are not running a CRM, you are running CRM construction and maintenance as a side project, on top of the actual selling.
The honest realization is that you do not want to keep building a CRM. You want one that is already built, already knows what a deal and a follow-up are, and drafts the follow-up for you.
The difference is who does the work of running it.
| Orbit | Airtable CRM | |
|---|---|---|
| Ready-made CRM structure | You build it | |
| Contact timelines that fill in | Manual | |
| AI assistant (Hiro) that drafts and does the busywork | ||
| Built-in email inbox with tracking | ||
| Invoices, proposals, and booking pages included | ||
| Maintenance burden | Low | On you |
| Flexible custom database | Lighter | Deeper |
| Free plan |
Orbit gives you the CRM you were trying to build, and one AI assistant, Hiro, to help run it. Hiro hands you drafts to approve.
Keep Airtable when you genuinely need a flexible database, not just a CRM. If you track inventory, content, projects, or anything with a custom shape that a CRM cannot hold, Airtable's flexibility is the point and Orbit will feel narrow. Many people run both: Airtable for custom data, Orbit as the CRM that does the relationship management.
Choose Orbit over a homemade Airtable CRM when the system you built is specifically a CRM, and the upkeep has become the job. A purpose-built CRM with an assistant will always run smoother than a database you keep patching.
A CRM built in Airtable needs constant upkeep: formulas, automations, and views you design and maintain, with activity that logs only when you remember. Orbit is a purpose-built CRM that already knows what deals and follow-ups are, and its assistant Hiro drafts the follow-up while duplicate detection keeps the data clean.
Yes. Export your contacts table from Airtable as a CSV file, then import it into Orbit and map your fields and tags. You can drop the helper columns you only built for formulas, and rebuild the pipeline from your status field in minutes.
Keep Airtable if you need a flexible database for custom data like inventory, content, or projects, not just a CRM. Many people run both, using Airtable for custom data and Orbit as the CRM that handles relationships and follow-up.
Yes. Both have free plans. Orbit's free plan needs no credit card and includes 250 contacts, one pipeline, unlimited tasks, a calendar, a built-in email inbox with 100 sends a month, and basic Tables. Pro is $14 a month or $112 a year. AI is included with free monthly credits.
Orbit is free to start, no credit card. Import your Airtable contacts and let Hiro draft the follow-up.
Free forever plan. No credit card. No spam.