Hi everyone! I’ve been working as a developer for several years now and built lots of extensions for various CRM systems and other platforms. Recently I started thinking about creating something for the Airtable app store. I have some cool ideas that could really help users but I noticed there aren’t that many apps available right now. This makes me wonder if people actually need more apps or if there’s just not much interest. Do any of you actually use apps from the marketplace? If you could have any custom app built what problem would you want it to solve? I’m trying to figure out what would be most helpful before I start building anything.
The problem with Airtable marketplace apps? They only solve tiny pieces of what you actually need. People want complete automation workflows that connect Airtable to everything else they’re using.
I see this all the time. Teams have customer data in Airtable but need it synced to their email platform, accounting software, and project tools. They want automated responses when statuses change, Slack notifications, data transformations - the works.
Marketplace apps make you buy multiple solutions and pray they work together. Expensive and fragile.
Don’t build another single-purpose app. Think bigger. Build workflows that handle entire business processes - leads flowing from Airtable to CRM to email sequences to invoicing, all automatically.
I’ve ditched the marketplace completely. Now I build these multi-step automations directly using visual workflow builders. Connect Airtable to dozens of services without coding. Handle data transformations, conditional logic, and error handling in one place.
That’s the real demand. Not another reporting widget - complete automation solutions.
I use marketplace apps all the time and there’s definitely room for better options. The biggest gap? Advanced reporting and analytics. Most apps just cover basics, but we need tools that pull data from multiple bases and build real-time dashboards that actually work. Project management integration is another weak spot - I’m talking real workflow automation with complex approvals and task dependencies, not just basic syncing. The marketplace feels limited because developers keep building generic solutions instead of tackling specific problems. If you’re thinking about development, focus on niche issues that power users deal with daily. Don’t try to please everyone. The apps that really take off solve one workflow perfectly.
Security and compliance apps - that’s where the real money is, but everyone’s ignoring it. Every enterprise team I’ve worked with hates Airtable’s basic permissions when they need proper access controls or audit trails. They’re begging for apps that mask sensitive fields by user role, log every change with timestamps, and auto-generate compliance reports. Financial companies especially need PCI compliance without killing their workflows. The other goldmine? Data migration tools. Companies stick with ancient databases for years because moving structured data to Airtable without breaking everything is hell. Build something that reads existing schemas, suggests the best Airtable setup, and transfers data without corrupting relationships. Not glamorous work, but the right buyers will pay serious money for it.
Been building marketplace apps for three years - demand’s definitely there, just scattered everywhere.
The real money isn’t in obvious apps everyone thinks of. It’s weird edge cases that drive people nuts. I built a QR code generator for inventory tracking because warehouse managers kept complaining about the same thing.
Data validation’s a goldmine. Companies waste hours fixing bad data entry. Build an app that enforces proper formats, catches duplicates, and validates against external databases before saving? It sells itself.
Bulk operations are huge too. Airtable’s native tools crawl with large datasets. Teams manually update hundreds of records because batch editing sucks. Build something that handles mass updates, imports, and transformations without choking.
This video shows solid examples of marketplace scripts that actually solve real problems:
My advice? Hang out in user groups and listen to complaints. Money-making apps solve annoying daily problems, not flashy features. Pick something that’s personally frustrated you and build that first.
Marketplace apps suck because they trap you inside Airtable’s limitations. That’s not what you actually need.
You need Airtable as your operation’s brain. New customer hits your base? It should automatically create their Google Drive folder, fire off welcome emails, generate contracts, update your CRM, and ping your team on Slack. Status changes? Boom - invoicing triggers, project timelines update, client gets notified.
I’ve seen teams waste money on five different marketplace apps just to connect basic workflows. Each app does one tiny thing, charges monthly, and breaks every time Airtable updates. You’re left with broken processes that still need babysitting.
Better approach: build complete automation pipelines with Airtable as the trigger. Data changes in your base, entire sequences run automatically across all your tools. No marketplace limits, no stacking monthly fees, no waiting for devs to fix broken integrations.
I’ve ditched whole marketplace app collections for single automation workflows that handle everything - lead capture to project delivery. Way more reliable, way cheaper.
Forget apps. Focus on killing manual work completely.
the marketplace is pretty dead tbh. most apps either break when airtable updates or they’re overpriced for what you get. what i really need is decent mobile support - apps that actually function on phones for collecting data in the field. and pricing calculators that can handle complex formulas without messing up your base structure would be huge.
Most teams I work with skip the marketplace completely - they need apps built for their specific workflows. Healthcare wants HIPAA-compliant integrations, manufacturing needs barcode inventory tracking, agencies want complex billing for time tracking. Current apps are way too generic. They assume everyone uses Airtable the same way, which is totally wrong. We tried four marketplace apps last year and built our own because none handled our approval process right. What actually works? Apps that eliminate hours of tedious manual work. Document generation is massive - auto-creating contracts, reports, or proposals from Airtable data with proper formatting and branding. Field service companies love dispatching techs based on location and skills from their bases. The real money’s in vertical solutions. Pick an industry you know well and solve their exact problems instead of building something for everyone.