Our team runs a service business and we rely on Airtable for managing client projects, scheduling content, and tracking progress. We’re now working with over 15 different clients and each one needs their own workspace with similar features but custom tweaks.
The problem is that copying databases creates a mess when we need to update things. Plus the sync features stop working well when you have too many connections. We tried using different views, template setups, and even wrote some scripts to connect everything, but nothing feels like it really scales up properly.
Anyone else dealing with this kind of setup? Looking for ideas on how to build something that can grow without becoming impossible to maintain. Need a solution that lets us reuse the good stuff without making everything too complicated.
we moved to a single base for all clients, using client ID fields everywhere. it’s less hassel for maintenance and easier to manage automations. sure, there was some upfront work, but it’s paid off big time with less issues later.
Been there! Hit the same wall around 12 clients two years back. Game changer was building one master template with all the core stuff, then using Airtable’s interface designer for client-specific dashboards. Don’t duplicate bases - build one solid system with proper permissions and filtered views for each client. Spent a week planning the data structure upfront, saved myself months of pain later. Also set up a staging environment to test changes before they go live. No more sync nightmares, updates are actually manageable now. Yeah, the learning curve sucked at first, but new client setup went from half a day to 30 minutes.
Same here. Got tired of the copy-paste hell and scrapped the multiple base setup completely.
I went hybrid instead. One main base holds all the shared logic and data. Then I use Airtable’s API to pull client-specific stuff into separate lightweight bases - basically just views and interfaces.
Treat your main base like a backend database. It does all the heavy lifting. Client bases are just presentation layers that connect through webhooks and API calls.
Migration took two weeks, but now updates and fixes are one change instead of 15. New clients spin up in under an hour.
Downside: you need to know API calls. But the time savings are worth learning if you don’t already.