Airtable is a new kind of excel , the category is called "smart spreadsheets"

There are a number of reasons they have the "smart" label ( aka excel with superpowers) , but the key areas that matter to us are;

• They are relational databases , meaning that they not only refer one value in another formula but interlink whole tables between them , allowing to reflect complex multidimensional relations . Selling is not rocket science but it has a complex interlinking between the messaging associated with the products that you sell and the different type of buyers and circumstances of these buyers. If you combine it with the different stages of your relationship to them , things get messy . And that just for a single feature of a single product. So there we are , that´s a job relational databases are great at
• They are easy to interconnect with any third party apps , tools and services . Meaning that you can get then to send emails, update calendars or records in your CRM etc.. .
• They are "programable" or again the possibility to create rules , triggers and Automations. Airtable has now native automations built in . But in reality , the previous point about connect to external services, opens the door to also automation players, like Zapier , Automated and Integromat that in effect means that you can connect to anything in the word and automate it

Airtable is by not means the only one . Coda , Sheetsheet , and now even google tables are in the game.

So to answer the 2nd question , use other ? yes, sure but.

The but is .. I haven´t done it ..yet . So if you have a specific one in mind we can work on it to make the model flow . Let me know