Airtable is a flexible database tool that can be configured for almost anything. But "can be configured" and "works out of the box" are very different things — especially when deadlines are involved.
Try MyRenewals Free →Airtable is genuinely powerful. If you enjoy building systems and want full control over your data structure, it's an excellent tool. You can create a contract tracking base, add views, build automations, and get it working reasonably well.
The problem is that "reasonably well" still requires significant ongoing effort. You need to build and maintain the automations yourself. There's no concept of a renewal-specific alert cadence — you're assembling one from general-purpose components. And when something changes (a team member leaves, a formula breaks, an automation stops firing), there's nobody watching.
MyRenewals does one thing: tracks contract renewals and alerts you before they expire. It doesn't need configuring. It works the same way for every user. For businesses that just want to stop missing renewals, that's a meaningful difference.
These aren't criticisms of Airtable as a product — they're the natural limits of using a general-purpose tool for a specific job.
Airtable gives you a blank canvas. Renewal date fields, alert automations, view filters, notice period calculations — all of it needs to be built from scratch. That's fine if you enjoy the process, but it's time you're not spending on your actual work. And someone needs to maintain it.
Airtable automations can send emails when conditions are met, but they require careful setup to handle 90/60/30/7 day alerts correctly. If the automation logic breaks — or Airtable changes how triggers work — your alerts silently stop firing. You won't know until you miss a renewal.
Airtable's free plan limits automations significantly. To run reliable renewal alert automations you'll need a paid Airtable plan — which starts at $20/user/month. For a team of three, that's $60/month for a system you still had to build yourself.
Airtable has record history, but not a purpose-built audit trail showing who actioned a renewal, what decision was made, and when. For regulated businesses or professional services firms that need to demonstrate due diligence, this matters.
| Feature | Airtable | MyRenewals |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic renewal alerts (90/60/30/7 days) | Build yourself | ✓ Built in |
| Works out of the box — no setup | ✗ | ✓ |
| Purpose-built for renewals | ✗ | ✓ |
| Full renewal audit history | Record history only | ✓ |
| Notice period tracking | Formula required | ✓ |
| Client & supplier grouping | Manual views | ✓ |
| CSV import | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free plan available | ✓ (limited automations) | ✓ 10 renewals |
| Maintenance required | Ongoing | None |
MyRenewals is ready to use the moment you sign up. No automations to configure, no formulas to maintain.
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