Airtable Acquired by Bending Spoons: Should You Switch or Stay?

Bending Spoons agreed to buy Airtable on August 4, 2026, for a $1.285 billion enterprise value. Nothing has been announced about pricing, plans or shutdowns, and the deal still needs regulatory approval. Most Airtable teams should not move yet. They should export their data, note their renewal date and watch for official notices.

This guide explains what the deal says, what Bending Spoons has done with other products, and a calm plan for Airtable customers. It is written for owners and operators who run orders, projects, content calendars or client work out of Airtable bases. Little iApps looks at software changes through one lens: what happens to your cost and your data.

What Did Bending Spoons Announce About Airtable?

Bending Spoons agreed to acquire 100% of Airtable's shares in an all-cash deal. The company's announcement puts enterprise value at $1.285 billion and equity value at about $2.25 billion, including net cash. Both boards approved it unanimously.

The release says Airtable has about $480 million in annual recurring revenue as of June 2026, up more than 20% year over year, and more than 500,000 organizations as customers. It expects the deal to close later this year, subject to regulatory approvals. Until then, the two companies operate independently.

Both chief executives spoke about the long term. Bending Spoons' CEO said the company is committed to long-term investment in Airtable. Airtable's CEO said the deal gives it the resources and commitment it needs. Neither statement mentions price, plans or staffing.

Will Airtable Prices Go Up After the Acquisition?

Nobody knows yet. Airtable has announced no price change, and Bending Spoons has not said what it plans. Today, Airtable's pricing page lists Team at $20 per user per month and Business at $45, both billed annually, plus a free plan and custom Enterprise Scale pricing.

For a 10-person team, that is $2,400 a year on Team or $5,400 on Business at list prices. Those are the numbers to hold up against any new price that appears. A change that doubles your bill is a very different decision from one that adds 5%.

The worry comes from the buyer's record. Wikipedia's entry on Bending Spoons says that after buying Harvest in 2025, the company moved it from flat per-seat pricing to a base rate plus usage fees, and that some long-standing customers saw renewals rise sharply. The same entry records layoffs after several other acquisitions, including Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo and AOL.

That history is a pattern, not a prediction. Each product is different, and Airtable's size and growth may lead to a different plan. Still, a careful buyer plans for the case where prices change.

Should You Switch From Airtable Now?

No, not on the strength of the announcement alone. Moving a working database costs real time, and nothing about your account has changed. A rushed migration can break forms, automations and shared views that people rely on.

Switch early only if one of these is true. Your team already wanted to leave, your bill is close to a limit that would force a pricier plan, or you hold regulated data and need a clear vendor commitment. In those cases, the acquisition is a good reason to act on a decision you had already half made.

For everyone else, preparing is enough. Preparation costs a few hours and keeps every option open. Treat it like insurance: you pay a small amount of time now so that a surprise later does not become a crisis. It also puts you in a stronger position if you must move in a hurry.

A similar situation came up when accounting vendors raised prices, which we covered in how to switch from QuickBooks Online after the 2026 price increase. Teams that have their data and a shortlist ready before a notice arrives tend to have the easiest moves.

How Do You Back Up Your Airtable Data?

Export each important table as a CSV file and store the files outside Airtable. In the web app, open the table, use the view menu and choose the download CSV option. Menu positions change, so look for the view name or a three-dot menu. An Airtable community reply confirms that you can export a view as CSV from the view name in the toolbar.

Know what a CSV does and does not carry. Guides report that it exports only the current view and respects its filters and hidden fields. Linked records and formulas arrive as plain text. Attachments, comments, automations and interface pages do not come with it. A CSV backs up your rows, not your whole setup.

Use this short plan to protect yourself:

Store the files somewhere that does not depend on Airtable. A shared drive with restricted access works for most small teams. For recurring exports, an automation tool can run a schedule through Airtable's API. If you go that way, our look at Zapier versus Make pricing for a small team shows what the automation will cost.

What Should You Check in Your Contract and Billing?

Check your renewal date, billing term and seat count today. Airtable lists its main paid plans as billed annually, so your renewal date is the moment a new price can reach you. Put it on a calendar with a reminder 60 days ahead.

Count real seats too. Many teams pay for people who rarely open Airtable. Trimming unused seats before any increase lowers your base bill and your exposure. Our breakdown of Xero's 2026 US price changes shows how a few dollars per seat compound across plans.

If a renewal notice does arrive, read the line items, not just the total. A move from flat seats to usage-based charges can raise costs in ways the headline rate hides. Ask your account contact what the new model counts as usage and how it is billed.

How Do You Weigh the Cost of Staying Against Moving?

Put numbers on both sides before you decide. Start with your yearly Airtable bill. Then estimate the one-time cost of moving: hours to rebuild, hours to retrain, and any overlap period when you pay for two tools.

A worked example shows the idea. A 10-person team on Team pays $2,400 a year. If a move takes 40 hours of staff time at $40 an hour, that is $1,600, plus a month of overlap at roughly $200. The switch costs about $1,800 before the new tool's own fee. A price rise of 20% adds only $480 a year, so staying remains cheaper for a few years.

The picture changes if a price jump is large. If a new model tripled the bill to $7,200, the same $1,800 move pays for itself in under six months. That is why the size of any change matters more than the fact of an acquisition. Set a trigger in advance, such as a rise above 30%, and act only when it is crossed.

What Are the Alternatives if You Decide to Leave?

Alternatives include other spreadsheet-database tools, project management apps and no-code builders, and the right one depends on how you use Airtable. A team that treats it as a shared list may be happy in a spreadsheet. A team that runs complex linked data with forms and automations needs a closer match.

Before you pick, write down the five things you could not give up. For many teams they are linked records, forms, views for different roles, automations and an API. Test your top choice with a copy of real data, not a demo set.

Do not underestimate the cost of rebuilding. People often see only the data move, but the real work is rebuilding the logic around it. Automations, permissions and interface pages rarely move cleanly. Plan for a parallel run of two to four weeks, where both tools stay live and you compare results before you cut over.

What Is the Safest Plan Right Now?

The safest plan is to stay put, export your data, record your renewal date, trim unused seats and watch for official notices. Revisit the decision when the deal closes or when Airtable sends a pricing notice, whichever comes first.

At Little iApps, we watch for three signals after an acquisition: a pricing notice, a change to plan limits and a shift in support. Any one of them is a reason to start a real comparison. Until then, preparation is cheap and panic is expensive. Check Airtable's and Bending Spoons' own announcements for the latest, since details can change before the deal closes.