Migrate from Airtable¶
Ekit is an alternative to Airtable when your data has to feed a website or an app: your tables stay editable like a spreadsheet, and the same data powers a fast multilingual site or a REST API.
Moving a base takes a few minutes and no manual rebuilding: you drop the CSV exports of all your tables at once, and Ekit recreates the tables, the field types and the links between tables.
In 3 steps¶
- Export from Airtable. For each table of your base, open a view that shows all fields and all records (remove its filters and hidden fields), then choose Download CSV in the view menu.
- Drop all the CSV files together into Ekit. Open the Tables of a project, click the import icon next to +, and drop every file at once. Importing them together is what lets Ekit find the links between tables; the order of the files does not matter.
- Check, then import. Each file appears as a future table, with a type suggested for each column. Adjust what you need, click Import, then open your tables.
Nothing is saved before you click Import, and the import is all or nothing: if something fails, nothing is left behind.
What Ekit rebuilds automatically¶
| In Airtable | In Ekit |
|---|---|
| Primary field | Title of each entry (used to recognize entries and to build their address) |
| Linked records | Relation fields to the matching table, detected from the titles |
| Single select | Text, or a category in one click (a small table of values, one entry per option) |
| Multiple select | Tags, or multiple categories |
| Checkbox | Checkbox (checked is recognized) |
| Number, currency, percent | Number ($24,000.00 → 24000) |
| Date, date and time | Date (US and European formats, with a choice when ambiguous) |
| Email, URL | Email, URL |
| Long text | Long text |
| Attachments | Files downloaded by Ekit and stored with the entry, thumbnails included |
| Formula, rollup, lookup, count | Their value at export time, as text or number |
| Collaborator, created by | Text |
Linked records are matched on the title: keep Airtable's primary field unique in each table. A link that matches no record (a record missing from the export, a typo) is left out and listed in the import report.
What does not move automatically¶
- Formulas and rollups arrive as values, not as formulas. Calculated values for your site can be done in the templates instead.
- Automations, interfaces and views are Airtable features with no direct equivalent; filters and sorting are available in the Studio grid and in the API.
- Attachment links expire a few hours after the export: import right after downloading the CSV files, so that Ekit can still download them.
- Columns per language (for example
Name_ENandName_FR) are imported as separate fields. In Ekit, a single multilingual field holds every language: you can check Multilingual on the main text fields during the import, then fill the other languages with the automatic translation.
Plans¶
The import works on every plan, including Free. If your base is bigger than your plan, the import window says so clearly (for example “843 rows found → 200 will be imported with your plan”) and lets you import the first rows to try Ekit with your own data. See Plans & limits.
After the migration¶
- Publish a website from your tables: start from a template or build your own pages with the template syntax.
- Use your data elsewhere through the read-only public API.
- Leave whenever you want: the project export gives you all your tables as CSV and JSON, your files and your site code.
Questions¶
Do linked records stay linked? Yes. When all tables are imported together, a column whose values are the titles of another table becomes a relation field pointing to that table.
Are attachments imported? Yes. Ekit downloads Airtable attachments during the import (up to 2,000 files and 500 MB per import), as long as the export is recent.
How many tables can I import at once? Up to 20 files in one import, within the tables allowed by your plan.
Can I keep editing my data like in a spreadsheet? Yes. Each table is an editable grid in the Studio, with filters, sorting and inline editing.
Is my data locked in? No. You can export the whole project at any time, on every plan.
For every detail of the import window (types, dates, categories, limits), see Import data.