5 Workarounds for Airtable iFrame Not Showing Real-Time Updates

So you've embedded an Airtable Interface on your website using an <iframe>. Everything looks great... until you update your data inside Airtable and realize the changes don’t show up immediately on your website. Frustrating, right?

Let’s first understand why this happens, and then we’ll look at what other options are available.

When you embed an Airtable Interface into a webpage using an iframe, the content is static. This means that once it loads, it won’t automatically reflect any updates made inside Airtable, even though the interface within Airtable updates in real time.

The only way for users to see the latest data in the embed is by manually refreshing the page.

This isn’t a bug. It’s just how Airtable’s publicly shared interfaces behave.

So if you're looking for ways to reflect real-time updates or to offer a better user experience, here are a few alternatives you can consider:

1. Use Airtable Portals

One simple way to ensure people see live updates is by using Airtable’s Portals feature.

With portals, you can create a custom login page for each client and give them access only to the interfaces you’ve set up for them.

Pricing starts at $120 per month for 15 portal users on the Team plan, and $150 per month on the Business plan.

If you have many clients, this can become a rather expensive option.

2. Use a No-Code Tool

These tools let you build custom frontends, similar to Airtable Interfaces, without writing any code. You can easily connect them to your Airtable base to fetch data and display it on your site.

These tools support live updates, so the frontend stays in sync with your Airtable data without requiring a page refresh.

Some popular no-code tools include Softr, Stacker, Bubble, Noloco, and others.

Pricing for most of these tools starts between $29 and $49 per month. Many also offer limited free plans, which might be enough if your needs are simple.

3. Build Your Own Frontend

If you have coding experience or access to a developer, you can take complete control over the user experience.

Using JavaScript (and frameworks like React or Next.js), you can connect directly to the Airtable API and build a custom interface. This way, you control how and when the data is fetched.

4. Use a WordPress Plugin

If your site is built with WordPress, you can use plugins like Air WP Sync to connect your Airtable data to WordPress and keep it updated in near real time.

If you need two-way sync (changes in Airtable reflected in WordPress and vice versa), you can use a tool like Whalesync. This ensures that any changes made in Airtable automatically update on your WordPress site, and any updates in WordPress sync back to Airtable.

You can learn more about the different ways to display your Airtable data on a WordPress site here.

5. Use a Browser Extension to Refresh Pages

You can use a browser extension like Auto Refresh Plus to reload the webpage at regular intervals.

This isn’t a proper solution. It reloads the entire page rather than just syncing the data, but it can work for simpler use cases where real-time updates aren’t critical.

Summary