Both sharing types allow you to collaborate with external people without adding them to your team.
External links
You can send an external link to other people without requiring them to have a SeaTable account. Thus, an external link for a Base is a public link that grants read access to a Base. You can also use an external link to embed a Base in a web page.
Invitation links
The invitation link allows you to share Bases with existing SeaTable users as well as with external people who do not yet have an account. However, to open the link and the associated base, the recipient must either log in to SeaTable or register. The link can grant read and write permissions.