Top Table Planner vs. Lovely Seating (for seating)
Side by side, for the seating chart specifically:
Want the wider field? See our honest comparison of the best wedding seating chart tools —Top Table Planner, and the rest, side by side.
What is Top Table Planner?
Top Table Planner is a simple, web-based table-plan tool for weddings and events, with a strong following (especially in the UK). It’s a genuinely nice tool, so this is an honest comparison. The essentials:
- It’s web-based — works on a PC, Mac, iPad or phone, with nothing to install.
- Seating is drag-and-drop — there’s no automatic seating and no keep-together/keep-apart.
- It’s a table diagram, not a to-scale plan of your room with venue objects.
- It imports from Word/Excel and tracks RSVPs, meal choices and guest types.
- It prints PDF plans, meal summaries and posters from A4 up to A1; pricing is a one-off for 6–12 months.
How Top Table Planner works
The flow is quick and entirely manual:
- Sign in on the web — no install, and it works on a tablet too.
- Import your guest list from Word or Excel, and mark RSVPs and meal choices.
- Add your tables — round, square or rectangular — and arrange them on the page.
- Drag guests onto seats yourself, one by one.
- Print or export a PDF plan, a meal summary, and a poster from A4 up to A1.
Where Top Table Planner falls short
It does the basics well. The gaps are the two things that take the most effort off your plate:
- Everything is manual. You place all 120 guests by hand. There’s no auto-seat to keep families together and feuding relatives apart for you.
- It’s not to scale. Tables are a diagram, not a sized plan of your real room with walls, a dance floor and a bar — so it’s less useful to hand your venue or caterer.
- Late RSVPs mean manual rework. When someone drops out, you rearrange by hand.
- Time-limited access. Your plan is tied to a 6- or 12-month access window rather than something you build free and keep going back to.
The best Top Table Planner alternative: a tool made just for seating
Top Table Planner and Lovely Seating are both browser tools — so the difference isn’t web-vs-desktop, it’s what the tool does for you. Lovely Seating adds the two things a manual planner can’t: it seats guests automatically, and it lays out your real room to scale.
- Start from your Top Table Planner list. Import the guest list you already built in Top Table Planner in one step — no re-typing anyone (more below).
- A to-scale floor plan. Lay out your real room, sized to the space — the kind of plan you can actually hand your venue or caterer, not a rough diagram.
- Automatic seating. Tag who must sit together and who to keep apart, and Auto-Seat places everyone in one click, honouring every rule.
- Every guest detail. RSVPs, meals, dietary and access needs, plus-ones, groups and households — all joined to the seat.
- Complete exports. A print-ready chart, an A–Z guest finder, a table list, place cards and a CSV — all from the same plan.
- Free to build, no cap. Build the whole plan free at any size; a one-time $29 unlocks exports — no subscription.
If your wedding is small and simple, you enjoy placing everyone by hand, and you don’t need a to-scale plan, Top Table Planner does the job. The comparison below shows exactly where each one wins.
Every guest detail in one place — not a bare name on a chair
Top Table Planner tracks RSVPs and meals too. The difference in Lovely Seating is that every detail stays joined to the seat and updates live — so a plus-one, a dietary flag or a late decline updates your plan and your caterer counts at the same time. Each guest carries their RSVP, meal choice, dietary and access needs, age group, side, group and household — and you can sort, filter and bulk-edit the whole list.
Open any guest and you get the full picture at a glance — no jumping between the guest list and a separate seating canvas.
And because meals live on the guest, you get a running count the moment you need it — the exact number your caterer needs, dietary flags included:
Let Auto-Seat do the arranging Top Table Planner makes you do by hand
This is the difference couples feel most. In Top Table Planner you place all 120 guests yourself, one drag at a time — and redo it every time an RSVP changes. Lovely Seating lets you set relationships once and seat the whole room in a click:
- Must sit together. A hard rule — couples, families, a guest and their carer always land at the same table.
- Would prefer together. A soft preference — honoured when there’s room, relaxed when there isn’t.
- Keep apart. A hard rule — feuding relatives or an ex never share a table, and the reason stays private.
When someone drops out or a plus-one appears, you don’t rebuild the room — re-run Auto-Seat and it re-balances around the change while keeping your rules intact. Prefer to place people yourself? You still can, on the same to-scale plan — with a live warning if you seat someone who’s declined or overfill a table.
See auto-seating in action
Households, keep-together and keep-apart rules, and a one-click seat for the whole room — the part Top Table Planner leaves entirely to you.
Should you switch? An honest take
We’d rather you land in the right place than just sign up. Here’s the honest split:
- You want a simple, proven web tool and are happy placing guests by hand.
- Your wedding is small and you don’t need automatic seating or a to-scale plan.
- You like its poster sizes (A4 to A1) and meal-summary printouts.
- You want the tool to seat everyone automatically, keeping families together.
- You want a to-scale plan of your room, with a dance floor and bar.
- You’d like to build the whole plan free before paying anything.
- You want per-table meal counts and dietary flags joined to the seats.
Move your Top Table Planner guest list over in minutes
The best part: you don’t re-type anyone. Export your guest list as a CSV — or paste it straight in — then import it into Lovely Seating. It matches the columns for you, links plus-ones, and flags duplicates before anything is added.
Bring your Top Table Planner list and seat it free
Import your guests from Top Table Planner, lay out your room to scale, and let Auto-Seat do the arranging. Build the whole plan free — one-time $29 only when you’re ready to export.
Frequently asked questions
Does Top Table Planner seat guests automatically?+
No. Top Table Planner is a drag-and-drop table planner — you place every guest yourself, and there's no keep-together / keep-apart logic. If you want the tool to seat everyone for you while keeping families together and certain people apart, you'll want a tool with automatic seating, like Lovely Seating.
Is there an automatic alternative to Top Table Planner?+
Yes. Lovely Seating gives you the same web-based convenience, plus one-click relationship-aware seating and a to-scale floor plan of your room. Import your guest list, tag who sits together and who to keep apart, and Auto-Seat fills every table — then re-balances when RSVPs change. Free to build; a one-time $29 to export.
Does Top Table Planner have a to-scale floor plan?+
No — it arranges tables as a diagram, without a sized plan of your actual room or venue objects like a dance floor and bar. Lovely Seating lays out your real room to scale, which is more useful to hand your venue or caterer.
What does Top Table Planner cost vs Lovely Seating?+
Top Table Planner is a one-off payment for 6 or 12 months of access (from around $20, with Personal and Professional tiers). Lovely Seating is free to build your whole plan at any size, with a one-time $29 to unlock exports. Both are affordable — the real differences are automatic seating and a to-scale plan.
Can I move my guest list from Top Table Planner?+
Yes. Export or simply paste your guest list, then import it into Lovely Seating — it matches the columns automatically, links plus-ones and flags duplicates before anything is added.
Is Top Table Planner any good?+
It's a simple, reliable web-based table planner that's been around a while and is generally well liked. Its main limits are that seating is fully manual and it isn't a to-scale plan of your room — which is exactly where an automatic, to-scale tool differs.
Written and fact-checked by the Lovely Seating team. Last verified July 2026 against each platform’s own help documentation — we update this page as the tools change.
Let the tool seat your wedding
Import your guest list, lay out your room to scale, and let Auto-Seat place everyone — on any device, free to build.
Start your seating chart free