Seating Chart App Pricing, Compared

The quick version: for a couple, the cheapest cash price we found is SimplifyTables at $9.99 per event (with a QR seat finder even on its free plan), followed by SeatCanvas at $19.99. Most other tools cluster around $29. What you get for that money varies a lot: whether the plan expires, whether automatic seating is included, and whether you can print.

This table compares the free plan, the paid price, how long you keep access and which features each paid tier includes. Prices are in the currency each site shows, before sales tax or VAT. The tool name stays pinned while you scroll sideways through the columns.

Price is only one part of the decision. If you are still choosing on features like the floor plan and guest details, our comparison of the best wedding seating chart tools covers those side by side.

Seating chart apps sell access in three ways, and the label on the button doesn’t always tell you which one you are buying.

One-time and permanent

You pay once and keep the plan. Lovely Seating Pro ($39), PlanSeats’ $50 Lifetime Plus option (“keep it forever”) and PerfectTablePlan’s desktop licences (“a single payment (not a recurring subscription)”) work this way. This suits couples who start early, or whose date moves.

One-time, but it expires

You pay once, but editing ends after a set time. This is the most common model, and the one that catches people out. SeatPlan.io’s Pro and Collaborate last 90 days, then charts turn view-only and become eligible for deletion after a 7-day grace period. table-plan.com Premium is “valid for 3 months” and then reverts to Free. Seatbee keeps your plan saved, but “you just can’t make changes after 6 months without renewing.” SeatCanvas runs until 30 days after your event, which is generous if you set the date correctly.

Expiring passes aren’t a trick. They are usually cheaper, and if you buy one in the last two or three months you may never notice the limit. Just time the purchase: late RSVPs, plus-ones and a guest who can’t sit near an ex tend to arrive in the final weeks, which is exactly when you need to edit.

Subscription

You pay monthly or yearly, and access lasts while you pay. These plans are aimed at planners and venues: table-plan.com Pro ($49/month), PlanSeats Pro ($39.99/month), SeatPlan.io Event Manager (£40/month billed annually), Social Tables ($49–$320/month with a 12-month commitment) and Lovely Seating Agency ($79/month). For a single wedding, a subscription rarely makes sense.

“Free” ranges from a demo that forgets your work when you close the tab to a full plan you can finish. These are the three limits to check.

• Does it save? SeatPlan.io’s FAQ says “We do not store charts for free or anonymous users.” PerfectTablePlan’s trial won’t save, export or print plans over 30 guests. Seatbee, SeatCanvas and Lovely Seating save free plans to a free account.
• Is there a guest cap? Zola is free to 15 guests, PlanSeats to 20 (and 4 tables), table-plan.com and SimplifyTables to 30, SeatCanvas seats up to 40 on its canvas, and Seatbee allows 100. Lovely Seating’s free plan has no guest or table cap.
• Can you print? Seatbee and SeatCanvas let you export PDFs for free, which is a real strength. table-plan.com, SeatPlan.io and Lovely Seating keep print-ready PDFs for paid plans.

Lovely Seating’s free plan ($0, forever) covers 1 wedding, 1 seating plan with unlimited guests and tables, the drag-and-drop floor plan, guest list and RSVP tracking, CSV import, and relationship-aware Auto-Seat, which keeps households together and conflicts apart. You see the finished plan on screen with a watermark. Printing, place cards, the guest QR page, collaboration and version history are part of Pro.

The headline price is rarely the whole bill. These are the extra costs we found while checking each site.

• The QR seat finder costs extra on some tools. On SeatPlan.io, the QR seat finder and wallet passes need Collaborate (£14), not Pro (£8). table-plan.com includes its QR in Premium. SimplifyTables gives you one free.
• Renewals if planning runs long. If you buy a 90-day or 3-month pass early, or your wedding is postponed, you may pay again to keep editing.
• Bigger guest lists. Seatbee’s $29 pass covers 250 guests; 500 guests is the $49 Signature Pass. Most free plans also stop at 15–100 guests.
• Per-event pricing. Seatbee, SimplifyTables, Joy and table-plan.com Premium price per event, so a rehearsal dinner or second event can mean a second purchase.
• Add-ons beyond seating. SimplifyTables sells RSVP & Invitations for $60 per event. Printed signs and stationery are a separate cost on every tool.
• Currency and tax. SeatPlan.io prices in pounds, and PerfectTablePlan adds sales tax or VAT in the cart.

Our own catch, stated plainly: Pro covers 1 wedding, up to 5 seating plans. Planning a second wedding (for a sibling, say) means deleting the first, or moving to Agency, which is built for planners. There’s no free trial of Pro, but because the free plan has no guest cap you can build your whole chart before deciding.

Take a typical case: 150 guests, planning starts nine months before the wedding, and you want a printed chart plus a QR code at the door. Here is roughly what each tool costs, based on the prices above.

On cash alone, SimplifyTables and SeatCanvas are cheaper than we are, and they deserve credit for it. Lovely Seating costs a little more because Pro covers the whole job and doesn’t expire: Auto-Seat (already free), print-ready charts in 7 themes, place cards, a Find Your Seat QR page that updates when you move someone, and collaboration with your partner.

If your list is 15 guests or fewer, Zola’s free tier may be all you need. If it is under 100 and you don’t need a QR code, Seatbee’s free plan, PDFs included, is hard to beat.

For planners the maths changes, because you pay per wedding or per month. This table shows a year’s cost at 12 and at 30 weddings, using each tool’s list price.

On price alone, Agency isn’t the cheapest option. Seatbee’s bundles and PerfectTablePlan’s Professional licence cost less, and table-plan.com’s per-event Premium is cheaper at 12 weddings. Social Tables offers annual-billing discounts on top of the monthly prices shown.

Agency is built for a different job: unlimited weddings and seating plans in the browser, white-label exports with no Lovely Seating credit, a QR seat finder for every client, version history across all plans and priority support. If those matter, the seating chart software for wedding planners page shows how it fits a client workflow.

Work through these in order:

• Count your guests. If you’re over the free cap, you’ll pay anyway, so compare paid tiers.
• Check when access ends against your date. Starting more than three months out? Pick a plan that doesn’t expire, or buy a pass late.
• List the extras you’ll actually use. A QR code at the door, place cards, automatic seating, a partner editing with you. Then check which tier includes each.
• Try before you pay. Build on the free plan first. A tool with no guest cap lets you test it with your real list.

Seating software is a small line in a wedding budget. If you’re still setting the rest of it, the wedding budget calculator splits a total across categories, stationery included.