tableplanner.io
Setting the table…
Setting the table…
The understudy — tableplanner vs DIY templates (Excel, Google Sheets & Canva)
A spreadsheet template is how most couples start — and fair enough: Excel and Google Sheets are free, endlessly flexible, and already on your laptop, and Canva's seating chart templates are genuinely beautiful. For five tables and a drama-free family, a template might be all you need.
The problem isn't making the chart — it's remaking it. Every late RSVP, new plus-one, or remembered feud means re-editing rows by hand, and the spreadsheet never warns you that you've just sat the exes together. tableplanner is the template that thinks: import your list, auto-seat everyone in one click, get warned about bad pairings, and absorb every RSVP change in seconds.
Where we're different
The stuff a bundled seating add-on never bothers with — starting with keeping the peace.
Warnings instead of memory
A spreadsheet will happily let you seat the exes side by side — it's just cells. tableplanner knows who must stay apart and flags the pairing the instant it happens, weeks before anyone reaches the table.
The first draft makes itself
Instead of staring at 120 names and an empty grid, import your Excel file and press one button: tableplanner seats everyone — conflicts avoided, "seat with" wishes honoured, personalities balanced, families and plus-ones together — and you spend your evening fine-tuning, not starting.
RSVP changes take seconds, not evenings
In a template, one cancellation can cascade: merge tables, renumber, re-balance, re-check every pairing yourself. In tableplanner you drag a name and the chart — and its warnings — update live.
A floor plan, not a grid
Cells and columns can't show that table 7 is next to the speakers or that grandma's seat faces the bar. tableplanner lays out real tables on a canvas, so what you plan matches the room.
Keep Canva for the part it's great at
Canva makes gorgeous display signage — so let it. Do the actual seating logic in tableplanner, then take the final arrangement into Canva (or print our PDF) for the easel at the entrance.
Guests find their own seats — by QR
A spreadsheet can't greet your guests. tableplanner generates a QR code guests scan to find their table and seat in seconds — the one job no template, however clever, will ever do.
Side by side
| Feature | tableplanner | DIY templates (Excel, Google Sheets & Canva) |
|---|---|---|
| Conflict / "keep apart" detection | Built in — automatic warnings | Only your memory |
| Seating preferences & personality balance | Yes — "seat with" wishes + likes-based balancing | More columns you maintain yourself |
| One-click auto-seating | Yes — honours conflicts, wishes & personalities | No — every arrangement is manual |
| QR seat finder for guests | Yes — guests scan & find their seat instantly | Not possible |
| When RSVPs change | Drag once — warnings update live | Re-edit cells, reshuffle by hand, hope nothing breaks |
| Plus-one / party linking | Yes — +1s linked, parties stay together | Extra columns you maintain yourself |
| Visual floor plan | Real tables & seats on a canvas | Grid cells, or a Canva poster (not to scale) |
| Working on it together | Live co-editing + read-only share link | Google Sheets: yes. Excel: files emailed around |
| Dietary & accessibility tags | Multi-tag per guest, shown on the chart | More columns to keep updated |
| Pretty display signage | Stationery-grade PDF — or feed final names into Canva | Canva is excellent at this |
| Reusing your existing list | One-step Excel import — and Excel/CSV export back out | It already lives there |
| Pricing | One-time €49 — free up to 30 guests | Free |
Being fair
Credit where it's due: free is free. Excel and Google Sheets are infinitely flexible, you already know how they work, and Sheets even gives you real-time collaboration. Canva's wedding seating chart templates make the prettiest display posters around, with thousands of designs to match your stationery.
For a small wedding — a handful of tables, stable RSVPs, no seating politics — a template honestly does the job. And whatever you build your guest list in, that spreadsheet is the perfect starting file: tableplanner imports it directly.
The price
Templates win on price: €0, forever. tableplanner is free to build a chart of up to 30 guests, then a one-time €49 — no subscription. What the €49 actually buys is your evenings back: one-click auto-seating with personality balancing instead of manual arranging, automatic conflict warnings and "seat with" preferences instead of mental bookkeeping, a QR seat finder so guests find their own seats, and RSVP changes that take seconds instead of a redraw. Your spreadsheet imports in one step — and exports back out as Excel/CSV or a stationery-grade PDF. If your wedding is small and calm, keep the template. If you've already redrawn the chart twice, you know.
No upsells · Yours forever
one-time
No credit card — pay only when you export.
The nosy section
The verdict
Start with a template if your wedding is small and your family is easy — it's free and it works. Switch to tableplanner the moment the chart starts fighting back: too many guests, moving RSVPs, people who can't share a table. Import the spreadsheet you already have, auto-seat in one click, let the warnings catch what your memory won't — and keep Canva for the gorgeous sign at the door. One-time €49, free up to 30 guests.
— signed, two people with a horse in this race.
Build your entire chart for free. Pay the one-time €49 only when you're ready to export, print, or share.
50,000+ guests seated · zero scenes caused
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