A Seating Chart Maker That Is Actually Free
Many "free" seating chart tools want an email address before you have seen a single table, then cap what you can do without paying. This page sets out exactly what tablout gives away, what costs money, and where your data sits. You can decide in two minutes rather than after signing up.
What free means here
Open the planner. There is no account, no email box, no trial clock. You can build an entire plan, use it, and never pay anything.
| Free | One-off unlock, €9.99 |
|---|---|
| The whole planner: 7 table shapes, drag, resize, rotate, duplicate, rename | Poster PNG up to 300 DPI (less on the largest sheets and on Safari), no watermark |
| Up to 500 guests across up to 50 tables, added one at a time or pasted as a list | Vector SVG, and print or save as PDF |
| Colour-coded groups and auto-seat | 3 mm bleed version, for professional printing |
| Guest search and the over-capacity warning | |
| Save and open a project file (.tablout.json) | |
| Guest list export as CSV or TXT | |
| Floor plan export as PNG | |
| Poster preview, watermarked, all 4 templates and both layouts |
There is no paywall on the guest list. The planner holds up to 500 guests across up to 50 tables, and nothing quietly stops working at fifty names. The single thing behind the unlock is the print-ready poster file. Everything you need to plan the event, brief the venue and check the arrangement is free, without an account.
If you never want a printed poster, you will never hit the paywall. Plenty of people put a tablet on the door, or use escort cards instead. Seating chart vs escort cards weighs those options up.
Where your data lives
Your plan is stored in your browser's localStorage. In practice:
- Nothing about your guests is uploaded to us. We do not have a copy of your list, because we never receive one.
- There is no account to breach, no password to leak and no marketing list you have been added to.
- The plan is tied to that browser on that device. Open tablout on your laptop and it is there; open it on your phone and it is not.
- Only one plan lives in the browser at a time. Starting a second event replaces the first in storage.
The honest risk, and the fix
Browser storage is not a backup. It disappears if you clear your site data or browsing history, if you use a private or incognito window and close it, if a device-cleanup app tidies up behind you, or if your browser evicts storage under pressure. It also will not follow you to a new laptop.
Do this once and stop worrying. When your plan is roughly right, hit Save Project. You get a .tablout.json file. Email it to yourself or drop it in your cloud folder. That file is the real copy of your seating plan. Reopen it in tablout any time, on any device. Save again after any big change. The €9.99 unlock is not in that file. It lives in this browser, so keep your Stripe receipt and re-enter it on a new device.
The same file is how you keep two plans at once. Save wedding-v1.tablout.json and wedding-v2.tablout.json, then open whichever you want to work on.
The trade-offs versus tools that ask for an email
Being straight about this is more useful than pretending there is no cost.
| tablout (no account) | Typical account-gated tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first table | Seconds | Sign-up, verify email, onboarding |
| Your guest list | Stays in your browser | Stored on their servers |
| Access from another device | Only via the saved file | Log in anywhere |
| If you clear site data | Plan is gone unless saved | Plan still on their server |
| Multiple plans | One in the browser, more as files | Usually unlimited in the account |
| Collaboration | Not supported | Often supported |
| Marketing email afterwards | None. We have no address | Likely |
An account buys you sync and collaboration, and costs you your guest list and your inbox. No account buys you speed and privacy, and costs you a manual save. For most people planning one event over a few weeks, the manual save is a fair trade. If you need three people editing the same plan at once, tablout is genuinely not the tool. It has no sharing links and no collaboration.
What you can build in the free planner
Nothing below is held back.
- Seven table shapes: round, rectangle, square, oval, U-shape, L-shape and banquet. Drag them into place, then resize, rotate, duplicate and rename as needed.
- Paste a whole guest list, one name per line. Add a comma and a group name, as in Tom Everitt, Colleagues, and the group is applied automatically.
- Colour-coded groups: Family, Friends, Colleagues, Plus Ones, plus up to 16 custom groups of your own.
- Auto-seat, which fills empty seats by group on a best-fit basis and reports who did not fit. That report tells you whether you have a capacity problem before the day.
- A warning when guests outnumber seats, and a search box for finding one name in a long list.
- Exports: floor plan as PNG, guest list as CSV or TXT, the whole project as a file.
- Mobile support, for the inevitable moment when you are rearranging table six on a train.
Two things it does not do. There are no constraint rules, so you cannot mark two guests as "must not sit together". There is no undo. Move deliberately, and save your project file at milestones.
A sensible free workflow
- Confirm your table count and sizes with the venue before you start. How many guests per table covers the usual capacities.
- Open the planner and place your tables. Duplicate one table rather than adding each from scratch.
- Paste the guest list with groups appended.
- Run auto-seat, read the did-not-fit report, then move people by hand.
- Save Project. Email the file to yourself.
- Export the PNG floor plan for the venue and the CSV list for the caterer.
- Only at the end, once nobody else has dropped out, deal with the poster.
If you have not built one before, how to make a seating chart walks through the thinking rather than the buttons, and the wedding seating chart guide covers the specifics of a reception.
Beyond weddings
The planner does not care what the event is. The same tables and groups work for a corporate event, a banquet, or a classroom. For a classroom, use rectangles or squares in rows, with groups standing in for reading sets or behaviour groupings, and a fresh PNG export each time you reshuffle.
Open the planner, no email required
Place your tables, paste your guest list and see the whole thing in a few minutes. Then save a project file so you always have a copy.
Open the planner →Common questions
- Is the planner free, or is it a trial?
The planner is free to use, with no trial period. The planner holds up to 500 guests and 50 tables. The only paid item is the one-off unlock for the print-resolution poster file. The planner, all exports of the floor plan and guest list, and the watermarked poster preview cost nothing.
- Do you store my guest list?
No. Your plan is saved in your own browser's local storage and is never sent to our servers. We have no account system, so there is nothing of yours for us to hold.
- What if I clear my browser data?
The plan is lost. This is the real trade-off of not having an account. Use Save Project to download a .tablout.json file. That file is your backup and reopens in the planner on any device.
- Can I keep more than one seating plan?
Only one plan lives in the browser at a time. To keep several, save each as its own .tablout.json file and open whichever you need. Opening a file replaces what is currently in the browser.
- Is there a watermark on the free poster?
Yes. The free poster preview is watermarked so you can check the layout, template and size before deciding. The unwatermarked print file, plus SVG, print or save as PDF, and bleed, is the paid unlock.