Paste from anywhere
One name per line is enough. Commas, tabs and stray numbering are stripped rather than turned into guests called "3.".
Free tool · no account
Free Seating Chart Maker
Build your room, add tables and assign seats. Try the canvas below without an account; your plan stays in this browser.
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An online seating chart maker, not another blank template
A template records a decision after you make it. This online seating chart maker helps make the decision: it counts occupied chairs, keeps households together and shows whether the real room still fits when a table or guest moves.
Use the canvas when dimensions and last-minute changes matter. If the event is small and a spreadsheet is genuinely faster, the free wedding seating chart templates remain direct, ungated downloads rather than a disguised signup path.
How it works in three steps
Most seating tools ask you to learn a system before you can see anything. This one is closer to moving furniture: you place tables where the room has room for them, then move names onto the tables.
01Lay out the room
Add round and rectangular tables and drag them until the plan matches the venue - head table, dance floor, bar, the awkward pillar. Tables snap to each other so the spacing stays even without measuring.
02Load the guest list
Paste names straight out of a spreadsheet or a message thread, or import a CSV or Excel file. Households and plus-ones stay together as you paste, and the running count tells you immediately whether the room you have drawn actually fits the people you have invited.
03Seat everyone, then share it
Drag a guest onto a table, or into an exact chair when the seat matters. When the plan is done, save it to a free account and publish a guest page with a QR code guests scan to find their own table.
Import your guest list
A guest list arrives in whatever shape the person who kept it chose. Ours reads three of them: a pasted block of names, a CSV export, and an Excel file straight from the venue.
Pasting is the fastest path and the one most people use. Copy a column out of Google Sheets, paste it into the box, and the count under the box updates as you type so you can see the paste was understood before you commit it. Names with a plus-one written in the same cell stay attached to the household rather than becoming two unrelated rows.
Nothing about the import is destructive. If the list comes in wrong, clear it and paste again - no assignments are lost until you make them.
CSV and Excel
Upload the file the venue or the RSVP site gave you. Column mapping happens on screen, so a file with the names in the third column is not a problem.
Households stay together
Guests who arrive as a group are seated as a group by default, which is how nearly every reception actually seats people.
Live capacity count
The number of seated guests against the number of chairs you have drawn is always on screen. Overfilling a table is visible immediately, not on the day.
Share with a QR code
A printed seating board is a queue generator. Everyone arrives in the same ten minutes, and everyone has to stand at the same piece of card and read a list of two hundred names to find one.
The alternative is one QR code on a sign at the door. A guest scans it with the phone camera they already know how to use, types the first few letters of their name, and sees their table. No app, no account, no scrolling past everybody else.
The code points at the event rather than at a fixed assignment, which is the part that matters when someone cancels the night before. Move the guest in your plan and the same printed sign shows the new answer the next time anyone scans it.
Guests never see a browsable list of everyone attending. The guest page is a name search that returns one result - the one they asked for.
Works for weddings, banquets and conferences
The underlying job is the same across weddings, banquets and conferences: put a name on a chair and tell the person which chair it is. RH Seating supports published events of up to 500 guests; contact us before planning a larger event.
Weddings
Round tables, a head or sweetheart table, and the family arithmetic that goes with them. Start at wedding seating chart software.
Banquets and galas
Ten to a round, service aisles that stay walkable, and a head table that does not block the sightline. See banquet seating plan.
Conferences and training
Cabaret, classroom or theatre, chosen by what the room is for rather than by what fits. Compare all eight in event seating styles.
Anything with a check-in
Track who has arrived from a phone at the door with the event check-in app.
What is free, and what is not
Building is free and stays free. There is no export paywall on the chart itself, no watermark, and no limit on how many times you rearrange it.
Publishing is where an account is needed, because publishing means we are hosting a page real guests will load on the day. Your first event publishes free through 250 guests, which covers the large majority of weddings outright. After that it is one payment per event - not a subscription, and refundable until seven days after the event has happened, and never less than 14 days from payment.
The honest version of the trade: we are betting that a tool good enough to plan your whole reception in is a tool you will pay a one-off fee to put in front of your guests. If it is not, you have still lost nothing.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an account to make a seating chart?
No. The chart maker opens and works with no account at all - tables, guest list, assignments and rearranging are all free and unauthenticated. An account is only needed to save the plan permanently and to publish the guest page with its QR code.
Is it really free, or free until I try to export?
Building is genuinely free with no export gate. Publishing a live guest page is free for your first event through 250 guests, then one payment per event with no subscription.
What happens to my chart if I close the tab?
Without an account the plan is kept in your own browser, so it survives a refresh but not a cleared cache or a different device. Saving it to a free account is what makes it permanent and reachable from your phone at the venue.
Can guests see the whole guest list?
No. The guest page is a name search that returns a single result. It does not present a browsable directory of everyone attending.
Can I change seats after the signs are printed?
Yes, and this is the main reason to use a QR code instead of a board. The code points at the event, not at one fixed arrangement, so moving a guest updates what the same printed sign shows.
How many guests does it handle?
The designer is built for rooms in the hundreds rather than for stadium ticketing. Weddings, banquets, galas and conference dining all sit comfortably inside what it does; numbered seat maps for ticketed venues do not.
Continue from here
The chart is already open.
Nothing above this line asked for an email address, and nothing below it will either until you want a guest page.
Build your chart freeNo account needed to buildFirst event free through 250Paid events refundable until 7 days after the day