SeatingPlannerApp Alternative: SeatCanvas, One-Time (2026)

SeatingPlannerApp vs SeatCanvas: two tools, one job

SeatingPlannerApp and SeatCanvas are both browser-based seating chart makers built to answer the same question: how do you lay out a room full of people who mostly don’t know each other? Both run in a browser, both take a CSV of your guests, both let you drag names into seats and hand a chart to your caterer. This is the closest head-to-head in the whole comparison set — no desktop-vs-cloud gap, no enterprise-vs-consumer gap. Two web apps, similar shape, different bets.

So the honest comparison lives in the details: what each one does that the other doesn’t, and what you actually pay.

What SeatingPlannerApp does well

Credit where it’s due. SeatingPlannerApp’s one-click AI auto-arrange is a real feature — it reads your guest list and suggests an optimal arrangement in a single click. SeatCanvas has nothing like it. If you want a starting layout generated for you instead of dragging every guest yourself, that’s a point for SeatingPlannerApp, full stop.

It also tracks guest dietary needs and folds them into the exports your vendors get — handy when the caterer needs a per-table count of the vegetarians. And it color-codes guests by family, friends, and colleagues, so you can see the shape of the room at a glance. Those three things — auto-arrange, dietary tracking, color-coded groups — are genuine strengths, and SeatCanvas either does them manually or not at all.

Where SeatCanvas is the better pick

SeatCanvas wins on two counts you can check before you commit: a published $9.99 one-time price, and PDF, PNG, and CSV export. The gap opens up around price and what you can actually get out of the tool.

SeatCanvas costs $9.99 one-time for the Event Pass. That number is printed on the pricing page. There’s no subscription. SeatingPlannerApp is free to start, but its premium features unlock through a subscribe flow, and as of July 2026 the premium price isn’t posted on a public pricing page — you find out when you go to subscribe. For a single wedding, a published price you can see before you commit beats a “free to start” whose real cost only shows up at checkout.

Export is the other split. SeatCanvas gives you three formats — PDF, PNG, and CSV: a print-ready chart for the venue wall, an image for the group chat, and the data back out if you need it. SeatingPlannerApp documents one — a PDF — plus a read-only share link. The PDF covers the caterer; the PNG and CSV are the parts you’ll miss if you want an image or your data back.

And SeatCanvas ships a full Spanish-language version. For a Quinceañera or a bilingual wedding where half the family reads Spanish first, that’s not a nice-to-have — it’s whether the tool is usable for the people planning the party. I couldn’t find a Spanish version of SeatingPlannerApp.

The free tier is permanent, too: events up to 40 seated guests get the full canvas and every export format, no timer, no card on file. SeatingPlannerApp is free to start, but the line between free and premium isn’t published.

Moving your guest list over

If you started in SeatingPlannerApp, the move is quick because you almost certainly already have the raw material: the CSV you uploaded in the first place.

1. Find the guest-list CSV you imported into SeatingPlannerApp. If you don’t have it, copy your names and party sizes into a spreadsheet and save it as CSV.
2. Open the SeatCanvas planner — no sign-in needed for events up to 40 guests.
3. Click the guest list icon, choose Import CSV, and upload the file.
4. Use the column-mapping step to match your columns to SeatCanvas’s name and party-size fields.

The room layout doesn’t transfer — you’ll redraw the tables in SeatCanvas — but for a wedding-scale list that’s a few minutes of dragging, and then you export a PDF or PNG for the day.

Bottom line

SeatingPlannerApp makes a good case if AI auto-arrange, dietary tracking, and color-coded groups are the features you’d use most, and you’re fine unlocking premium at a price you’ll see at checkout. It’s a capable tool and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

But for one event, planned by one person, SeatCanvas answers the two questions that matter most:

• What does it cost? $9.99 one-time, printed on the pricing page. No subscription.
• What can I get out of it? PDF, PNG, and CSV export, in English or Spanish, off a permanent free tier up to 40 guests.

If a one-click starting layout is the thing you can’t live without, SeatingPlannerApp. Otherwise, open the SeatCanvas planner and drag your first table onto the canvas. (Comparing other direct tools? See SeatCanvas vs PerfectTablePlan and our take on AI seating chart generators.)