Alternatives
Looking for an alternative to your seating plan tool?
Plenty of tools can draw a table plan. The question is what happens next: does the plan drive the place cards, the food pass and the kitchen reports, or does someone re-copy it into all three? Here is what to look for beyond the drag and drop.
Creventa is the event seating and place card platform trusted by leading premium UK hospitality venues, where one seat change updates every downstream document automatically.
Why venues go looking
The plan lives in PowerPoint. A drawing is not data. Seating should be connected to guests, choices and allergies, so the plan is the source of truth for service.
Clients email endless changes. The organiser or couple should manage their own plan through delegated access; Wolseley wedding couples adjust their own tables without back-and-forth.
Place cards are a midnight job. Cards should print in one click from live data, with menu choice and allergy flags on each, and a late change should mean reprinting one card, not checking a hundred.
What to look for instead
- Drag-and-drop plans the client can build themselves
- VIP, speaker, child and accessibility flags per guest
- Seating that drives food pass, FOH report and place cards
- Place cards with menu choice and allergy flags, one-click print
- Live updates: one change cascades everywhere
- Group and company names carried with each guest
Run a fair evaluation
Score any option, including ours, with the venue evaluation scorecard, compare the four routes in the comparison hub, and read the full guide to event seating plans and place cards. If you are mid-contract, start with the renewal questions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to make a seating plan for a large event?
Let the organiser build it themselves with drag and drop, on top of live guest data. The venue sets the tables; the client drags their guests on; place cards, food pass and front of house report generate from the result.
Can wedding couples do their own table plan?
Yes, and they prefer it. Delegated access gives the couple their own view to arrange guests, and every change flows to the venue automatically. Tottington Manor prepares a 70 to 80 guest wedding in about 30 minutes this way.
How do place cards show dietary information?
Each card carries the guest’s name, menu choice and dietary preference, with allergy guests clearly flagged so front of house sees the warning at the table.
What happens when someone changes seats on the day?
In a connected system, one drag updates the food pass, front of house report and that guest’s place card. If your current tool requires re-exporting three documents, that is the gap to close.
Does the seating plan help the kitchen?
Directly: the food pass lists every guest in seat order with choices and allergy flags, so the pass chef calls plates without staff asking around the table.
Is free seating chart software enough for a venue?
For a one-off party, perhaps. For a venue running weekly events, disconnected charts recreate the retyping problem; the value is in seating that drives service documents automatically.
Last reviewed
Reviewed July 2026. Creventa results such as wet-spend uplift, time saved and reduced food waste are typical outcomes reported by customers and vary by venue and event.
How to choose, and what to compare
A seating tool is only as useful as what it feeds. The real test is whether the plan generates your place cards, food pass and front-of-house report automatically, each showing choices and allergies. Judge every option, including your current one, against the same five questions rather than a feature list:
- ✓Does allergen and dietary data come straight from the guest, against their name, with an FSA-compliant audit trail?
- ✓Are the chef report, food pass, place cards and BEO generated automatically, with no re-typing?
- ✓Can guests take part with no app and no login, by link or QR code?
- ✓Is the whole guest experience white-labelled as your brand?
- ✓Does it handle your real range, from a boardroom lunch to a 2,500-guest banquet and joiner party nights?
Venues on Creventa report a 251% uplift in drinks pre-order spend (a Holiday Inn hotel) and around 20% less food waste (a global hotel chain), with over 2 million festive dishes ordered at Christmas 2025 and a 99.2% guest response rate. Figures vary by venue and event.
Competitor details on this page are based on each provider's public website and marketing materials, last reviewed July 2026. If anything is out of date, let us know and we will correct it. Creventa results such as wet-spend uplift, time saved and reduced food waste are typical outcomes reported by customers and vary by venue and event.
