PlanSeats vs Airtable
for seating charts

Airtable is an incredibly powerful database-spreadsheet hybrid, and many event planners have attempted to build seating systems in it. The fundamental limitation is that Airtable lacks any visual floor plan capability. You can create a table assignment column and track which guests are assigned to Table 1 or Table 2, but you can't see your actual venue layout or drag guests between seats visually.

The visual aspect of seating charts matters more than it might seem. When you're managing complex seating arrangements: keeping certain guests apart, grouping families together, balancing table sizes: you need to see the layout. Scrolling through rows and columns is error-prone and slow. PlanSeats shows your actual floor plan with guests placed on seats.

Building a seating system in Airtable requires significant setup time: creating the right fields, configuring views, possibly building automations. Most planners spend hours on this before they can even start seating. PlanSeats takes 5 minutes to set up a floor plan and begin placing guests.

If you're already using Airtable for broader event management, the good news is that they work well together. Export your guest list from Airtable as CSV, import into PlanSeats for visual seating, then reference the PlanSeats chart for your event. Use each tool for what it does best.