Planning Pod is a business platform that includes floor plans
This is the important distinction, and it's easy to miss when you're comparing screenshots.
Planning Pod isn't a seating tool. It's an event-business management suite — CRM, leads, proposals, contracts, invoicing, banquet event orders, timelines, budgets, task lists — that also contains a to-scale floor plan builder and seating chart.
The floor plan module is genuinely capable. Their published feature list includes drag-and-drop layout with snap guides, imperial and metric measurements, room boundary uploads, reusable templates, real-time multi-user editing, full-colour branded PDF export, guest list integration with RSVP and meal choice tracking, and multi-device check-in on the day.
If you run a venue and you need the contracts, the BEOs and the invoicing in one place, that bundle is the point and it's a reasonable buy. This page is not an argument that Planning Pod is bad software.
What you're actually paying for
Two things about the commercial shape catch people out.
You're billed by event volume. The published plans are structured around how many events you can have:
| Plan | Price | Event cap |
|---|---|---|
| Event Management Planner | $74/mo | 10 |
| Event Management Business | $109/mo | 25 |
| Event Management Enterprise 50 | $159/mo | 50 |
| Event Management Enterprise 75+ | Custom | 75–2,000 |
| Venue Management | $149/mo | Unlimited |
There's no free trial. Their listing shows no complimentary tier and no trial, so evaluating means buying.
Pricing checked 17 August 2026 against published listings. Confirm before you buy.
When the suite is the wrong shape
You're likely overbuying if:
- You already have the business stack. Plenty of planners run invoicing, contracts and CRM somewhere they like. Paying for a second copy inside Planning Pod to reach the floor plan is expensive.
- Your event count is lumpy. Caps of 10, 25 and 50 force you up a tier for a busy season and leave you overpaying through a quiet one.
- You want to try before you buy. No trial means the evaluation starts at $74.
- Seating is the actual job. If what you need is the import, the layout, the RSVPs and a plan the venue can print, most of a 40-tool suite is surface area you'll never open.
What SeatPlanning does instead
We do one job: the seating chart and the guest loop around it.
- 2D floor plans with tables, seats, walls, areas and a ruler — built for seating, not general diagramming
- Guest import from Excel or CSV with column mapping
- RSVP collection with custom fields — meal choice, dietary needs, accessibility, plus-ones
- Branded email invitations and guest self-claim, so the chart fills itself in
- QR check-in at the door, tied back to the seat
- Print-ready PDF and Excel exports for the venue and the caterer
- No event caps on our top plan, and no commitment period
- A one-time Event Pass when you only have a single event to cover
What we don't do: CRM, invoicing, contracts, proposals, BEOs, budgets or 3D. If those are on your list, Planning Pod covers ground we don't.
Head to head
| Planning Pod | SeatPlanning | |
|---|---|---|
| To-scale floor plans | ✅ | ✅ |
| Seating charts | ✅ | ✅ |
| RSVP + meal choices | ✅ | ✅ |
| Day-of check-in | ✅ | ✅ QR + manual |
| CRM, invoicing, contracts, BEOs | ✅ | ❌ |
| Event caps | 10 / 25 / 50 by tier | None on top plan |
| Free trial | ❌ | Free builder, no account needed |
| One-time option | ❌ | Event Pass, single event |
| Paid from | $74/mo | See pricing |
| Best for | Venues and agencies running the whole business in one place | Planners whose job is seating, guests and exports |
How to decide
Count the modules you'd genuinely use.
If the honest answer is "contracts, invoices, BEOs and the floor plan", Planning Pod is the right shape and the bundled price is fair. If the honest answer is "the floor plan and the guest list", you're paying suite pricing and accepting event caps to reach two tools.
You can test the second case for free: open the free seating chart builder, rebuild a room you already know, and see whether the seating half is all you were missing.
