What happened to Social Tables
If you went looking for Social Tables and landed somewhere called Cvent Event Diagramming, you're in the right place — it's the same product.
Cvent acquired Social Tables in 2018 and has since folded it into the Cvent suite. The socialtables.com domain still works, the logo still says Social Tables, but the product is now branded and sold as Cvent Event Diagramming.
For most planners that rebrand is cosmetic. Two things did change in ways worth knowing before you renew:
- Paid plans run on a 12-month commitment. This isn't a monthly subscription you cancel after a busy season.
- Pricing depends which page you land on. Cvent's own diagramming pricing page lists an Essential tier at no cost and Professional at $199/month on that 12-month commitment, with custom enterprise pricing above it. The legacy socialtables.com pricing page still shows older planner and venue tiers — $49, $150 and $320 per month, also on a 12-month commitment. Check which one your quote actually refers to before you sign.
What Cvent Event Diagramming is genuinely good at
We'd rather be straight with you than pretend we replace it. Their published feature set includes things we don't do at all:
- Photo-realistic 3D — walk a client through the room before it exists
- Diagram automation — generate layouts rather than placing every table by hand
- Real-time collaboration on the same diagram
- Registration integration with the wider Cvent ecosystem
- Post-event reporting and attendee management
If you're a hotel or a large venue selling the room, that 3D walkthrough is a sales asset, and there is no honest 2D substitute for it. If you already run Cvent for registration, staying inside one suite is a real advantage. In both cases, use it.
When a standalone seating tool is the better buy
The case for leaving is rarely about capability. It's about shape:
- You don't run enough events to justify a year's commitment. A planner with a busy spring and a quiet autumn is paying twelve months for four.
- You never used the 3D. A lot of teams bought the walkthrough, then spent every working hour in the 2D seating view.
- You want to seat guests, not sell rooms. Getting from 180 names in a spreadsheet to a plan the venue can print is a different job from producing a photorealistic render.
- You need one event covered, not a subscription. Freelancers and one-off contracts don't fit an annual plan at all.
That's the gap SeatPlanning is built for. We do the 2D seating chart and the guest loop around it — RSVP collection, branded email invitations, guest self-claim, QR check-in at the door — with no commitment period, and a one-time Event Pass for a single event when a subscription makes no sense.
We don't do 3D, and we're not planning to. If that's what you're buying, buy theirs.
Head to head
| Cvent Event Diagramming | SeatPlanning | |
|---|---|---|
| Photo-realistic 3D tours | ✅ | ❌ |
| 2D floor plan + seating | ✅ | ✅ |
| Diagram automation | ✅ | Auto seat distribution |
| Guest import (Excel/CSV) | ✅ | ✅ |
| RSVP collection | ✅ | ✅ |
| Branded email invitations | Via Cvent ecosystem | Built in |
| QR check-in | ✅ | ✅ |
| Free tier | Essential — no cost | Free builder, no account needed |
| Paid from | $199/mo, 12-month commitment | See pricing — cancel any time |
| One-time option | ❌ | Event Pass, single event |
| Best for | Hotels, large venues, existing Cvent customers | Planners who mainly need seating, guests and exports |
Pricing checked 17 August 2026 against each vendor's published information. Confirm before you buy.
How to choose in one question
Are you selling the room, or seating the guests?
Selling the room — pitching a space, winning the booking, showing a client what the evening looks like — is Cvent's job and they're good at it. Seating the guests — the import, the RSVPs, the last-minute swaps, the plan the caterer actually reads — is ours.
If you're doing both at scale, running both is defensible. If you're honest that you only ever open the 2D view, you're paying a year at a time for a feature you don't use.
Trying the alternative before you commit
You don't need an account or a sales call to see whether the seating half works for you:
- Open the free seating chart builder — no signup, no card.
- Rebuild one room you already know. Ten minutes is enough to tell.
- If the workflow fits, see what it costs. If it doesn't, you've lost ten minutes instead of a year.
