Do you need seating chart software?
Under about forty guests, a spreadsheet is enough. Past sixty, with keep-aparts and a guest list that moves, the spreadsheet becomes the problem: every late RSVP means rechecking who cannot sit together by hand. The threshold is not taste, it is the number of constraints you are holding in your head.
The three signals a spreadsheet is done
First, you are maintaining a second list of who cannot sit with whom, in your head or in a note, because the grid cannot express it. Second, every change forces you to recheck the whole room rather than one table. Third, two people are editing the same file and you have started naming versions.
Any one of those is survivable. Two means you are doing a tool's job with a rectangle.
Spreadsheet or seating tool
| Guest count | Spreadsheet | Seating tool |
|---|---|---|
| Under 40 | Works. One sheet, one editor. | Nice, not needed. |
| 40 to 80 | Works until the first split couple. | Saves the reseat. |
| 80 to 150 | Breaks at the first late RSVP. | Where it pays for itself. |
| 150 or more | Breaks at the count. | Constraint handling is the point. |
What software actually does that a spreadsheet cannot
A seating tool holds the rules — couples together, two families apart, a party of eleven that cannot be split — and answers with a room that satisfies them. A spreadsheet holds names in cells and leaves the rules to you.
That difference only shows up when the list moves. Before the RSVPs close, both approaches look identical. After, one asks you to re-solve and the other asks you to re-type.
Try the spreadsheet first, honestly
Build one sheet with a table column and a seat count. If it holds, stop.
Add a second sheet listing keep-aparts. If it stays empty, you do not need a tool.
When the second sheet fills, that list is the input a seating tool expects.
Export the names once and import them; do not retype the guest list.
Related
Fictional checked example, not a customer wedding and not a live Seat Everyone solver result. The guest-count bands describe when constraint handling starts costing more than it saves; they are not a product limit.
About 10 minutes. Software, not a waitlist — your chart tonight.