The SeatLayer plugin puts a live seating chart on any WordPress page or post. The WordPress seating chart plugin page covers what it does before you install it. Visitors pick seats and pay through your own Stripe or Razorpay account — SeatLayer never holds the money.
Before you start
You need three things, in this order:
-
A published chart and an event. Create both at app.seatlayer.io. Note the event key — it is the
slugyou chose, and it is what the plugin needs. -
A connected payment account. In the dashboard, go to Payments and connect Stripe or Razorpay. Until you do, the chart will render but buyers will see “this event is not taking online payments yet”.
-
The plugin, installed and activated on your WordPress site. Search for SeatLayer Seating Charts under Plugins → Add New, or install it from wordpress.org/plugins/seatlayer-seating-charts.
Add a chart to a page
Use the SeatLayer seating chart block, choose your event, and publish.
If you prefer a shortcode, or you are on the classic editor:
[seatlayer_chart event="summer-fest"]Optional attributes:
| Attribute | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
event |
— | Required. Your event key. |
height |
640 |
Container height in pixels (320–2000). |
max_selection |
10 |
Most seats one buyer may select (1–50). |
locale |
buyer’s browser | Any of the 37 supported languages, e.g. de, ja, zh-Hant. Omit it and each buyer gets their own browser language, English if we do not ship theirs. |
currency |
event default | ISO code, e.g. USD. |
[seatlayer_chart event="summer-fest" height="720" max_selection="4"]The secret key is optional
The seating chart works with only the event key, which is not a credential — the buyer surface is deliberately keyless.
A secret key under Settings → SeatLayer does exactly one thing: it lets the block editor list your events in a dropdown instead of you pasting keys.
How checkout works
The boundary is worth understanding, because it is what keeps a WordPress site out of the payment path:
-
The buyer selects seats on your page. The widget creates a hold on SeatLayer’s servers, so nobody else can take those seats.
-
On checkout, the buyer is sent to SeatLayer’s hosted payment page, carrying only the hold id. No amount is passed — the server recomputes the total from its own hold records, so nothing on your site can change what a buyer pays.
-
They pay through your connected Stripe or Razorpay account. The money goes to you; SeatLayer is never the merchant of record.
-
Once the payment provider confirms, the seats are booked and the buyer is emailed their tickets. Replies to that email reach you, not SeatLayer.
Because payment confirmation comes from a signed provider webhook rather than the buyer’s browser, a closed tab or lost connection mid-payment cannot lose an order.
Refunds
Refund in your own Stripe or Razorpay dashboard, as you would for anything else. SeatLayer receives the webhook and puts the seats back on sale.
A partial refund does not release seats — a partial amount cannot say which seat it was for — so cancel those explicitly in the dashboard.
Performance
The chart’s JavaScript loads only on pages that contain a chart, so embedding one on a single ticket page does not add weight to the rest of the site.
What this plugin does not do yet
Also not included: assigned-seat QR codes, door check-in, and box-office sales. Confirmation emails carry seat labels and an order reference.
Troubleshooting
The chart area is blank. Check the event key, and that the chart is published — a draft chart has no buyer-facing version. Your browser console will name the failure.
“This event is not taking online payments yet.” No gateway is connected for
this event’s mode. Connect one under Payments in the dashboard, and note that a
test-mode event needs test credentials.
Buyers pay but never get tickets, and orders stay unconfirmed. For Razorpay,
this is almost always a missing webhook. Copy the webhook URL shown on the
Payments screen into your Razorpay dashboard and subscribe to
payment.captured, payment.failed and refund.processed. Payment confirmation
depends on it.
The event dropdown is empty in the editor. Either no secret key is saved (expected — type the key instead), or the saved key was rejected. The editor shows which.