Creating, organizing, and advertising your event online is easy – you’ll only need a WordPress event plugin!
WordPress event plugins are often called “event management plugins,” and it handles all event scheduling, booking management, and ticket selling operations for your website.
Keep on reading, as I’ll be discussing the best WordPress event plugins to help you pick one best suited for your needs!
It Should Be More than Just a Calendar
Creating a successful function is a dream of every event organizer. However, managing the schedule and taking notes on every detail of every event is hard and strenuous work. Therefore you need more than just a simple calendar.
WordPress event plugins are more versatile than other calendar plugins that are only able to show events or schedule dates. These plugins can handle ticketing and booking options, manage payment gateways, create guest dashboards, and even send email notifications to your registrant lists using only a few clicks.
Top 8 WordPress Event Plugins
Here I compiled eight of the best WordPress event plugins based on their ease-of-use, key features, compatibility, support availability, and range of price.
1. WP Event Manager
WP Event Manager is both beginner-friendly and can load fast on your WordPress website. It fits any screen size and any browser, providing your visitors with eye-catching event lists. Developer support is available even if you’re only using the free version.
Create event listings through your WordPress dashboard, and embed a shortcode to place them anywhere on your site. This plugin also allows your website to include external event subscription forms and other event management features through its add-ons.
The Good
- Flexible event submission. Not only can you create events, tweak and tune their settings, and preview how they will look, but also allow your guests to do the same through frontend forms on your website. This way, external event organizers can submit events on your website.
- Adjustable events listing. Allow your users to choose list layouts and filter out any events by their tags.
- Powerful extensions. These include add-ons such as Event Tickets or Event Alerts. However, you have to pay for most of these additional features.
The Bad
- Compatibility issues. There is no guarantee that the plugin will work with other third-party plugins.
The Verdict
I would recommend WP Event Manager for anyone who wants to create an interactive event website that allows event organizers to participate in creating one for themselves. This WordPress event plugin is not only suitable for beginners, but also for advanced users who want to organize large events using only a single tool.
You can get the core plugin free of charge. However, for additional features, you need to add premium add-ons that mostly range $19-39 in price and grants you one year of support.
2. Event Organiser
This lightweight plugin allows you to create event lists and calendars. Not only can you manage a single-day, but also multi-day events.
Create, manage, and archive events through a flexible interface on your WordPress dashboard admin area. Place them anywhere on your site either by using a shortcode or via Event Organiser’s default calendar, list, and agenda widgets.
The Good
- User-friendly interface. Choose between calendar view or a common WordPress list within your dashboard, making it easy to customize an event according to your needs. Simply embed custom shortcodes or add widgets to display the event.
- Recurring events. Not only does it allow you to create a one-time event, but also recurring events that have more complicated intervals.
- Premium add-ons. These allow you to add an event organizer, a discount code, a venue marker, a poster board, and payment gateways to your event.
The Bad
- No dedicated customer support. However, if you’ll ever run into any technical issues, there’s plenty of information on Event Organiser’s documentation page and online manual. You can also browse through discussions on their online forums or open an issue on GitHub.
The Verdict
If you want to create a lot of regular or long term events, then Event Organiser just might be for you. You can get the core plugin for free. However, premium add-ons cost around $15-50.
3. Events Manager
Events Manager plugin allows frontend events submission and recurring events creation. It offers a built-in ticket booking and selling management feature. Once the events are created, personalize their attributes through the fully customizable and flexible manager. Additionally, BuddyPress integration makes it possible to share events on social media.
What is more, this plugin works seamlessly for multisite usage, and compatible with all WordPress SEO plugins.
The Good
- Custom event attributes. Create custom event features like the dress code or location coordinates.
- Booking feature. Sell tickets with booking system on every registration.
- New submission notifications. There’s an automated email notification for new registrations.
The Bad
- Poor support. It has no dedicated customer support, even for the premium version. You can only find help in the official community forum or tutorials page.
The Verdict
Get the basic version that can cover almost all of your event management tasks for free. , however, you need to pay for the Events Manager Pro if you want to have a custom payment gateway API, for example.
The Pro version costs $75/year, and the Pro Dev version costs $150/year. The key difference between the two is that with the Pro Dev version you’ll get early updated before anyone else and you can license up to five sites.
4. EventON
EventON allows you to easily create appealing event calendars, fully customizing how your events will be displayed with its list or grid layout. It’s probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing WordPress event plugins on the market. You can add locations to your events, images, or thumbnails. Customize the layout’s design, themes, and integrate it with Font Awesome icons.
The Good
- Appearance editor. Customize how the event calendar will look like without tweaking the HTML and CSS code. Simply use a shortcode generator to place it on your website.
- Frontend oriented design. Display a single, multiple, or recurring events in expandable tiles or lists. Fully customize the color, layout, background, and icon font of your calendar.
- Event sharing. It allows your visitors to find, filter, and share events on your site through interactive panels.
The Bad
- Paid support. The dedicated customer support is only available for six months. To extend that time, you need to pay an additional $7.13.
The Verdict
EventON costs $24/year for the regular license and $855/year for the extended license if you’re a developer. You’ll need to pay extra if you want to add more functionalities with premium add-ons and third-party add-ons. However, it offers a refund policy if the plugin fails to meet your expectations within 30-days after purchase.
If you want to make the most out of the EventON plugin, you’ll have to acquire premium adds-ons. However, this plugin is excellent if you want to create an enjoyable user experience for your visitors.
5. Event Espresso 4 Decaf
The Event Espresso 4 Decaf is a powerful plugin aimed at creating unlimited events, managing registrations, and selling tickets. Just like any major event management plugin, you can easily create and manage events just as you would a post via the WordPress Dashboard admin area.
Using this plugin, you will be able to manage ticket sales and registrations, generate your registrants’ contact lists, and send agendas alerts. Uniquely, this plugin supports mobile login scanning integration.
The Good
- Unlimited events. Manage countless events with their venues, ticketing, and registrations. You can customize pricing options and payment gateway using PayPal.
- Event reminders. Its basic email notification and auto-email confirmation features allow you to send event reminders to your registrant lists.
- Mobile app scanning. Supports mobile apps for ticket scanning, allowing your visitors to check-in via their Android or Apple devices.
The Bad
- Pricey support. Requires you to pay for a license if you want to join their official support forum or get priority support tokens.
The Verdict
This powerful plugin can fulfill the basic needs of most WordPress-powered event websites. You can create and manage unlimited events together with their ticket sales and payment methods.
While the Decaf version of the plugin is free of charge, if you’ll ever run into any issues, you’ll have to seek advice yourself through their support forum.
However, to get customer support and more than 60 additional add-ons, you can purchase the regular Event Espresso 4 ranging from $79.95/year to 299.95/year.
6. Modern Events Calendar
As the name suggests, this event management plugin allows you to create and manage events with its modern user interface and layout designs. Customize your calendars’ appearance using more than multiple options for layouts and skins. You can even build and design the event page on your own using the Elementor integration.
What is more, it’s possible to migrate and repeat the events that you’ve created before.
The Good
- Cross-plugin event transfer. Easily import your previously created events from other plugins using only a few clicks.
- Customizable design. Customize how the event calendar will look like with its custom color skins, layout view, label and category filter features.
- Premium support. It has real-staff customer support via email tickets and bot-powered customer support using Intercom services to solve your issues at any time.
The Bad
- Themes compatibility issue. Not friendly with other third-party themes, so you’ll have to do some testing yourself through trial-and-error.
The Verdict
If you ever want to migrate from one event management plugin to another, this plugin is just what you need! It is also perfect for creating great user experience as your visitors will be pleased with the Modern Events Calendar’s sleek designs. Sadly, you need to make sure whether or not your website’s current theme is compatible with the plugin.
You can get this plugin for free, but to get the full features you need to pay for $55/year. However, you can add certain add-ons according to your specific needs for $25-35. What is more, there is a 30-day refund policy if the plugin fails to meet your expectations.
7. All-in-One Event Calendar
All-in-One Event Calendar’s core package is enough to cover your event management tasks. You can create, manage, and customize the event calendars’ via a stylish admin area within your WordPress dashboard. Simply embed the shortcode to display them on your site.
It also offers event filtering, sharing, and export and import features. What makes it unique, this plugin allows you to group the events you’ve created with specific categorizations. You can enhance its event organizer’s tasks by purchasing the available extensions.
However, don’t be fooled by its name, as All-in-One Event Calendar does not cover all the features for free.
The Good
- Categorization. Create a single, multiple, or complex recurring events. Then, filter and categorize them based on tags or color-code.
- Transferable. Its ICS and iCal integration lets you import and export events from other website calendars.
- Sharing options. Google Calendar and Google Maps integrations allow your visitors to share the event. What is more, they can subscribe to your calendar if they want.
The Bad
- Unreliable support. There is no dedicated customer support. You can only read through the official user guide page or issue a support request from the developer if you need any help.
The Verdict
This plugin is suitable for those who prefer a more affordable and comprehensive event management plugin.
All-in-One Event Calendar core package comes for free, but you can get more advanced features, such as a customized theme or advanced filter bars, by subscribing to their premium packages. The price for the premium versions ranges from $12.50/month to $78.99/month.
There are also additional free and paid add-ons you can purchase according to your needs. This way, you can make use of the free version and only buy the necessary add-ons instead of subscribing to the monthly premium package.
8. My Calendar
My Calendar event management plugin allows you to create a single, multiple, or recurring events via a user-friendly admin area within your WordPress dashboard.
Your visitors will enjoy eye-friendly and straightforward layouts on certain categories. Simply embed the shortcode with a shortcode generator or place the calendar as a widget.
What is more, it works together with My Tickets plugin if you want to sell tickets and manage payment gateways with PayPal or Authorize.net. This plugin is also compatible with other WordPress plugins, add-ons, and themes.
The Good
- Customizable display. Choose to display the calendar based on categories, locations, hosts, or upcoming events.
- Script manager. It allows you to customize the look of your calendar with a custom JavaScript code.
- Extendable features. Upgrade its functionality with premium extensions and other free plugins. The upgrade allows ticket selling, payment collection, event submission for visitors, advanced event searching feature, and event data importing and uploading.
The Bad
- Limited support. There is no dedicated customer support available. You need to spend extra to get the My Calendar User Guide for $17.00 or read through their official documentation page.
The Verdict
This plugin is worth trying out if you love simplicity. It’s an ideal tool to create a simple event management website. Not only does it feature a simple admin interface, but it also offers a simple calendar view that eases your daily event management tasks.
The core plugin comes with no price tag, but you need the premium version to fully utilize its features for either $49/year (for a single license) or 199 (for a permanent license).
Things to Look Out for from WordPress Event Plugins
There are many event management plugins available on the market, and you should pick the one that would best suit your needs. I’ve listed five main factors you need to keep in mind before making your pick:
- Ease of use. Is the plugin easy to use by both you and your visitors?
- Features. What kind of features do you need if you want to reach broader registrants? What about multiple payment gateways?
- Compatibility. Is the plugin compatible with the rest of your WordPress elements? Owning a complicated plugin that works poorly on your site is not very useful for y.
- Support. Do you need dedicated customer support if you would ever run into trouble? Can you manage it on your own?
- Pricing. Is the plugin within your price range? Are you willing to pay extra for additional add-ons?
Try it Yourself!
Managing an event on WordPress is a breeze with the help of event plugins.
There are many options for event management plugins, so ensure that you pick one the one that would adhere to your requirements the most. Here is a quick overview of the best WordPress event plugins:
- WP Event Manager – a basic single event management plugin with a lot of paid add-ons available.
- Event Organiser – convenient for creating long term or regular events.
- Event Manager – suitable for creating a big event website or event sharing platform website.
- EventOn – create an event management website with excellent user experience and aesthetics.
- Event Espresso 4 Decaf – a simple and easy-to-use event management plugin.
- Modern Events Calendar – suited at creating a modern-looking event management website.
- All-in-One Event Calendar – created for people who want to save time using a single powerful tool.
- My Calendar – an affordable plugin suitable for creating a basic event publication platform.
So, take your pick and best of luck to you!
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