The Events Calendar is one of the most popular event management plugins for WordPress. In this review, we will take a close look at the key features and tools offered by The Events Calendar to manage events on WordPress.

Overview of The Events Calendar

For over a decade, The Events Calendar has been helping thousands of websites, organizations, and small businesses effortlessly create and manage their events on WordPress. From individual events to large multi-day conferences, our intuitive calendar and scheduling tools make it easy to host, promote and run successful online events.

Whether you need a basic calendar to showcase upcoming meetups and classes, or a full-featured event management system with ticket sales, marketing automation and analytics – The Events Calendar has you covered. Our free core calendar plugin gives you all the essential functionality to get started. And for advanced needs, our wide range of premium add-ons provides robust ticketing, virtual event solutions, attendee management and more.

Backed by a team of finest designers and developers at Stellar Wp and trusted by over 800,000 websites worldwide, The Events Calendar simplifies even the most complex event logistics. From initial planning to execution, our seamlessly integrated suite of products streamlines your entire event workflow on a secure and reliable WordPress platform.

We hope you choose The Events Calendar to power your upcoming events. Explore Its features and solutions to discover how easily you can bring your ideas to life! 

Features:

Core Calendar Features

The core calendar plugin, called The Events Calendar, offers some powerful features for free:

• Calendar views – List, Month, Week, Day, Map views to display events
• Repeating events – Schedule recurring events like weekly meetings
• All day/multiday events
• iCal/RSS export
• Google Calendar/iCal import
• Taxonomies – Organize events by categories, tags, etc.
• Location search
• Export calendar to posts
• Powerful templates & shortcodes
• Google Maps integration
• Multiple organizers support
• Extensive settings

This free version already gives you a robust calendar to manage and display events. Over 800,000 websites use and trust The Events Calendar.

Premium Add-ons

Stellar Wp Developers also also offers various premium plugins and addons that extend the functionality of the core calendar plugin:

• Event Tickets – Sell tickets online and manage RSVPs
• Events Calendar Pro – Recurring events, agenda view, advanced widgets
• Filter Bar – Filter events by location, category etc
• Event Aggregator – Import events from Meetup, Eventbrite etc
• Promoter – Newsletter style event email campaigns
• Community Events – Allow public event submission
• Virtual Events – Options for virtual/online events
• Wallet – Save tickets to digital wallet
• Mobile tickets & check-in

These add-ons give you a complete events management suite with ticketing, event imports, marketing tools and more.

Setting up The Events Calendar

Setting up the plugin is quite straightforward. Here are the basic steps:

Installation

The Events Calendar plugin can be installed like any other WordPress plugin – through the WordPress admin dashboard. Go to Plugins > Add New and search for “The Events Calendar”. Click install and then activate.

Configure General Settings

After activating, you will need to configure some general settings. Go to Events > Settings to setup the overall calendar display settings like date formats, default views etc.

Create New Events

Next, you can start adding events. Go to Events > Add New to fill in details like title, description, location, start/end date-time. You can also add additional event meta fields.

Add to Menus

Now add the calendar to your site menus. Go to Appearance > Menus, drag the “Events Calendar” menu item and save. You can also add widget areas or shortcodes.

Customize Templates

For advanced customization, you can edit the template files located in the plugin folder to modify design and content elements.

Once configured, your events calendar is ready to display on the frontend for users. The Events Calendar is quite easy to setup and get started with.

Managing Events

After having the calendar installed, here are some key aspects of managing events:

Adding New Events

As mentioned earlier, new events can be added from the Events > Add New page. Fill in the required details along with custom fields. You can upload images or assign event organizers and categories. Repeat or one-time events can be scheduled.

Editing Existing Events

All published, draft or pending events are listed on the Events page. Click on any event title to edit details as needed, right from the event information to venue, organizers or categories.

Bulk Event Creation

For multiple repetitive events like weekly classes, the Events > Bulk Add tool allows creating repeatable events quickly and efficiently in bulk.

Scheduling Recurring Events

Certain events like meetings repeat on a regular basis. The repeat scheduling feature lets you setup recurring events daily, weekly, monthly or annually with clear start/end dates.

Duplicating Events

With a similar format coming up, quickly duplicate an existing confirmed event and modify specific details instead of creating from scratch using the duplication feature.

Events Listing and Search

Easily browse, search and filter events from the main calendar listing page for admins. You can also view events by categories, venues or specific occurrences.

Managing events and series is quite streamlined with these integrated organizational tools in The Events Calendar.

Selling Tickets with Event Tickets

To sell tickets for events, the Event Tickets plugin is highly recommended. It extends the calendar functionality for ticketing and registration:

Ticket Pricing

Define flexible ticket price options – fixed, variable, donating amount. Customize price labels and option names.

Order Processing

Collect ticket payments through WooCommerce, PayPal or offline. Gateway fees are included automatically in pricing.

Order & Attendee Management

View all orders and attendees associated with each event in an organized listing. Export as CSV or print.

Attendee Fields

Customize required and optional fields shown during checkout like name, email, dietary options etc.

Discounts

Apply coupon/voucher codes for volume discounts or promotional tickets. Time-limited campaigns are also supported.

Capacity Limits

Restrict ticket sales once maximum venue capacity is reached. Waitlist is maintained thereafter.

Ticketing Add-ons

Extensions are available for mobile tickets, ticket scanning, Zapier/Webhooks integrations and more.

With Event Tickets, selling tickets and processing payment is integrated seamlessly into the event management workflow. Attendee reports and metrics are very useful too.

Marketing Events Effectively

To promote and market events successfully, the following add-ons are quite helpful:

Event Aggregator

Aggregator plugin saves time by automatically importing public events from Meetup, Facebook, Eventbrite and 35+ sources into the calendar. Users can then enrich the imported events.

Promoter Email Newsletters

Quickly create and send beautiful email newsletters to promote upcoming and past events to subscribers. Dynamic template tags are available.

Community Submissions

Allow the public to directly submit events to the calendar which adds to more comprehensive local event listings. Submissions require approval.

Virtual Events Settings

Use taxonomy terms, event meta fields or conditionals to tag online events. Links to virtual meeting rooms can also be added.

Filter Bar Widget

A filterable list widget helps visitors discover events based on dates, categories, locations or other parameters. Enhances searchability.

Promoting events strategically through social shares, email lists and SEO requires integrated tools – which the above add-ons effectively provide as part of The Events Calendar suite. It helps establish your organisation as a premier local event hub.

Developer Customizations

When it comes to customizing The Events Calendar for advanced requirements, developers have ample flexibility:

Template Files

Adjust existing or create custom template files to build completely customized single event pages, calendars or other views per business logic.

Template Functions

Over 120 powerful template functions can retrieve and output event data in PHP templates for building complex designs.

Shortcodes

Use shortcodes flexibly to display calendars, events lists or other elements across pages, posts or widgets.

Hooks & Filters

Leverage numerous WordPress hooks for things like modify queries, add columns, edit output or integrate other plugins.

JavaScript Events

Client-side JS events allow integrating interactivity like expanding event details or conditionally loading elements.

REST API

Events and tickets data can be fetched or manipulated programmatically from any application using the REST API endpoints.

SDK & Helper Classes

Well documented PHP classes help extend functionality by interacting directly with the calendar, venues, organizers or tickets objects.

The plugin's extensibility empowers developers to completely customize the calendar front-end and integrate it deeply into existing websites or applications.

Who Can Benefit from The Events Calendar?

Event Organizers & Planners
Simplifies event management, registration, ticketing and marketing for all types of events.

Small Businesses & Artists
Build your brand and expand your customer base through successful online events.

Non-Profits & Community Groups
Boost participation in fundraisers, classes, and volunteer activities through an engaging online calendar.

Schools & Universities
Helps administration, departments and student bodies organize and promote campus events.

Councils & Local Governments
Enable constituents to easily discover and register for community activities and programs.

Event Venues & Conference Centers
Showcase your venue and events schedule to attract more clients and visitors.

So in summary, The Events Calendar streamlines event management for all organizations helping them drive higher engagement through an effective online calendar.

Pros and Cons of The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar is one of the most popular event management plugins for WordPress. In this article, we will look at some of the key pros and cons of using The Events Calendar.

Pros

Easy to Use Interface

The Events Calendar has a very intuitive and user-friendly interface that makes it simple for both organizers and visitors to use.

Wide Range of Features

It offers all the essential calendar and event management features out of the box along with additional functionality through premium plugins.

Core Calendar Features

Features like different calendar views, repeating events, importing/exporting, and location search are part of the free plugin.

Premium Add-ons

Add-ons like ticket sales, email marketing, event imports, filters extend its capabilities further.

Large Community Support

Being widely used, it has a very active community on forums to help with issues and a knowledgeable support team.

Highly Customizable

Through shortcodes, hooks, templates and a robust API, it can be customized to meet complex requirements.

Cons

Paid Add-ons Required

While the basic calendar is free, advanced features require purchasing separate premium plugins.

Subscription Model

Access to support and upgrades requires renewing subscriptions annually for paid plugins.

Not a Full Website

Since it's a plugin, an existing WordPress site is needed. It does not provide full website functionally out of the box.

Learning Curve for Developers

Customizing templates and utilizing the development hooks has a steeper learning curve.

Large Suite to Manage

Managing updates and integrations across multiple plugins in the Events Calendar suite can be complex.

How To Make Money with The Events Calendar

Sell Tickets Online

With The Events Calendar and the Event Tickets plugin, you can easily create and sell tickets for your events right from your WordPress site. Event Tickets allows you to set ticket prices, manage seating arrangements, and collect payments. It integrates with payment gateways like PayPal so you can start selling tickets right away.

Promote Your Events

The Promoter plugin is a great way to increase event attendance and make more money. You can use it to create marketing campaigns, send email reminders to ticket holders, and capture leads from people who express interest in your events. Keeping your audience engaged can help sell more tickets and boost sales.

Offer Sponsorship Opportunities

Leverage your events as a way for local businesses to get exposure. You can offer sponsorship packages that include logo placement, vendor booths, promotional items to hand out and more. Sponsors are willing to pay to get their brand in front of large audiences.

Sell Merchandise

Design custom merchandise like t-shirts, hats or mugs featuring your event logo. Selling merchandise is a popular way for concerts, festivals and conferences to generate extra revenue. You can display merchandise at your events and also sell online.

Create an Event Marketplace

If you have multiple organizers using your site, the Community Events and Community Tickets plugins allow you to create a full event marketplace. Other users can submit and sell tickets to their own events, expanding the calendar and potential for sales. You can take a percentage of each ticket sold through the marketplace.

Upgrade to Pro Features

The paid versions of The Events Calendar and Event Tickets – Pro and Plus plans – provide more tools and functionality to help you make more money. Features like recurring events, custom ticket fields and additional views give you more options to better promote your events and increase sales.

The Events Calendar free FAQs

Here are common “The Events Calendar” FAQs:

1. Is The Events Calendar free?

The base version of The Events Calendar is free to download and use on a single site. Some advanced features require upgrading to a Pro plan.

2. Can I sell tickets with The Events Calendar?

Yes, you can sell tickets for your events by installing the Event Tickets plugin along with The Events Calendar. It allows ticket sales and event registration directly on your site.

3. Does it integrate with payment gateways?

Yes, Event Tickets has built-in support for popular payment gateways like PayPal so you can easily accept online ticket payments.

4. Can I create recurring events?

The Pro version of The Events Calendar allows you to set up recurring events that automatically generate new events based on a schedule.

5. What post types can hold events?

By default events are attached to post type “events”, but you can configure events on any public post type like posts or pages.

6. Can attendees RSVP to events?

With Event Tickets, attendees can RSVP to free events. Paid or ticketed events also support registrations in place of RSVPs.

7. What views are available to display events?

The default month/week/day/list views, plus Pro offers additional views like agenda, schedule, map and photo.

8. Can it import events from other calendars?

Yes, the Event Aggregator plugin allows you to import events from external sources like Facebook, Meetup, iCal feeds and more.

9. Is the calendar responsive?

Yes, The Events Calendar is fully responsive and adapts to any screen size like mobile. The widgets also have responsive layouts.

10. Does it support recurring events?

The Pro version allows you to create events that recur on set schedules like daily, weekly, monthly or annually.

11. Can guest users submit events?

The Community Events plugin lets approved website users submit and propose events, extending event creation beyond admins.

12. Does it support multiple organizers?

Yes, both The Events Calendar and Event Tickets support having multiple organizers managing and creating events.

13. Can I filter events in the calendar?

The Filter Bar plugin adds powerful filters that let users search events by date, category, venue, organizer and other fields.

14. Does it integrate with Zapier or IFTTT?

Yes, The Events Calendar works with Zapier and IFTTT to connect to 1000+ web apps, allowing you to sync events across platforms.

15. What themes are recommended to use?

Any theme can work, but it's best tested and compatible with Genesis, Avada, X, GeneratePress, Neve and other popular themes.

16. Does it allow virtual/online events?

The Virtual Events add-on helps highlight online events and lets you integrate your preferred virtual meeting provider like Zoom.

17. Does the calendar support images?

Yes, events can use featured images to highlight events visually. Pro also introduces a photo calendar view displaying event images.

18. Is the calendar optimized for performance?

Yes, it's built with performance in mind using smart caching and optimized queries for large calendars with 1000s of events.

19. What is the Community Tickets plugin?

It extends Event Tickets functionality to allow website users to create and sell tickets for events they submit using Community Events.

20. How can I get help or support?

Our ticketing system, online docs and active community forums are available for troubleshooting, questions and support.

The Events Calendar Money-Back Guarantee

Modern Tribe, the company behind The Events Calendar, stands behind their products. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all purchased products and services.

Eligibility for Refund

To be eligible for a refund, customers must request one within 30 days of their purchase. The software or services being refunded also cannot have been used for live events. Test or trial usages are fine.

How to Request a Refund

To initiate a refund, customers should open a support ticket at theeventscalendar.com/support. The request should include order number, email used for purchase, and a brief explanation for why the refund is being requested.

Refund Approval Process

Once a support request is made, a member of the Modern Tribe team will review the refund request. They will verify the purchase date and that no live events have occurred. Refunds for eligible requests will be processed within 5 business days.

Refund Method

All refunds will be given in the same method as the original payment. For example, if the purchase was made with a credit card, the refund will credit back to that card. Refunds cannot exceed the original amount paid.

Exceptions to the Policy

The only exceptions to this money-back policy are for customized services/installations and annual/auto-renewing subscription plans. Standard products and one-time purchases are covered for 30 days as outlined above.

Customer Satisfaction Focus

Overall, Modern Tribe aims to ensure customer satisfaction. They stand by their quality products and believe the 30-day refund window provides sufficient time for evaluation. This guarantee helps customers purchase with confidence.

The Events Calendar Pricing

The Events Calendar

The base version of The Events Calendar is free to download and use on a single site.

The Pro version ranges in price from $99 for 1 site to $399 for 10 sites. It includes additional features like recurring events, premium views and support.

Multisite and unlimited licenses are also available starting at $399 and $799 respectively.

Event Tickets

Event Tickets for managing tickets and RSVPs is free.

Event Tickets Plus ranges from $99 for 1 site to $399 for 10 sites. It includes extra features like customizable registration, inventory management and eCommerce integration.

Bundles

The Complete Collection

Bundles all premium plugins for a discounted price of $799 for 1 site up to $3999 for unlimited sites.

Event Marketing Bundle

Includes key plugins for $279 for 1 site up to $1499 for unlimited sites. It saves up to 21% versus individual purchases.

Renewals

All plugin and bundle subscriptions require annual renewal to receive ongoing support and feature updates. Renewals maintain the same discount pricing structure.

Payment Methods

Payments can be made with credit cards or PayPal. Monthly and annual subscription options are available for certain products.

Community & Integrations

Having established itself as a leader in the event management space, The Events Calendar sees continuous support through these channels:

Active Forum

A helpful discussion forum on the plugin website allows users to ask questions and find answers from other users as well as official plugin moderators.

User Spotlights

Case studies highlighting how different businesses, organizations and individuals leverage the calendar suite of plugins are regularly published.

Developer Resources

Comprehensive code documentation and tutorials help developers customize and extend the plugins through a vast library of hooks and filters.

Add-On Marketplace

A growing marketplace of third party add-ons offers solutions for SMS notifications, invoicing, event promotion and other specific needs. These are often affordable extensions.

Webhooks + Zapier

Out of the box integrations with webhook endpoints and popular automation platform Zapier empower connecting to CRMs, mailing providers and other SaaS tools.

This community engagement and growing ecosystem of integrations enhances the value and customizability of The Events Calendar for a variety of use cases.

Should You Buy The Events Calendar?

Reasons to Buy

• Industry-leading calendar plugin trusted by over 800,000 users
• Free basic version to try it out before upgrading
• Affordable pricing for powerful features and robust functionality
• Excellent support from an experienced team through multiple channels
• Actively developed with frequent major and minor releases
• Extensive library of add-ons and bundles to expand capabilities
• Works seamlessly with themes like Genesis, Avada and Neve

Reasons You Might Not

• Require recurring subscription for ongoing support and upgrades
• Limited functionality in the free version compared to the paid Pro plan
• Not as cost-effective for very simple calendaring needs
• Learning curve for customizing advanced settings and features

Get Access To The Events Calendar Here

Take Your Events to the Next Level

Empower your events and grow your audience with the most trusted calendar for WordPress.

Download The Events Calendar for free today or upgrade to Pro to unlock even more power and flexibility. Join over 800,000 happy users and never look back!

Get Access To The Events Calendar Here

Wrap up on The Events Calendar review

The Events Calendar has established itself as the premier calendar solution for WordPress. With over 800,000 active installations, it is clearly trusted by event managers worldwide.

Some key strengths that set it apart include:

• Robust feature set that supports all types of events from simple to complex
• Intuitive, flexible user interface optimized for both front-end and backend
• Excellent customization options through shortcodes, templates and code
• Large ecosystem of add-ons to expand functionality as needed
• Active development and frequent new releases with improvements
• Dedicated support team for paid users through multiple channels
• Affordable pricing for the power and scale it provides

While the free version offers core calendaring basics, upgrading to Pro unlocks additional views, recurring events and premium support worth the investment for busy event sites.

Event Tickets and other complimentary plugins provide critical tools for ticket sales, imports and more. And bundling saves costs versus individual purchases.

Overall, The Events Calendar delivers on its mission to make event management seamless on WordPress. For any organization relying on events, it offers a reliable and full-featured solution at a reasonable price. With its wide adoption, robust features and active support – it earns our strong recommendation. 

Get Access To The Events Calendar Here

Disclosure

This post contains links to The Events Calendar and is not a comprehensive review of all their products and services. It is an independent evaluation of the software and company based on my own experience using it.

Any commissions from products purchased through affiliate links do not influence the evaluations and recommendations made in this article. The purpose is to provide useful information to help you make informed decisions, and then earn a small commission if a purchase is made.

I only recommend products, services and companies that I approve of and have passed rigorous testing procedures to ensure high quality and value to customers. Purchases made through links may result in a commission but will not affect the price you pay.

Get Access To The Events Calendar Here