Adding an events calendar to your WordPress site can be a great way to share upcoming events, classes, or appointments with your visitors. Events calendars allow you to easily create and manage events right within your WordPress dashboard. There are a number of excellent events calendar plugins available for WordPress that can add this functionality to your site.
Why Use an Event Calendar Plugin?
Here are some of the key reasons to use an event calendar plugin on your WordPress site:
- Easily create and manage events from your WP dashboard.
- Visually display upcoming events on your site.
- Allow visitors to quickly see your upcoming events.
- Set up custom calendars for different types of events.
- Add details like event location, time, description, etc.
- Allow visitors to export your calendar to other apps.
- Integrate with other WordPress plugins and tools.
Events plugins make event management a breeze. You don’t have to code anything by hand – the plugin handles all the heavy lifting for you. And visitors to your site will appreciate the ability to easily find and explore your upcoming events.
Popular Event Calendar Plugins
There are a lot of great events calendar plugins to choose from for WordPress. Here are some of the most popular and full-featured options:
The Events Calendar
The Events Calendar is a premium plugin from Modern Tribe that is one of the most robust and fully-featured events management plugins for WordPress. Key features include:
- Create unlimited events and calendars.
- Drag-and-drop event management.
- Shared/recurring events.
- Calendar views (month, week, day, etc).
- Widgets and shortcodes for displaying calendars.
- Event ticketing integration.
- Customizable templates and styles.
- Import/export events.
- Integration with multisite networks.
The Events Calendar integrates seamlessly with WordPress and includes advanced features for creating a polished events site. It’s a paid plugin that starts at $199/year, but gets you premium support and ongoing updates.
All-in-One Event Calendar
The All-in-One Event Calendar from Timely is a completely free events management plugin for WordPress. Features include:
- Create unlimited events and calendars.
- Month, week and day views.
- Drag-and-drop event management.
- Customizable colors and styles.
- Event categories.
- Event data filtering.
- Template overrides for custom display code.
- Integrated Google Maps.
- Import/Export CSV files.
For a free plugin, All-in-One Event Calendar is packed with features. It’s easy to use for beginners, but customizable for developers. There is also a paid “Pro” version that adds premium features.
EventOn
EventOn is another popular premium events calendar plugin for WordPress. Key features include:
- Multiple calendar views.
- Recurring events.
- Drag-and-drop event creation.
- Custom forms for user submitted events.
- Event ticketing.
- Event search and filters.
- Calendar synchronization.
- Custom templates, styles and colors.
- Import/export/duplicate events.
EventOn also integrates with popular WordPress form and ticketing plugins. It starts at $33 for a single site license. They offer free basic support.
Comparing the Top Plugins
Here is a comparison of some of the key features offered in the top event calendar plugins:
| Plugin | Free/Paid | Recurring Events | Multiple Calendars | Event Ticketing | Template Customization |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Events Calendar | Paid | Yes | Yes | Yes | High |
| All-in-One Event Calendar | Free | No | Yes | Through Other Plugins | Medium |
| EventOn | Paid | Yes | Yes | Yes | High |
As you can see, core features like recurring events, multiple calendar views, event ticketing, and customization options are available in all the paid plugins. The free All-in-One Event Calendar still offers great functionality, but lacks some advanced features.
How to Install an Events Calendar Plugin
Installing and activating an events calendar plugin is simple and straightforward:
- Navigate to Plugins > Add New within your WordPress admin. Search for the event calendar plugin you want to use.
- Install and activate the plugin.
- A new menu item for the events plugin will appear in your admin sidebar. Click it to get started creating your calendar(s) and events.
- Most plugins include template tags, shortcodes and widgets to add calendar displays to your pages and posts. Simply insert a shortcode or use a widget to show the calendar on your site.
- Customize the calendar styles, views, fields, templates and settings to your preferences.
Refer to the specific plugin documentation for more details. The events calendar plugins handle all the heavy lifting in terms of building, managing and displaying your events. All you have to do is create the events, add them to calendars, and embed the calendars on your site!
Displaying Your Calendar
Once you’ve installed your events plugin, the fun part is embedding your calendar on your WordPress site and customizing the display. Here are some tips:
- Use a dedicated page or blog post to embed the full calendar views. Add widgets to sidebars to embed smaller calendar snippets.
- Most plugins will provide you with template tags, widgets and shortcodes to display the calendar. Shortcodes generally provide the most flexibility for quickly customizing display options.
- Think about the fields and data you want to include for each event. The plugin settings will allow you to customize what information is shown (title, date, time, description, etc).
- Use the template and styling options to customize colors, fonts, styles and other theme elements for your calendar to match your brand.
- Consider adding filters to let visitors filter the calendar by category or tags, or a search function to easily find events.
Take time to learn all the display options and embedding methods available in your events plugin. Flexibility is a key advantage of using a robust plugin – you can customize the frontend display in endless ways to suit your brand and needs.
Enabling Event Registration
One of the most powerful features of events plugins is the ability to easily collect registrations or RSVPs right on your site. Here are some tips for enabling event registration and ticketing:
- If registration is important, choose a plugin like The Events Calendar or EventOn that integrates with ticketing services.
- Plug in your ticketing provider API keys to connect the events plugin with the ticketing service.
- When creating an event, enable registration fields like number of tickets available, price per ticket, registration start/end dates, etc.
- On the frontend calendar, visitors can purchase tickets or RSVP to secure their spot.
- Manage all registrations and sales directly within your WordPress dashboard.
Third-party ticketing integration takes the complexity out of managing registrations and sales. Visitors have an easy and familiar event registration process. The events plugin handles passing all the data to your ticketing provider in a streamlined manner.
Importing and Exporting Events
Migrating events from another calendar or exporting for use elsewhere is simple with most plugins:
- Export events to .ics format to import into Google Calendar, iCal, and others.
- Export/import events to/from CSV files to migrate data.
- Use feed imports available in some plugins to bring in events from Meetup, Facebook, and more.
- Manually export and import events between site calendars.
Refer to your plugin documentation for specifics on available import and export methods. Most plugins make it easy to reuse your calendar data in other apps and sites.
Conclusion
Adding an events calendar to WordPress is easy with the flexible plugins available. With recurring events, custom calendars, stylish templates, registration integration, and import/export capabilities, a plugin like The Events Calendar or EventOn can handle all your needs.
In just a few clicks you can start managing events from the friendly dashboard and embed calendars anywhere on your site. Visitors will appreciate the polished and easy to use calendars.
So if you want to share conferences, classes, appointments, or any other events on your WordPress site, install an events plugin! It provides everything you need for professional event management and display all in one package.