WordPress calendar plugins are a helpful accessory for displaying upcoming conferences, meetings, or events on your website, as well as booking services. However, choosing the right one can be tough, especially considering the impact plugins can have on site speed and security.
Fortunately, there are a variety of reliable options to choose from. Plus, high-quality WordPress event calendar plugins come with advanced features and customizations that can help you boost your authority and credibility.
In this post, we’ll start by discussing some key benefits of WordPress calendar plugins as well as features to look for when choosing one. Then we’ll provide you with a list of 13 of the best WordPress calendar plugins to consider, including both premium and free options. Let’s get started!
In This Article 🕵️
The Benefits of Using a WordPress Calendar Plugin 📅
Whether you run a music blog, a community group, or even manage a professional organization’s website, being able to openly display events to your website visitors is incredibly helpful. However, without a plugin, your options for doing so on a WordPress site are pretty limited.
Using a WordPress calendar plugin for events and bookings can help boost your authority and establish a more reputable and engaging brand. They provide an easy way to showcase your events in a stylish and easy-to-understand manner.
Presenting upcoming events and important dates in a calendar view makes them stand out, and decreases the chances that your visitors will miss them. Plus, most calendar plugins let you include additional event information so users can quickly find key details without having to dig for them.
These plugins are also beneficial if you’re looking to incorporate booking system features that showcase availability. For example, if you’re in the business of property rentals or provide a service that requires appointments, WordPress calendar plugins can make it easier to display available time slots for customers to claim.
Another benefit of WordPress calendar and event plugins is that there are options regardless of how simple or complex your needs are. If you want a basic, no-frills calendar, there are plenty of free solutions to choose from. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a complete, all-in-one tool packed with advanced features, you’ll also have a variety of options.
What to Look for in a WordPress Calendar Plugin 🤔
Before we get into our list of the top WordPress calendar plugins for events, we want to point out that what works for one site may not be the best option for another. So, if you’re wondering what the best WordPress calendar plugin should include, the answer is that it depends on what you want it to do.
All event calendar plugins are tailored to the customization of what needs to be booked, scheduled, or otherwise displayed. Each solution (free or premium) has its own quality specifications. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what is or isn’t needed when looking for the best fit for your site.
That said, there are a handful of features and qualities that all WordPress calendar plugins should include, such as:
- Multiple view options for easier user interaction
- An easy-to-use back end for quickly adding, removing, or editing events
- Built-in booking capabilities
- Compatibility with top WordPress themes and plugins
- Frequent updates from the developer and positive reviews within the plugin community
- Mobile-friendliness and responsive design
- Display customizations
Of course, your individual needs may vary. However, these are the factors we looked for when choosing the best WordPress event calendar plugins to feature in this post.
Top Premium WordPress Calendar Plugins 🎩
Before we go over the free options, we wanted to present six premium WordPress calendar plugins that are ideal for sites that incorporate bookings of any kind:
1. WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments
If you’re running a serious WooCommerce booking site, a paid option is definitely worth considering. WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments from PluginHive is an end-to-end bookings solution made easy for business owners. It also integrates seamlessly with Google Calendar.
You can convert any existing WooCommerce product into a bookable resource or service with a dedicated time slot. On top of that, you can define the booking duration with any value including minute(s), hour(s), day(s), or even month(s).
This plugin also offers a ton of booking availability settings and options. If you aren’t available for bookings on certain days or specific hours, you can block them out. Basically, WooCommerce Booking and Appointments lets you fully manage any availability scenario via its user-friendly settings:
There’s also a dedicated section where you can configure booking costs, with multiple combinations of pricing rules. You can apply them to display different prices for various time durations or seasons. For example, you could have higher prices on weekends than weekdays.
Additional features of this flexible plugin include:
- Email notifications for new bookings, cancellations, and confirmations
- Option to set prices on a per-person basis
- Ability to charge customers according to extra resources they choose during booking
- Syncing with Google Calendar, and between multiple products
- Dedicated bookings management section
- Unlimited number of bookings with no monthly subscriptions
- Team and staff availability management
- Per-night accommodation booking
- Dedicated notes section for customers to enter additional information
- Time Zone conversion based on the client’s location
- Calendar color customization
- Language readiness, WPML compatibility
- WooCommerce Product Add-ons and WooCommerce Deposits compatibility
Based on its fantastic reviews, it seems users really value this plugin, its functionality, and solid support. A premium license starts at $99 and includes a 30-day money back guarantee as well as a year of updates and support.
2. HubSpot WordPress Plugin
HubSpot’s free WordPress plugin has all the tools you need to kickstart your sales and marketing efforts. It includes everything from a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that centralizes all of your contact data to email marketing, live chat, forms, analytics, and more!
Although fairly new on the market compared to other plugins listed here, the HubSpot WordPress plugin is already in use on more than 100,000 websites. It comes with a free HubSpot account where you can easily create a free meeting scheduling link, which you can embed on your WordPress site.
When someone schedules a meeting on your website, their contact details will automatically be added to your Google or Outlook calendar and pushed to the HubSpot CRM database (the CRM is free-forever, for unlimited users). You can fully access this CRM from within WordPress and see all the activity each contact has with your website:
So, in other words, HubSpot is an ideal tool if you’re looking for a simple embedded calendar, and you’re keen on having all of your contact records organized in one place.
Additional features of the HubSpot WordPress plugin include:
- Personalized meeting link creation to share via your site or email
- Embedded calendar for your website
- Integration with both Google and Office 365
- Personalized booking link and customizable booking page (headshot, logo, color palette)
- Access to HubSpot’s free CRM (unlimited contacts)
- Ability to sync and monitor CRM responses within WordPress
- Free form and popup builder, including integration with most major WordPress form tools
The HubSpot WordPress plugin itself is free and includes a HubSpot account. This provides a personalized meeting link, unlimited meetings, as well as integration with HubSpot’s free-forever CRM, live chat, and form tools.
Alternatively, you can purchase a Starter Plan for $50 per month. It includes all of the features we’ve mentioned, as well as 1,000 personal and team meeting links and HubSpot Sales’ premium features.
3. Sugar Events Calendar
Sugar Events Calendar achieves the perfect balance between a simple tool that doesn’t overwhelm users with settings and a robust solution for showcasing events. It provides website owners with just enough features to get the job done while remaining lightweight enough to conserve your server’s resources.
This WordPress calendar plugin has been translated into several languages including English, German, French, and others. It enables you to easily set event dates, and start and end times:
You can also enable the convenient Ajax calendar view for a heightened User Experience (UX) as well as create an Events Archive, listing all past events by the date of occurrence.
Additional features include:
- Shortcode for displaying your calendar
- Simple installation and configuration
- Events custom post type
- Ability to manage all your events from your dashboard
Sugar Events Calendar was developed by Sandhills Development, a global company founded and run by Pippin Williamson and our good friend, Kyle Maurer. This is the same team that works on Easy Digital Downloads, Restrict Content Pro, and AffiliateWP.
You can check out Kyle Maurer on our WPMRR WordPress podcast talking about his adventures in building multiple businesses, as well as advice on getting hired.
4. Events Schedule
Events Schedule is one of the best WordPress scheduling plugins on the market. It offers a straightforward way to present events to your site visitors and enable them to book sessions with just a few clicks.
In fact, you can select from 12 different styles to display your events or classes with ease. For instance, there’s a calendar view:
There’s also blog post style for lifestyle events or classes:
If you want a straightforward class schedule that lets you display instructor names and locations, there’s an option for that, too:
This simple WordPress calendar is aimed at non-technical WordPress users. It’s easy to modify within the standard WordPress dashboard, but can also be set up via Visual Composer. Additionally, you can integrate your class or event listings with WooCommerce thanks to its built-in booking system.
Other features include:
- Responsive design
- Retina-ready
- SEO-friendly
- Font icon and multiple color options
- Repeatable weekly events
- Multisite support
- CSS3 animations
- Speed optimization
- iCal Class and Event export ability
- Translation-ready
- Featured image support
- Ability to add classes with Ajax
Customer support is also included with this plugin, making it even easier to get your calendar and booking system up and running. It offers two licenses, Regular and Extended. Pricing starts at $39.
5. EventON
EventON is another top WordPress event calendar plugin that we’re fans of. It really stands out from some of the other options available, and offers a minimalistic take on calendar design that makes it easy to configure.
The tile layout is really appealing to look at and interact with. Also, the fact that you can use the built-in shortcode generator and repeating event options to set up your events or classes makes it even better.
Some features you can expect from this simple calendar for WordPress include:
- Event images
- Expandable details for each event
- Multi-day events
- Google Maps integration so you can add directions to each listing
- Event categories
- Custom meta fields
- Search, sort, and filter functionality
- Font Awesome Icons
- Custom time formats, colors, and appearance options
- Featured event support
- A ‘hide event’ function
- Right-to-left (RTL) text support
This plugin also boasts over 52,000 installations as of this writing, and has a 4.5 star rating on CodeCanyon. Pretty impressive, to be honest. A premium license starts at $25.
6. Modern Events Calendar
Modern Events Calendar (MEC) is the perfect tool for those who need a WordPress events management system that is totally customizable. With MEC, you can create any kind of events, from recurring to multi-day and more. This plugin is superbly feature-rich even in its Lite version, which makes it a solid choice even if you’re on a tight budget.
The free version delivers enough for your project if you are just starting out with basic event management. It features quality design right out of the box, too, so if you don’t want to carry out a lot of customizations, you likely won’t have to.
If you want access to more features such as reminders, locations, a ticketing or booking system, and even a weather module, you can upgrade to Modern Events Calendar Pro.
Some of the key features of this plugin are:
- Support for unlimited events
- Reusable dynamic event locations and organizers
- Social sharing buttons
- Detailed plugin settings
- Compatibility with top page builders
- Shortcode generator
- Advanced booking system
- Front end event submission
- Over 50 events view skins
- Advanced repeating system
- WooCommerce integration
- A library of add-ons to extend its customizability
Without add-ons, there are three different pricing tiers for this plugin, starting at $75. Each license includes a year of support and a lifetime of auto-updates.
Best Free WordPress Event Calendar Plugins 🆓
If you’re on a tight budget, at least one of these free WordPress calendar plugins will do the trick. Each offers different features including upcoming events, simple layouts, and WordPress calendar widgets. Some even come with premium versions if you want to unlock additional features.
7. Events Manager
Events Manager is a full-featured WordPress event plugin that provides you flexibility, reliability, and power. It comes with exceptional features, such as the ability to schedule recurring and multi-day events and display an activity feed. It includes BuddyPress support for submitting personal and group events, and supports Google Maps integration.
In addition, Events Manager gives you complete control over the management of events, lets you work with WordPress Multisite, and has plenty of available template tags and shortcodes. It makes creating events for your site a breeze.
Additional Events Manager features include:
- Easily define event start and end times
- Enable multiple tickets
- Create event tags and categories
- Customize user capabilities
- Add widgets for events, locations, and calendars
Events Manager was originally created by Davide Benini for his Irish folk band. It’s now developed primarily by Marcus Sykes, a web designer, developer, and marketer.
To learn more, you can check out the Events Manager Demo. Although the plugin itself is free to download and use, there’s also a premium version available that comes with extra features and a year of support.
8. The Events Calendar
The WordPress Events Calendar plugin is perfect for those looking to create and manage a digital calendar with ease. Working right out of the box, this plugin enables rapid creation and customization of events. It has a search feature for your site visitors, and includes two display options – a monthly view with tooltips and a list view.
Another thing we love about this tool is that it lets you take advantage of the WordPress Google Calendar widget and iCal exporting features. It also offers full internationalization, event categories and tags, and a detailed day view of every event you create.
Additional features include:
- Google Maps integration
- An Upcoming Events widget
- Microformats to improve SEO
- Ajax support for smooth browsing
- Caching to improve performance
- A library of both free and Pro extensions
Events Calendar was recently acquired by Liquid Web, but originally developed and maintained by a company called Modern Tribe. The Events Calendar was the Modern Tribe’s free flagship plugin, and is currently still free post-acquisition, but you can also check out Events Calendar Pro, which starts at $89.
9. All-In-One Event Calendar
All-in-One Event Calendar by Timely gives WordPress website owners a stylish way to create a calendar and share it with site visitors. It boasts a clean, visual interface that makes publishing events simple, as well as a suite of impressive features.
For instance, you can import and export content from your WordPress calendars and display it on other websites if you wish. This plugin also lets you set up complex recurring events, add an Upcoming Events widget, and display events according to day, week, month, agenda, or ‘poster board’ views.
In addition, you can customize the look of your calendar to match your website and display featured events and category images to encourage user interaction. In fact, you can even color code events for easier interpretation. The ability to personalize your calendar’s appearance comes in handy when you want to embed your calendar into WordPress posts and pages without having to deal with theme modifications.
Additional features include:
- SEO-optimized events
- The ability to embed Google Maps
- Events link to original calendar
- Filtering by category or tag
- Imported calendars that appear automatically
Timely was founded in 2012 and offers robust support options for its users. With over 100,000 active WordPress installations and a 4.5-star WordPress rating, this plugin also has glowing reviews.
10. Event Organiser
Event Organiser is another free WordPress calendar plugin designed specifically for event management via your website. With features such as recurring events, venue assignments, and easy editing of details through an intuitive interface, this plugin has just what you need to share your events with site visitors.
To make things even easier, this plugin lets you add calendar, event list, and event agenda widgets directly to your site so attendees know exactly what is happening and when. You can also utilize the built-in shortcodes to make embedding calendars across your site quick and painless.
True to its name, Event Organiser is also a solid option if you’re looking for a WordPress event plugin that prioritizes organization. It lets you assign event categories and tags, color code them, create pretty permalinks, and automatically delete expired events.
Additional features include:
- Year, month, and day archives
- Venue pages
- Customizable booking forms
- Visitor subscriptions to events
- Relative date queries
- Several translations
- A Pro version with additional support and features
Event Organiser was created by Stephen Harris, a WordPress plugin and theme developer and core contributor. Since its initial release, the plugin has remained a popular choice and has high ratings and reviews in the WordPress Plugin Directory.
11. WP Simple Booking Calendar
WP Simple Booking Calendar is a different type of WordPress calendar plugin in that it helps website owners show site visitors the availability of a service, rental, or other time slot. For example, you could display a vacation home that is vacant for the holidays, an office space up for lease, or even work shifts that are up for grabs.
The free version is simple to use, which is perfect if you’re not looking for a lot of bells and whistles. It’s a straightforward solution for letting your visitors know about booking availability.
WP Simple Booking Calendar features include:
- Language translations using .po files
- Easy-to-define availabilities
- User-friendly interface with responsive calendar layouts
- Color-coded calendar spots for easy comprehension of availability
- Shortcode generator for quick embedding on pages or posts
- Booking calendar widget
There is also a premium version of WP Simple Booking Calendar that provides advanced features. These include unlimited calendar creation, custom legends, iCal feed syncing for third-party platform integration (Airbnb, HomeAway, etc.), and even an opportunity to highlight the day’s events for users to see when they land on your site.
To learn more, feel free to try out the demo on the official plugin website. You can also read about the free versus premium options.
12. My Calendar
My Calendar is an advanced freemium plugin that offers a plethora of customization options for displaying calendars on your WordPress site. It supports WordPress multisite, multiple calendars that display by category, locations, and authors. There’s also a simple list view display if you prefer.
With this plugin, you can showcase monthly, weekly, or daily events for site visitors. You can also add a widget to highlight upcoming events, feature a compact calendar view, or provide access to event search functionality.
What’s more, you can configure the settings so that you receive email notifications whenever new events are created or reservations are made. You can also integrate the My Calendar plugin with WP to Twitter so you can easily share tweets about new events.
Additional features include:
- Ability to schedule and edit recurring events
- Shortcode generator to easily customize calendars to match your website
- Integrated help for shortcodes and tags
- Calendar grid or list view
- Calendar access restrictions
- Custom templates for event output
- Location Manager feature for frequently used venues
- Ability to fetch events from remote databases
My Calendar was developed by Joseph C. Dolson, an accessible web designer based in Minnesota. If you’re looking for more advanced features than what the free version offers, you can also check out his My Calendar Pro plugin, available for $49.
13. Booking Calendar
Booking Calendar, much like WP Simple Booking Calendar, is a WordPress calendar plugin designed to help website visitors check the availability of properties (such as apartments, hotels, or vacation homes) or services (such as massage or hair appointments). It’s a flexible, all-in-one solution for adding a booking system to your WordPress site.
With this plugin installed on your site, your visitors can select from available days and times, then simply fill out a booking form and submit it. From there, you can approve or decline the booking and notify the customer accordingly.
This simple-to-use plugin enables you to customize the style and design of your calendar and provide site visitors with a calendar overview or a list view. You can modify its skin and utilize shortcodes to insert it into posts and pages. You can even add a calendar widget to your site’s sidebar.
Beyond aesthetics, there are also a handful of functional features. For example, it prevents the issue of double booking, sends email notifications to both administrators and customers, and even enables you to import your Google Calendar directly into the admin panel.
Additional features include:
- Multilingual support
- CAPTCHA support
- Ability to assign user roles
- Fully responsive design
- Management of bookings in the dashboard
- Easy installation and configuration
- Time slot bookings
- Option to import Google Calendar events
First developed in 2009, this plugin was the first of its kind to each over a million downloads, which is quite impressive! You can visit the official Booking Calendar plugin website to try the demo or learn about some of the premium versions available.
Understanding WordPress Calendar Widgets 🔌
Many of the calendar and event plugins for WordPress we’ve discussed include widgets. In order to prevent confusion, let’s take a moment to discuss them separately.
WordPress calendar widgets are often the output of shortcodes included in calendar plugins. This feature makes it possible to insert calendars in areas of your site other than a post or page, such as a sidebar, header, or footer.
However, many widgets can also appear within pages or posts, and can be inserted by means of a shortcode right in the middle of your content. How (or if) you end up using them will depend on the needs of your website and how you prefer to display your event information.
For instance, one of the best WordPress event calendar plugins on our list, EventON, has a robust shortcode generator:
This makes it easy to select a style of calendar, event list, or another related piece of content. You can customize it, then insert it directly into your post or page via a shortcode block.
Frequently Asked Questions ☝️
If you’re looking to share some upcoming classes or events on your website, using an upcoming event plugin for WordPress can help. Not only does it take the guesswork out of the process, but it also fundamentally changes how you approach the inclusion of this information.
The Events Calendar is a solid example of a plugin we recommend for upcoming events. Right out of the gate, your events are more organized and readily accessible to your visitors. With its ‘enable booking’ capability, your visitors can sign up for a class with you directly on your site without having to visit a third-party platform or call you.
Yes, there are jQuery scripts that enable you to add a calendar to your site. However, if you’re not super knowledgeable about code, this can be a daunting task. This is why so many calendar plugin jQuery options are available.
One of the most popular is FullCalendar, which is a full-featured and open-source calendar that makes it possible to display full-sized calendars easily. The WP FullCalendar plugin takes the power of FullCalendar and makes it possible to create calendars within WordPress, where your posts become dated entries.
Wrapping Up 👋
Using WordPress calendar plugins to share upcoming events with your site visitors is an effective way to expand your brand, get people involved with your company or cause, and even generate more revenue. However, each calendar plugin has its own unique set of features that may or may not suit your individual needs.
While all calendar plugins will have some overlapping features, factors such as service bookings, social media integration, and recurring event functionality will vary depending on the one you choose. We recommend exploring the above-mentioned options to see which will work best for you.
If you ever need help adding calendar plugins, setting up an event scheduling system, or maintaining a WordPress site in general, WP Buffs is here to help. Check out our Care Plans and white-label solutions to learn more!
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