Top 5 WordPress Calendar Plugins
Top 5 WordPress Calendar Plugins
It may be time to take control of your events. Having a calendar on your website will assist you in managing live and virtual events. We have compiled this list of articles to assist you in selecting a WordPress Calendar plugin for your website.
[1]Looking for a solution to help you showcase events on your WordPress site? Or maybe you want to go even further and start selling tickets or accepting reservations?
No matter your needs, one of these WordPress event calendar plugins might be the ticket (sorry!).
All of them will help you create a stylish calendar of events on your WordPress site, complete with areas to help you manage event venues and organizers. Then, depending on what functionality you need, you’ll also find options that let you create repeating events, sell tickets, manage attendance, and lots more.
You probably want to learn about the plugins! So let’s dive right in, starting with the most popular option
Amelia
Amelia is a booking plugin with a powerful events calendar module that complements its core booking functionality.
You can create events, display events in a beautiful front-end calendar, automate online payments, and manage your employees’ availability simultaneously.
And if one or more of your employees are leading an event (e.g., a Yoga class), the plugin will ensure that no duplicate services (e.g., fitness training) occur. You won’t have to apologize for double booking ever again.
More than 13,000 users use Amelia worldwide to automate bookings & events in professional services, medical, beauty, automotive, and other industries. The plugin is extremely well maintained and monthly updated with new features.
What’s more, is that there are no features hidden behind higher pricing plans. It’s a flat price.
In recent versions of the plugin, Front-end Panel for customers and employees has been added, and Zoom integration for virtual sessions.
What you get with the free version of Amelia
With the free version, you can run your own one-off events & appointments for a single employee.
Included is a weekly calendar to view your events/appointments, appointment management page, and basic booking settings. Automated payments aren’t available in the free version.
What you get with the Pro version of Amelia
Now, this is where the real magic happens. The Pro version of Amelia will give you:
- Unlimited employees
- Automated online payments via PayPal, Stripe, and WooCommerce
- Set up recurring events and tag events
- Recurring Appointments
- Full back-end calendar for all of your events/appointments
- Email and SMS notifications for the customer(s) and provider of the event/appointment
- Google Calendar and Outlook calendar synchronization
- Coupons and custom fields
While the free version is great, the Pro version offers the features you need to run your business with minimal hassle.
[2]Bookly—WordPress Appointment Booking Plugin
Bookly is an incredible appointment booking system that blurs the line between a WordPress website and a web application. It is well designed, fully responsive, and even supports gestures. It also has free integration with Zoom.
It allows customers to book and cancel appointments, update personal information, and send payments. Bookly’s customization options and useful features make it more than just a way to serve customers well—it also helps a website owner keep track of staff and appointments at the same time.
You can create schedules for each staff member—you can even block out holidays.
[3]The Events Calendar
As the name implies, The Events Calendar WordPress plugin is ideal for any site that’s managing events. There are so many different uses for this feature.
It’s great for musicians who want to showcase their upcoming performances and venue owners who need to display shows coming to their location. If you have a restaurant, church, or nonprofit organization, this plugin is perfect for you. If you’re an author and traveling to promote your book or speaking at any seminars and conferences, you can benefit from the events calendar. As you can see from these examples, the possibilities are nearly limitless.
Here’s how the plugin looks once you implement it:
In addition to this month view option, you can also organize the calendar by day or list of events.
The microformats will help boost your SEO, and the plugin offers cache support and debug mode. It’s compatible with Google Maps, Google Calendar, and iCal as well. So events can be exported and added to other platforms.
Users who are looking at the calendar even have the option to browse for certain events. They won’t have to scroll to find something specific.
The design is fully responsive, no matter what device the calendar is being used on. So you won’t have to worry if visitors are browsing from desktops, smartphones, or tablets. This is extremely important since accommodating the needs of mobile users can boost sales.
One of the reasons why The Events Calendar is so popular is because it’s easy to use right out of the box. You’ll be able to figure out how to navigate and use everything in minutes.
You can install this plugin for free, but it does have a few paid options as well. The premium upgrades are very affordable — they cost $89, $149, and $299 per year for personal, business, and agency use, respectively.
[4]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, etc. It enables you to set event dates and start and end times easily:
You can also enable the convenient Ajax calendar view for a heightened User Experience (UX) and 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
Sandhills Development developed sugar Events Calendar, 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.
Buy Sugar Events Calendar for $29 per year
[5]Simple Calendar
If you use Google Calendar to manage events, you should check out Simple Calendar — a WordPress plugin that lets you display events from any public Google Calendar.
You can retrieve events from Google Calendar and change how your calendar looks. You can change colors, and you can trim long titles to stop them from overflowing onto other days and change the colors.
Make sure you enter your Google API key in the settings area so Simple Calendar can retrieve events.
The settings area also allows you to delete plugin settings and remove calendar data.
Two premium add-ons are available for Simple Calendar: FullCalendar and Google Calendar Pro. Both of these retail from $29 per year for a single license.
FullCalendar adds a host of new options, such as weekly and daily views, improved calendar navigation, additional customization options, and more.
Google Calendar Pro can display both private and public Google Calendars. It also lets you highlight events with colors that match Google Calendar colors and display attendee names, avatars, and event organizer information.
These two add-ons work well together, so it makes sense to buy both through their add-on bundle. A single license retails at $49 per year for this bundle and comes with support and updates for both addons.
As someone who uses Google Calendar every day to plan my schedule, I can appreciate Simple Calendar’s possibilities.
You can continue to manage your event schedule with the official Google Calendar app on your smartphone or tablet or via your browser. Customize “Simple Calendar” how it looks on your website.
Conclusion:
Especially since Covid-19 has hit the world, we do not want visitors to leave our websites. If you are promoting an event, and now promoting live and virtual events is even more important. Having your own calendar plugging for your WordPress website can keep your visitors returning, build client loyalty and increase revenue. If you have any questions or should you need assistance in setting up a calendar plugin for your WordPress website, call hughesagency.ca today.
Article compilation by RapidPage, all references are listed below.
- https://www.wpsuperstars.net/best-wordpress-event-calendar-plugins/ ↑
- https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/20-best-wordpress-calendar-plugins-and-widgets–cms-25906 ↑
- https://www.quicksprout.com/best-wordpress-calendar-plugin/ ↑
- https://wpbuffs.com/wordpress-calendar-plugins/ ↑
- https://winningwp.com/best-event-calendar-plugins-for-wordpress/ ↑
