WordPress Events Calendar Plug-ins Time is on our side WordPress Events Calendar Plug-ins

Lots and lots (and lots) of Options There’s no right or wrong here. It all depends on what you want to do and what your plans are. Isn’t that always the way? Rather than an exhaustive survey (we’d be here all night!), we’ll take a peek at handful of plugins so you can get an idea of what different types can do and how they function as well as Pros and Cons I’ve included a link to the developer’s site and demo when available.

Disclaimer I don’t endorse any of these plugins particularly. I’ve used some more extensively than others so have a bit more information about them. As we know, familiarity breeds contempt. So….

All-in-One-Event Calendar http://time.ly/ Comes with a ton of functionality built in Unlimited Events Recurring Events Images Locations/Maps Filtering by Category or Tag Theme Options Calendar View Themes Multiple Views

All-in-One Pros Cons Can use a Google Cal feed. Easy to add events to Google Cal and pull in the feed Uses shortcodes Can pull in multiple feeds Each event becomes a post - making each event searchable Can also create events within the plugin itself as a post Can create recurring events within a post Easy to use widgets Cons Not a lot of cons here - especially for a free plug-in. There are a number of add-ons, to include: More detailing on the venue More views Ticketing for Events Front end submissions for subscribers - if not using a Google Cal feed Support

Modern Tribe Demo: http://wpshindig.com/events/ Modern Tribe: https://theeventscalendar.com/ This too is a really good out-of-the-box plugin with a ton of functionality built-in Unlimited Events Recurring Events Images Locations/Maps Filtering by Category or Tag Multiple stylesheets Multiple Views Responsive And more!

Modern Tribe Pros Each event becomes a post - making each event searchable Can also create events within the plugin itself as a post Can create recurring events within a post Easy to use widget for sidebar Looks good Cons Unable to use a Google Cal feed - or any other feed. No shortcodes Does take more effort to customize Add-Ons do add more functionality More views Event Ticketing/Ticket Purchases Filter Bar Recurring Events Saved Venus and organizers Community submissions

Events Manager Developer Description Demo: http://demo.wp-events-plugin.com/ Website: http://wp-events-plugin.com/ Developer Description Easy event registration (single day with start/end times) Recurring and long (multi-day) event registration Bookings Management (including approval/rejections, export CVS, and more!) Multiple Tickets Guest/Member Event submissions Assign event locations and view events by location Event categories Easily create custom event attributes (e.g. dress code) Google Maps Guest/Member Event submissions Assign event locations and view events by location Event categories

Events Manager Pros Cons Each event becomes a post - making each event searchable Can also create events within the plugin itself as a post Can create recurring events within a post Easy to use widget for sidebar Looks good Able to use an iCal feed Shortcodes! Submissions by members or guests Widgets Cons Does take more effort to customize Add-Ons add more functionality PayPal, Authorize.net and Offline Payments Custom booking forms Coupon Codes Faster support via private forums

GCal - A Google Calendar Plugin https://github.com/pderksen/WP-Google-Calendar-Events Developer’s description: Features Parses Google Calendar feeds to extract events. Displays events as a list or within a calendar grid. Events from multiple Google Calendar feeds can be shown in a single list / grid. Lists and grids can be displayed in posts, pages or within a widget. Options to change the number of events retrieved, date / time format, cache duration, etc. Complete customisation of the event information displayed.

GCal Pros Cons Uses a Google Cal feed. Easy to add events to Google Cal and pull in Uses shortcodes Can pull in multiple feeds Cons A little difficult to configure The feeds don’t translate into posts (at least I don’t think so!) so not great if you want your event calendar to be found in search

As mentioned earlier, there are loads of event calendar plugins - these a tiny fraction of what’s available. Special note: If you are considering ANY of these plugins for use with ongoing events such as an exhibitions, think again! Adding an exhibition as a recurring event means it shows up every single day from the start of the show ‘til the end. That’s really not such a terrible thing if it’s only one show, but if you’ve got more than one or you’re consolidating lots or organization’s shows on one calendar, then your calendar looks pretty bad - the calendar becomes cluttered with the exhibitions and it’s hard to see the individual events. One way around this is to have a separate section for Current, Upcoming and Past Exhibitions. A good example is The Met - they handle it this way: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/current-exhibitions Events at the Met look like this http://www.metmuseum.org/events/find-events