OK, so let’s say you have a website and that website is a place where users can register as members. There are probably several things you want members to be able to do that non-members cannot. That’s where a membership site calendar can come in handy.
Each of our calendar plugins and add-ons is designed to do very specific things. For example, you use The Events Calendar to publish and manage events in a calendar format. Event Tickets can help create tickets for events published on the calendar. And Community Events allows users to publish events to the calendar without needing access to the WordPress admin. Different products do different things and we’re going to break them out to help you decide which ones you might need for your membership site.
The Events Calendar
You’ll need The Events Calendar if you plan on having any sort of calendar functionality on your site. It’s free and available in the WordPress Plugin Directory.
The plugin itself does not offer any membership features, but it can integrate with a membership plugin. For example, The Events Calendar creates an archive of events on your site that a membership plugin can restrict access to if a user is not an active member of the site.
The idea goes for events: each event can be blocked to non-members where members have exclusive access to specific events or even entire event categories. It all depends on what membership plugin you are using and how flexible it is to limit access to certain users.
Events Calendar Pro
Events Calendar Pro is a paid upgrade that enhances The Events Calendar with additional features. While many of these features might not be directly relevant to a membership site calendar, one key feature stands out: calendar shortcodes. These shortcodes allow you to embed calendar views into any WordPress page or post. Depending on the membership plugin you are using, access to these pages can be restricted to certain users.
- Calendar shortcode: Embed a full calendar view into a page or post, with options for displaying specific calendar views (e.g., month view), event categories, and date ranges.
- Event shortcode: Embed a specific event or details from that event into a page or post, and limit access to that page.
- Calendar widgets: Each widget in Events Calendar Pro has a shortcode for embedding on a page or post, useful for creating member-specific landing pages or profile pages.
These shortcodes offer many possibilities for a membership site, such as displaying a calendar with members-only events or showing event details exclusively to members.
Events Calendar Pro also includes Virtual Events, which allows you to show content selectively to users based on their event registration status. This includes embedding live stream videos on pages that only ticket purchasers can access. When combined with certain membership plugins, Virtual Events can further restrict access, such as limiting ticket purchases to specific members.
Event Tickets
Like The Events Calendar, Event Tickets does not offer membership functionality right out of the box. But, if you’re trying to create tickets that only members can purchase, you still need this plugin because it provides the core functionality for creating tickets. Download and install it for free from the WordPress Plugin Directory.
Once Event Tickets is set up on your site, it’s time to look at Event Tickets Plus.
Event Tickets Plus
This is a premium add-on that connects Event Tickets to e-commerce plugins, including WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
Check out our handy extension to add the ability to limit access to view or purchase tickets by membership level!
You will want Event Tickets Plus if you plan on selling tickets that only specific users can purchase. That’s because, when connected to an e-commerce plugin, creating tickets with Event Tickets creates a custom Product post that many membership plugins can tap into to set who gets access to them.
And here’s something else: Event Tickets Plus includes shortcodes that can be used to embed tickets on a WordPress page or post. That way, if your membership plugin is capable of limiting access to certain pages, you can drop tickets into those pages that only members can see.
Community Events
You might want to give certain users the ability to publish events to the calendar, which can be highly beneficial: users create content for you, and it can be another way to generate revenue.
Community Events extends The Events Calendar by adding a front-end form to your site that allows users to submit events to the calendar without needing to access the WordPress admin.
When installed and activated, Community Events adds a couple of pages to your site:
- Submission Form: A page with a form for submitting events.
- My Events: A page that allows users to see the events they have submitted to the calendar.
You can use a membership plugin to limit access to these pages. For example, you might offer two types of membership plans: one that allows users to submit events and another that allows them to view their events. This setup can provide opportunities to earn money from event submissions and additional revenue from a higher membership tier that can manage their events.
The best part: Community Events includes shortcodes for these pages, so you can embed the submission form and event listings into your own pages and restrict access as needed.
Community Events also integrates with Event Tickets Plus, allowing members to create tickets for their submitted events and sell them directly through your calendar. You can take a slice of the revenue if you choose, adding another potential revenue stream.
Summary
That’s a full look at the calendar plugins and add-ons we offer that you might consider using with a membership site. As you can see, different plugins or add-ons offer different features that can be integrated with different membership plugins in different ways.
If you already have a membership plugin that you’re using and love, hopefully, this gives you good ideas for using our products with it.
But if you haven’t landed on a membership plugin and are still deciding on which one to use, maybe the following table will help you decide what you need based on what our plugins can do.
| Product | What it does | Requires | Membership ideas |
|---|---|---|---|
 The Events Calendar | Create and manage events in a calendar format | N/A | Limit access to the calendar or specific events |
 Events Calendar Pro | Shortcodes for embedding calendar content | The Events Calendar | Embed calendars and events on members-only pages and posts |
 Event Tickets | Create tickets and RSVPs for events | The Events Calendar, if using events | N/A |
 Event Tickets Plus | Connect Event Tickets to WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads | Event Tickets | Offer members-only tickets Give exclusive ticket pricing to members Embed tickets on members-only pages and posts |
 Community Events | Allow users to submit events to the calendar with a submission form | The Events Calendar | Limit access to the event submission form to members Create a membership plan that can manage and edit their events |