Best Free WordPress Event Calendar Plugins
Free event calendars are genuinely good. Free event ticketing is where the money hides, and the two get recommended together as though they were the same offer. The most-installed free ticketing plugin on WordPress applies a 2% application fee to sales through its own payment layer. A well-regarded free registration tier charges 3% per transaction. Neither is on the plugin listing page.
That does not make free a bad choice. It makes it a choice with a number attached, and the number is knowable in advance. This article covers what free event plugins genuinely include, exactly where the caps and fees bite, and the combination that gets you a free calendar with paid ticketing for less than either bundle.
Verified August 2026 against plugin listings and vendor pages.
What free actually includes
The pattern across this category is consistent once you see it. Displaying events is free almost everywhere, and generously so: unlimited events, calendar views, single event pages, categories, and a listing widget. Vendors give this away because it is the part that gets you installed.
Taking money is where the tiers appear, in one of three shapes. Some plugins put ticketing entirely behind a licence. Some include it and take a percentage. Some include it and withhold the features that make it usable at volume, most often check-in apps and recurring events.
The third shape is the one to watch, because a free tier that includes selling but excludes door scanning is free right up until the evening it matters. Read the free tier for what it excludes rather than what it lists.
The 6 options compared
1. Eventin, free version
The most generous free tier here by a clear margin, and the one that includes things others charge for. Free covers unlimited event creation, basic ticketing, speaker management, attendee registration, email automation, WooCommerce payments and Zoom integration.
Speakers and Zoom in a free tier are unusual enough to change what a small organisation can do without a budget: you can run a hybrid conference with a speaker programme for nothing but your Zoom account. What sits behind the paywall is recurring events, additional payment gateways and template control, so a repeating programme needs Pro. Paid tiers start at $89 a year for two domains, with a $109 lifetime single-domain licence that is the cheapest permanent upgrade path in this comparison.
- Free includes: Unlimited events, ticketing, speakers, Zoom, WooCommerce
- Free excludes: Recurring events, extra gateways, templates
- Best for: Almost any small organiser, including hybrid events
- Upgrade: $89/yr for 2 domains, or $109 lifetime
2. The Events Calendar, free version
The default free calendar for WordPress and a genuinely complete one: unlimited events, month, list and day views, venues, organisers, categories and a search. For a site that needs to publish what is on, this is the end of the shopping.
The line to understand is where the free calendar stops. Recurring events are paid, as are the additional views and filtering, and the commercial packages now start at $259 a year for Essentials, $399 for Pro and $599 for Elite. That is a substantial step from free, and it is worth knowing before you build a site around the free calendar and then discover the weekly class needs a $259 licence. Ticketing is a separate plugin, covered next.
- Free includes: Unlimited events, core views, venues, organisers
- Free excludes: Recurring events, extra views, filtering
- Best for: Publishing a calendar of one-off events
- Upgrade: $259 a year, which is a large step
3. Event Tickets, free version
Over 90,000 active installations, RSVPs and paid tickets, with Stripe, PayPal and Paystack through its Tickets Commerce layer. Free to install and the place the hidden number lives.
Tickets Commerce applies a 2% application fee on Stripe and Square, waived with a valid Event Tickets Plus licence. On £5,000 of ticket sales that is £100, on £20,000 it is £400, and it is charged on top of your normal payment processing. RSVPs and free events cost nothing, so a community group taking names pays nothing at all. For paid events, do the multiplication before assuming free is cheapest: past roughly £13,000 of annual sales the $259 licence costs less than the fee it removes.
- Free includes: RSVPs, paid tickets, Stripe, PayPal, Paystack
- Free costs: 2% application fee on Stripe and Square sales
- Best for: RSVPs, free events, and low ticket volumes
- Upgrade: A Plus licence waives the 2%
4. Modern Events Calendar Lite
Free forever for calendar views and event listings, and the best-looking free calendar in the category. If your requirement is a programme that looks designed rather than defaulted, start here.
Everything transactional sits in Pro: recurring events, bookings and tickets, at $99 a year for one site, $199 for five and $999 for unlimited. That is a cleaner split than most, since Lite does not pretend to sell anything and therefore has no fee to disclose. Webnus does not offer lifetime licences on individual products, so factor a permanent annual cost if you expect to upgrade. As a free display layer paired with separate ticketing, Lite is a strong choice.
- Free includes: Calendar views and event listings, well designed
- Free excludes: Tickets, bookings, recurring events
- Best for: Attractive listings with ticketing handled elsewhere
- Upgrade: $99 a year, no lifetime option
5. Event Espresso Decaf
Free, with unlimited events, registrations and ticket sales plus PayPal payments, on one live site with staging. The most capable-sounding free tier here and the one with the largest number attached.
Decaf charges a 3% platform fee per transaction, where Core and All Access are explicitly 0% pay-as-you-go. It also excludes recurring events and check-in apps, which are the two features a real event programme needs most. At £10,000 of registrations the fee is £300 against a $129 Core licence, so Core is cheaper past roughly £4,300 of sales and gives you the missing features as well. Decaf is a reasonable choice for a free programme with no door scanning, and an expensive one for anything else.
- Free includes: Unlimited events and registrations, PayPal
- Free costs: 3% per transaction, no check-in, no recurrence
- Best for: Free programmes with no door operation
- Upgrade: Core at $129 a year, 0% fees
6. Free calendar plus paid ticketing
Not a plugin, and the best-value arrangement in this article. Take a free calendar for display and buy a dedicated ticketing plugin that takes no percentage, and you get better software on both sides for less than most bundles.
The concrete version: Modern Events Calendar Lite or The Events Calendar free for listings, plus Tickera at $149 a year, which takes zero commission on any plan, covers unlimited sites, and ships free mobile check-in apps. That is $149 total against $259 for the cheapest Events Calendar package, and it buys stronger ticketing than the package includes. The trade is two plugins rather than one, and no automatic connection between a listing and its tickets, which for most organisers means adding a link. If you sell more than a few thousand pounds of tickets a year, this combination is difficult to beat.
- Cost: Free calendar plus $149 a year for Tickera
- Includes: Zero commission, unlimited sites, free check-in apps
- Best for: Anyone selling meaningful ticket volume
- Watch out for: Two plugins, and a manual link between them
Comparison table
| Option | Free ticketing | Transaction fee | Recurring free | Upgrade from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eventin free | Yes, basic | None | No | $89/yr, 2 domains |
| The Events Calendar free | Separate plugin | Not applicable | No | $259/yr |
| Event Tickets free | Yes | 2% on Stripe and Square | Not applicable | Plus licence waives it |
| MEC Lite | No | None | No | $99/yr |
| Event Espresso Decaf | Yes | 3% per transaction | No | $129/yr Core |
| Free calendar plus Tickera | Paid, zero commission | None | Calendar-dependent | $149/yr total |
When free stops being enough
Four thresholds, each a capability rather than a size, and each worth recognising before rather than during an event.
- You need recurring events. This is paid in every option here without exception. A weekly class or a monthly meeting is the single most common reason people upgrade, and the cheapest route is Eventin at $89 a year or $109 lifetime.
- You need door scanning. Excluded from Event Espresso’s free tier and not present in most free calendars. If people arrive at a door, budget for it.
- Your transaction fees exceed a licence. At 2%, that is around £13,000 of sales; at 3%, around £4,300. Both are lower than organisers expect.
- You run more than one site. Free plugins do not charge per site, but the paid tiers vary enormously, from Eventin’s $149 for a hundred domains to $999 for unlimited elsewhere. Count first.
What does not appear on that list is attendee numbers. None of these free tiers caps how many tickets you can sell, which is a genuine and often-misreported strength of the WordPress approach against hosted platforms.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Is there a limit on events or tickets in the free versions?
Generally no. Eventin and Event Espresso Decaf both state unlimited events and registrations. The limits are on features and, in two cases, on a percentage of your revenue.
Which free plugin should I start with?
Eventin, unless you specifically want The Events Calendar’s ecosystem. It includes ticketing, speakers and Zoom for nothing, which no other free tier here matches.
Can I run free events without paying anything?
Yes, everywhere. RSVPs and free tickets carry no fee in any option here, and neither does Eventbrite for free events. Percentage fees apply to money changing hands.
Do free plugins handle multi-day events?
Most do, as a single event with a date range. Test how yours displays in month view, since some show only the first day, which confuses anyone browsing.
Can I switch later without losing my events?
Partly. Most plugins offer importers, and most imports lose something, usually custom fields and recurrence rules. Migrating a calendar is easier than migrating sold tickets, so choose your ticketing more carefully than your calendar.
Is a free plugin safe to rely on for a paid event?
The software is fine; the risk is the missing feature you discover late. Run a full rehearsal, buy a real ticket, refund it, and check somebody in, before you announce a sale.
The verdict
Start with Eventin’s free version. Unlimited events, ticketing, speaker management, WooCommerce payments and Zoom, at no cost and with no percentage taken, is the most generous free tier in this category.
If you want the standard calendar: The Events Calendar free for listings, and be aware the first paid step is $259 a year.
If you sell real ticket volume: a free calendar plus Tickera at $149 a year beats every bundle here, with zero commission, unlimited sites and free check-in apps.
And before choosing free ticketing, multiply. Two per cent of your expected annual sales, or three, is a real number, and on most event programmes it is larger than the licence that removes it.
