Three WordPress event plugins solve the same surface problem in three different ways. WP Event Manager keeps its core under 1MB and makes you buy every feature beyond listings as a separate add-on. Modern Events Calendar bundles more than sixty calendar layouts, booking, ticketing, and virtual event tooling into one Pro license, at the cost of weight and a plugin you can no longer find through Plugins > Add New. Eventonomy takes a third path: a genuinely free core built for sites where members run their own recurring meetups, with a direct line into BuddyPress and BuddyNext that neither of the other two has at any price.
Last updated: 6 November 2026
Quick answer: Pick WP Event Manager for a light listings page you extend with paid add-ons. Pick Modern Events Calendar for the widest range of calendar layouts and bundled ticketing, if you accept a plugin that is no longer in the WordPress.org directory. Pick Eventonomy if members of a BuddyPress or BuddyNext community should add events and RSVP themselves.
This comparison walks through what each plugin actually ships for free, what you pay to get the rest, and which one fits a lightweight listing page, an all-in-one calendar, or a community site where the events keep happening without you organizing every one of them. We checked pricing and install counts directly against WordPress.org and each vendor’s own site, so the numbers below are current, not carried over from an old review.
Quick Verdict
- →Pick WP Event Manager if you run a lean listing page and want to pay only for the one or two add-ons you actually need.
- →Pick Modern Events Calendar if you want every calendar view, booking, ticketing, and virtual events bundled into a single Pro license.
- →Pick Eventonomy if your site is a community where members RSVP, bring guests, and sometimes run their own events, especially on BuddyX, BuddyPress, or BuddyNext.
In This Guide
Market snapshot
- The global event management software market (all vendors, not just WordPress plugins) was valued at USD 9.90 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 32.62 billion by 2034, a 14.16% annual growth rate over 2026 to 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights.
- WP Event Manager reports 20,000+ active installations on WordPress.org (checked 6 November 2026).
- The Events Calendar reports 600,000+ active installations on WordPress.org (checked 6 November 2026).
How the Three Plugins Actually Stack Up
WP Event Manager carries 20,000+ active installations on WordPress.org with a 4-star average across 249 reviews, a fraction of category leader The Events Calendar’s free-core base of 600,000+ installs. Modern Events Calendar’s free Lite plugin, once also distributed through WordPress.org, was removed from the directory in May 2022 over a guideline violation; Webnus now ships Lite only from its own site, a distribution quirk worth knowing if your site owner expects to find it under Plugins > Add New the way the other two options here still work.
That distribution gap matters more than it sounds. A plugin missing from the WordPress.org directory loses the built-in trust signals, the review history visible to anyone browsing, and the one-click install flow most site owners rely on by default. It does not make Modern Events Calendar a worse plugin, but it does change how you find it and how much due diligence you need to do before installing a copy you downloaded from a vendor site rather than wordpress.org.
1. WP Event Manager
WP Event Manager treats events the way its sibling plugin WP Job Manager treats job listings: a clean, searchable directory rather than a calendar app. The free core, deliberately kept under 1MB, ships Ajax-powered event listings, filtering, search, a frontend submission form, a customizable field editor, event categorization, and compatibility with both Gutenberg and Elementor. It supports more than 40 languages out of the box and currently runs 20,000+ active installs at version 3.4.1, with a 4 out of 5 star rating across 249 reviews (174 five-star, 47 one-star).
Everything past the listing itself is an add-on. Calendar view, Registrations, Sell Tickets, Recurring Events, Zoom Integration, Google Maps, Speaker and Schedule, Sponsors, Stripe Split Payment, WooCommerce Paid Listing, and CRM connectors for HubSpot, Mailchimp, Zoho, Salesforce, and Active Campaign are each sold separately, typically $19 to $99 a year apiece, out of a catalog of 37+ add-ons. The plugin also sells bundle packages (Plus, Lite, Premium, Standard, Ultimate) starting around $100 and scaling to a few hundred dollars depending on site count, which is usually the more economical route once you need four or five add-ons together.
Key Strengths
- Core stays under 1MB, so it rarely drags down an admin screen the way a bundled calendar suite can on shared hosting.
- Frontend event submission is free in the core, not locked behind a paid tier.
- Modular add-ons mean you pay only for what you actually use, and each one is small and well documented.
- Template structure mirrors WP Job Manager, so developers already familiar with that plugin can override views predictably in a child theme.
- 40+ language support ships in the free core.
Falls Short
- No calendar view, recurring events, or ticket sales in the free version; each is a separate paid add-on.
- Matching Modern Events Calendar Pro’s feature set typically means installing five to ten individual add-ons, which adds up in both cost and maintenance surface.
- No member dashboard, guest waitlist, or community layer of any kind, BuddyPress or otherwise.
- 47 one-star reviews out of 249 total is a meaningfully higher complaint rate than a plugin with a single consolidated codebase tends to carry.
2. Modern Events Calendar
Modern Events Calendar (MEC) by Webnus is built around the opposite assumption from WP Event Manager: bundle as much as possible into one plugin so a site owner rarely needs to go shopping for an add-on. The free Lite version includes single, multi-day, and recurring events, more than a dozen of its 60+ total layout options (agenda, grid, list, masonry, carousel, slider, monthly, weekly, timetable, and yearly views among them), community submissions, and basic customization.
MEC Pro is priced by site count rather than by feature: $99/year for one site, $199/year for five sites, $299/year for ten sites, $799/year for 100 sites, or $999/year unlimited. Every Pro tier unlocks the same feature set, advanced booking and ticketing, appointment-style time-slot bookings, location and map layouts, Zoom and Webex integration for virtual events, and a year of updates and premium support, the difference is purely how many sites the license covers. Webnus states the plugin serves 200,000+ active users across its distribution channels, with a 4.2-star average on Trustpilot.
Key Strengths
- The broadest single-purchase feature set of the three: 60+ layouts, booking, ticketing, and virtual events all live in one Pro license.
- Frontend submission works in the free tier, not just Pro.
- Site-count pricing is simple to reason about once you know how many domains you are licensing.
- Virtual event support (Zoom, Webex) is built in rather than bolted on through a third-party plugin.
Falls Short
- The free Lite plugin was removed from the WordPress.org directory in 2022 and is only available as a direct download from Webnus, so it will not turn up in a normal in-admin plugin search.
- Heavier footprint than a lightweight listing plugin, by design, since so much ships active by default.
- No native BuddyPress, BuddyNext, or BuddyX integration; events live entirely outside the community layer.
- With hundreds of admin settings spread across many tabs, the learning curve for a first-time setup is steeper than either other option here.
3. Eventonomy
Eventonomy is the free WordPress events plugin built at Wbcom Designs, and it starts from a different question than either plugin above: what happens to this calendar after the first event, once members are the ones running it? The free plugin covers unlimited events and RSVPs with going, maybe, and waitlist statuses, Month, List, Grid, and Upcoming calendar views, daily, weekly, and monthly recurring series, custom RSVP questions with ten answer types, and guest RSVPs that work without an account through a magic link. Guests count against a capacity you set, and once an event fills, new RSVPs land on an automatic waitlist instead of a dead end.
Beyond RSVPs, the free core adds an ICS feed and add-to-calendar links, a venue and organizer catalog, a Leaflet map with clustering and popups, a My Events member dashboard, a frontend submission form so members can post their own meetups, CSV export, and branded confirmation emails. None of that sits behind a paywall. Eventonomy Pro exists for the day you start charging for tickets or need deeper operational tooling: Stripe, PayPal, or WooCommerce checkout with tax, booking fees, and coupon codes, Week and Day calendar grids, advanced geocoding, a door check-in scanner using secure ticket tokens, organizer analytics and backend reports, a discovery feed with follow and saved-event functionality, SMS reminders through Twilio, customizable reminder timing, and custom email templates. Pro runs $99/year for one site, $199/year for five sites, or $249/year unlimited, with lifetime pricing from $249 to $629 if you want to skip renewals entirely.
The feature neither WP Event Manager nor Modern Events Calendar has an answer for is community integration. Eventonomy is tested against BuddyX, so event pages inherit your theme instead of fighting it. With BuddyNext, Eventonomy activity surfaces directly in the community feed, member profiles, and search, with event reminders landing in the same notification bell members already check. On classic BuddyPress, Eventonomy Pro adds a native Events tab to every group, with a list or calendar view and the option to attach one event to multiple groups at once. Eventonomy’s free plugin also ships an importer for The Events Calendar, EventON, Events Manager, and WP Event Manager, so switching away from any of those does not mean rebuilding your calendar by hand.
Key Strengths
- Free tier is a complete events platform, not a crippled trial: unlimited events, RSVPs, waitlists, recurring series, and member submissions all ship free.
- The only plugin of the three with a native path into BuddyX, BuddyPress, and BuddyNext.
- Built-in migration path from WP Event Manager, The Events Calendar, EventON, and Events Manager.
- Guest RSVP via magic link removes the signup friction that blocks casual attendees on other plugins.
- Transparent, predictable pricing with both annual and lifetime options.
Falls Short
- Four free calendar views (Month, List, Grid, Upcoming) is fewer than Modern Events Calendar’s 60+ layout options; Week and Day views sit in Pro.
- Supports adding a join link such as Zoom to any event today, but does not yet ship a dedicated virtual-conferencing scheduling panel the way MEC Pro does.
- Younger in the market than WP Event Manager, which has years more plugin-directory history and a larger third-party add-on catalog in niche areas like CRM sync.
- No speaker/track builder or badge generator, a gap it shares with WP Event Manager’s core and MEC’s non-conference tooling.
A Real-World Scenario
Picture a neighborhood association running a WordPress site on BuddyX: a monthly general meeting open to all residents, a handful of recurring interest-group meetups (a book club, a walking group) that different members organize themselves, and two or three ticketed fundraisers a year that need to cap attendance and collect payment.
On WP Event Manager, the general meeting and fundraisers list cleanly out of the box, but letting the book club organizer post her own recurring meetup means buying the Recurring Events add-on, and selling fundraiser tickets means stacking Sell Tickets plus a payment gateway add-on on top, three separate purchases before the site does what the association actually needs. On Modern Events Calendar, the calendar views and recurring events work immediately, and Pro’s bundled ticketing handles the fundraiser in one license, but there is still no way for the book club organizer to get a dashboard of her own events, and nothing surfaces in a members-only space because MEC has no concept of one. On Eventonomy, the book club organizer logs in, submits her own recurring meetup through the free My Events dashboard, residents RSVP with a guest count and land on a waitlist once the room fills, and when fundraiser season comes around, Eventonomy Pro’s Stripe checkout with coupon codes handles the ticket sale, all while every event shows up in the same BuddyX activity feed members already check for everything else happening on the site.
Side-by-Side Comparison Table
| Plugin | Starting Price | Calendar Views | Recurring Events | Member Submissions | Community / BuddyPress | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WP Event Manager | Free / $19-$99 per add-on | Add-on required | Add-on required | Yes, free core | None native | Lean listings, developers who want to compose only what they need |
| Modern Events Calendar | Free / $99-$999/yr by site count | 60+ built in, Lite included | Free and Pro | Yes, free | None native | Feature-dense all-in-one calendars with virtual events bundled |
| Eventonomy | Free / $99-$249/yr | 4 free, 2 more in Pro | Free (yearly rules, Week/Day views in Pro) | Yes, free | BuddyX, BuddyPress, BuddyNext | Community and membership sites running recurring, member-organized events |
Prices and tiers change; check each vendor’s own pricing page before you buy. For a community or membership site specifically, the column that decides the match is “Community / BuddyPress”, Eventonomy is the only plugin in this table with a native path into BuddyX, BuddyPress, and BuddyNext.
Total Cost of a Feature-Complete Setup
On free cores alone, all three plugins are accessible: WP Event Manager and Eventonomy are free on WordPress.org (Eventonomy also distributes from its own site), and MEC Lite is free from Webnus directly. The gap opens once you need a feature-complete setup. A WP Event Manager site with calendar view, recurring events, ticketing, and a payment gateway typically lands around $150-$220 a year once four or five add-ons are stacked, before counting any CRM connector. Modern Events Calendar Pro covers the same ground, plus virtual events, for a flat $99/year on a single site, usually the cheaper route if you only need one domain. Eventonomy’s Pro tier, at $99/year for one site, matches MEC’s single-site price while adding the community integration neither competitor offers, and its lifetime option at $249 one-time undercuts both plugins’ ongoing renewal costs if you plan to run the site for more than two or three years.
Run Events on the WordPress Site You Already Own
Free forever for unlimited events and RSVPs, with native BuddyX, BuddyPress, and BuddyNext integration no other event plugin ships.
Download Eventonomy Free →Which Should You Actually Pick
Match the plugin to what your site needs after the first event goes live, not just how the demo looks on day one.
- A lean event listing where you want to pay only for the one or two features you use: WP Event Manager.
- A feature-dense all-in-one calendar with 60+ layouts, ticketing, and virtual events bundled in a single license: Modern Events Calendar.
- A BuddyPress, BuddyNext, or BuddyX community where members RSVP, bring guests, and sometimes organize their own recurring meetups: Eventonomy. No other plugin here reaches into the feed, profiles, or groups.
For more plugins in this category, see our Eventin alternatives roundup and our head-to-head on Modern Events Calendar vs WP Event Manager, which digs deeper into that specific pairing without Eventonomy in the mix.
Where to Start
If your events repeat and members run some of them themselves, install Eventonomy’s free plugin on a staging copy, add the calendar block to a page, and test an RSVP with a guest and a waitlist before touching the live site. If you need the widest possible set of calendar layouts bundled into one license, Modern Events Calendar Pro is worth the $99 to see immediately. And if your site is a lean listing page that never needed a calendar in the first place, WP Event Manager’s free core, with one or two targeted add-ons, is still the leanest way to get there. The honest question either way: who is still running this calendar in month six, you or your members?
Interesting Reads
- Replace The Events Calendar on Your Community Site with Eventonomy
- How to Run a Hybrid (In-Person + Virtual) Event on WordPress
FAQs
Which of the three is completely free?
All three have a free core: WP Event Manager and Eventonomy are free on WordPress.org, and Modern Events Calendar Lite is free directly from Webnus. Eventonomy’s free tier goes furthest before asking for payment, covering unlimited events, RSVPs, waitlists, recurring series, and member submissions with no cap.
Why was Modern Events Calendar removed from WordPress.org?
The Lite version was closed on the WordPress.org plugin directory in May 2022 over a guideline violation. Webnus continues to develop and distribute the plugin, but only through its own site now, so it will not appear in an in-admin plugin search the way WP Event Manager or Eventonomy will.
Does WP Event Manager have a calendar view in the free version?
No. The free core ships listings, search, filtering, and frontend submission only. Calendar view, like most of WP Event Manager’s other features, is a separate paid add-on.
Can members submit their own events on any of these plugins for free?
Yes, on all three. WP Event Manager, Modern Events Calendar, and Eventonomy each include frontend event submission in their free tiers, though only Eventonomy pairs that with a member-facing My Events dashboard to track and manage what was submitted.
Which plugin works best with BuddyPress or BuddyNext?
Eventonomy. It is tested against BuddyX, surfaces activity in the BuddyNext feed and member profiles with BuddyNext, and adds a native Events tab to BuddyPress groups with Eventonomy Pro. Neither WP Event Manager nor Modern Events Calendar has an equivalent integration at any price.
Can I migrate from WP Event Manager to Eventonomy?
Yes. Eventonomy’s free plugin ships a built-in importer for WP Event Manager, along with The Events Calendar, EventON, and Events Manager, so existing events move over without being rebuilt by hand.
Does Modern Events Calendar handle virtual or hybrid events?
Yes, MEC Pro integrates with Zoom and Webex for hosting and selling access to virtual events. Eventonomy currently supports adding a join link to any event but does not yet ship a dedicated virtual-conferencing scheduling panel, and WP Event Manager offers virtual support only through its separate Zoom Integration add-on.
Which plugin is cheapest for a single site that needs ticketing?
Modern Events Calendar Pro and Eventonomy Pro are priced identically at $99/year for one site, and both bundle ticketing into that single price. WP Event Manager usually costs more once you stack the Sell Tickets add-on with a payment gateway add-on separately.
Do any of these plugins offer lifetime pricing?
Eventonomy does, with lifetime licenses from $249 (one site) to $629 (unlimited sites). WP Event Manager sells lifetime pricing on most individual add-ons. Modern Events Calendar’s published pricing is annual by site count, with no lifetime option listed.
Which plugin has the largest install base?
Among the three in this comparison, WP Event Manager’s 20,000+ WordPress.org installs is the only figure independently verifiable through the directory, since Modern Events Calendar no longer lists there and Eventonomy’s 200K+ user figure comes from the vendor’s own site rather than a WordPress.org count.
Which WordPress event plugin is best for a community site?
Eventonomy is built for it: members submit events, RSVP and see their own dashboard, with BuddyPress and BuddyNext integration. WP Event Manager fits a simple listings page, and Modern Events Calendar fits public calendars that need many layouts. Pick by who will add events after launch, not by which demo looked best.