Calendarize it! vs The Events Calendar: Comparing Functionality and Efficiency

Posted by Josh Blackburn, in Event Plugins

Choosing the right calendar plugin for your WordPress website is essential for effective event management and seamless user experience. Two popular options are Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar. Both plugins offer a range of features and customization options to suit various needs.

Calendarize it! is a flexible and feature-rich calendar solution, optimized for Gutenberg, the new WordPress block editor. It offers customizable templates, a wide array of calendar views, and integration with other platforms. On the other hand, The Events Calendar is known for its simple settings area, allowing users to adjust options like the number of events displayed per page, the stylesheet and template for events, and additional content options.

Key Takeaways

• Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar are popular WordPress calendar plugins with diverse features.
• Both plugins offer customization options, calendar views, and navigation choices for optimal user experience.
• Integration with other platforms and pricing comparisons are essential considerations when choosing between Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar.

Overview of Calendarize It!

Calendarize It! is a flexible and feature-rich calendar solution for your WordPress-powered website. This plugin offers a multitude of functionalities, allowing you to effortlessly customize and optimize your calendar experience.

Key Features of Calendarize It!

• Wide Range of Views: Calendarize It! offers various views such as Month View, Week View, Day View, Event List View, Event Grid View, Event Map View, and Event Year View, giving users a comprehensive understanding of the events and schedules on their websites.
• Add-ons and Extensions: With a valid license, you have access to a wide range of additional features and free add-ons that can be easily integrated to enhance the functionality and user experience. Some examples include Events Countdown, Events Year View, and Events Grid View.
• Shortcodes: Calendarize It! is optimized for Gutenberg, the new block editor in WordPress. However, it also supports other page and layout builders through the use of shortcodes and attributes, making it adaptable to different website designs.

Ease of Use in Calendarize It!

The plugin is designed to be user-friendly, catering to both beginner and advanced users. With an intuitive interface and seamless integration with the WordPress platform, managing and displaying events on your website becomes a breeze. The shortcode system also simplifies the process of embedding calendars and events on your site.

Support and Documentation for Calendarize It!

Calendarize It! prides itself on offering thorough documentation and dedicated support to the users. Should you encounter any issues or require assistance, the support team is available to help resolve your queries. Furthermore, the detailed documentation provides users with step-by-step guides, making it easy to set up and configure the plugin on your website.

Overview of The Events Calendar

Key Features of The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar is a widely-used WordPress plugin designed to help users create and manage events on their websites. This plugin comes with several key features:

• Multiple views: Events can be displayed in various formats, such as list, grid, and map views.
• Responsive design: The calendar automatically adjusts its layout to look good on different devices, ensuring a seamless user experience.
• Customizable templates: Users can personalize the appearance of the calendar and the event pages with different styles and options.
• Event categorization: Events can be sorted and filtered by categories and tags, making it easy for website visitors to find relevant information.
• Integration with popular platforms: The Events Calendar supports integration with Google Calendar, iCal, and other popular platforms, allowing easy event sharing and syncing.

Ease of Use in The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar is known for its simple settings area and user-friendly interface, making it a top choice for beginners and experts alike. Users can adjust various options such as the number of events to display on a page, the stylesheet and template used for events, and the content displayed before and after events. Moreover, shortcodes can be used to insert the calendar into posts and pages, making it easy to customize the website’s layout.

Support and Documentation for The Events Calendar

The developers behind The Events Calendar provide extensive support and documentation for their users. A comprehensive knowledge base is available, covering a wide range of topics such as installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and best practices. Users can also access community forums and submit support tickets to get help from the developers. In addition to the standard support, premium add-ons and additional features are available for purchase, further enhancing the capabilities of The Events Calendar plugin.

Pricing Comparison

Calendarize It! Pricing

Calendarize it! for WordPress can be found on CodeCanyon, where it is available for a one-time payment of $39. This gives you access to all the features and updates for six months. For an additional $12.75, you can extend the support period to 12 months. There is no free version available for Calendarize It!; however, once purchased, you can use the plugin for multiple projects by paying the one-time fee. The plugin supports popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, which can be integrated using optional add-ons.

The Events Calendar Pricing

The Events Calendar offers both free and premium versions. The free version, called The Events Calendar, provides basic event management features, whereas the premium version, known as Events Calendar Pro, offers advanced features like recurring events, additional views, and customization options. Pricing for the premium version starts at $89 per year for a single site, $149 for three sites, and $299 for ten sites.

The Events Calendar Pro supports popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe through integrations with the separate plugins: Event Tickets and Event Tickets Plus. These plugins allow users to sell tickets for events and must be purchased separately. Events Tickets is free, whereas Event Tickets Plus costs $89 per year for a single site, $149 for three sites, and $299 for ten sites.

In summary, both Calendarize It! and The Events Calendar offer different pricing models that cater to various needs, whether it’s a one-time investment or an annual subscription. Integration with popular payment gateways, such as PayPal and Stripe, provides both solutions with the flexibility to handle event payments and ticketing seamlessly.

Customizing Calendars

Customizing with Calendarize It!

Calendarize It! is a feature-rich calendar plugin for WordPress that allows users to easily customize their calendars. One of the key customization options is the ability to change color schemes for event categories. By assigning different colors to various categories, users can visually distinguish between different types of events on their calendar.

Another convenient tool provided by Calendarize It! is the visual CSS editor. The editor enables users to make real-time changes to their calendar’s appearance without needing to modify the underlying CSS code. This visual editor provides a user-friendly interface to make quick customizations to the calendar, making it suitable even for those with limited coding experience.

Some other formatting options include:

• Custom buttons for navigation and actions
• Grid view, list view, and map view for event display
• Taxonomy labels for custom event organization

Customizing with The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar is another popular WordPress calendar plugin that also offers a wide range of customization options. To modify the appearance of The Events Calendar, users can create template overrides in their theme. This allows them to access the plugin’s code and tweak it according to their preferences.

For instance, users can change the color schemes of events and calendar elements to make their calendars visually appealing and easier to comprehend. Additionally, the plugin allows developers to add custom CSS directly to the WordPress theme, which can be helpful for those who want more control over the calendar’s appearance.

Some customization options offered by The Events Calendar include:

• A variety of templates for different calendar views
• The ability to add custom fields to events
• Integration with third-party services for added functionality

Both Calendarize It! and The Events Calendar provide comprehensive solutions for customizing WordPress event calendars. Users can choose between these plugins based on their specific needs and preferences in terms of customization options and features.

Calendar Views and Navigation

In this section, we will compare the calendar views and navigation features of two popular WordPress calendar plugins: Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar. We will highlight their respective capabilities and how they handle day, week, month views, header customization, and event list navigation.

Views and Navigation in Calendarize It!

Calendarize it! offers a flexible and feature-rich calendar solution for WordPress websites. Users can choose from various views and easily navigate through day, week, and month layouts. Some of the available views include:

• Month View: Displays a traditional, grid-style monthly calendar.
• Week View: Showcases events happening throughout the week in a more detailed format.
• Day View: Provides a focused view of the events occurring on a specific day.
• Event List View: Lists events chronologically, allowing users to scroll through them easily.
• Event Grid View: Presents events in a visually appealing grid layout.
• Event Map View: Displays events on a map, offering a geo-visual representation of their locations.
• Event Year View: Provides a yearly overview of events.

Additionally, Calendarize it! allows users to customize the calendar header and incorporate advanced navigation options. This plugin also supports multiple widgets, such as the Upcoming Events Widget and Accordion Upcoming Events Widget.

Views and Navigation in The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar is another popular WordPress calendar solution, featuring a redesigned calendar interface with multiple views and robust navigation capabilities. Some of the available views in The Events Calendar include:

• Month View: Offers a grid-style monthly calendar, similar to Calendarize it!’s month view.
• Week View: Displays events for a specific week in a detailed format.
• Day View: Showcases events happening on a single day.
• List View: Lists events in a chronological order for easy browsing.
• Photo View: Organizes events using images, enabling users to visually browse through them.
• Map View: Allows users to see events based on their geographic location.

The Events Calendar also provides header customizations and easy navigation throughout the various views. The “repository” release and refactoring unified the way the existing calendar views fetch information from the database, enhancing the overall user experience.

In conclusion, both Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar deliver comprehensive calendar views and navigation features to meet diverse WordPress website needs.

Integration with Other Platforms

Integration of Calendarize It! with Other Platforms

Calendarize it! offers seamless integration with different platforms, which allows you to easily import events from various sources. The External Event Sources add-on lets you display events from Facebook, Google Calendar, Microsoft Office 365, and Meetup.com, simply by adding the respective event feeds. In addition, you can fetch events from other WordPress websites that also use Calendarize it!

Moreover, Calendarize it! supports Google Maps integration, providing users with interactive maps to display the event locations. This enables people to find directions and plan their routes accordingly.

Integration of The Events Calendar with Other Platforms

The Events Calendar plugin also integrates well with various platforms, making it more versatile for users to manage their events. For instance, it offers a Google Calendar export feature which allows users to import their events directly into their personal Google Calendar, thus keeping everything in one place.

This plugin also provides WooCommerce integration, enabling event organizers to sell tickets through their WooCommerce store. By using Events Tickets Plus add-on, you can implement a ticketing system without having to rely on an external platform.

Furthermore, The Events Calendar supports Stripe integration for processing online payments related to your events. This ensures a secure payment gateway, making it easy for attendees to purchase tickets or products related to the event.

Both Calendarize It! and The Events Calendar offer integrations with different platforms, ensuring users can efficiently manage events and offer a smooth experience for their audience.

Conclusion

Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar are both excellent calendar plugins for WordPress, catering to different needs of users. In terms of flexibility and feature richness, Calendarize it! stands out as a comprehensive solution. It offers multiple views, widgets, and is optimized for the Gutenberg block editor. Meanwhile, The Events Calendar is also a reliable plugin that appeals to users who prefer a simple and easy-to-use calendar solution.

When comparing the two plugins’ ease of use, The Events Calendar seems to be more beginner-friendly and straightforward. On the other hand, Calendarize it! might have a steeper learning curve due to the abundance of customization options and features. It is worth noting that both plugins are compatible with other page or layout builders, increasing their adaptability across various WordPress themes and sites.

Taking the pricing into account, some might find Calendarize it! a more cost-effective option, as it offers a broader range of features with a single purchase. In contrast, The Events Calendar requires additional addons and premium versions for certain functionalities that might increase the overall cost.

In conclusion, the choice between Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar depends largely on individual preferences and requirements. If you’re looking for a feature-rich, customizable, and versatile plugin, Calendarize it! might be the best choice for you. However, if simplicity, ease of use, and a lower entry cost are your primary concerns, opting for The Events Calendar could be a better fit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main features of Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar?

Calendarize it! offers a highly flexible and feature-rich calendar solution for WordPress, with various views such as Month, Week, Day, Event List, Event Grid, Event Map, and Event Year. It also provides multiple widgets like Upcoming Events Widget and Accordion Upcoming Events Widget.

On the other hand, The Events Calendar is a cornerstone plugin that features redesigned calendar views, including premium views available in Events Calendar Pro, with a focus on smooth user experience.

How easy is it to set up and use these calendar plugins?

Setting up and using Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar is a straightforward process. Both plugins offer user-friendly interfaces and comprehensive documentation for easy installation and configuration. However, each plugin may cater to different user preferences.

What customization options are available in both plugins?

Both Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar provide a range of customization options. Calendarize it! allows users to easily modify styling, layout, and colors, while The Events Calendar offers customization in terms of views, design, and overall appearance.

Are there any significant differences in pricing and support?

The Events Calendar has a comprehensive Support section on their website, including FAQs, tutorials, and a knowledge base. While All-in-One Event Calendar also provides support, their documentation is less extensive.

Which plugin is more suitable for event booking and management?

Depending on your requirements, either Calendarize it! or The Events Calendar could be suitable for event booking and management. Calendarize it! may offer greater flexibility and feature richness, while The Events Calendar has a more streamlined user experience.

How do they compare in terms of integration with other WordPress plugins?

Both Calendarize it! and The Events Calendar have the capability to integrate with other WordPress plugins, with varying levels of compatibility. As one of the most widely-used calendar plugins, The Events Calendar is more likely to have pre-built integrations with popular WordPress themes and plugins. However, Calendarize it! also offers extensive integration options for a seamless user experience. It is essential to review each plugin’s compatibility with your specific setup and requirements before making a decision.