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.

WooCommerce Memberships is an extension that can limit access to certain types of content, including events created in The Events Calendar.

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 add-on that boosts The Events Calendar with a bunch of additional features. Most of those features aren’t extremely relevant to a membership site calendar, but there is one key feature that is: calendar shortcodes. You can add these shortcodes to any WordPress page or post. Depending on the membership plugin you are using, those pages can be blocked by certain users.

  • Calendar shortcode: Embed a full calendar view into a page or post. It includes options for displaying certain calendar views (e.g. month view), event categories, and date ranges, to name a few.
  • Event shortcode: Embed a specific event (or certain details from that event) to a page or post, and then limit access to that page.
  • Calendar widgets: Each of the widgets included in Events Calendar Pro has a shortcode that can embed on a page or post. This could come in handy when crafting a landing page for certain members, or even on their profile pages.

Shortcodes like these open up a lot of possibilities on a membership site, from displaying a calendar filtered with members-only events, to displaying event information that only members have access to view.

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.

With Event Tickets Plus, Event Tickets can integrate with an e-commerce plugin, like WooCommerce shown here with the WooCommerce Memberships plugin enabled. Creating a new ticket creates a new Product post in WooCommerce, which can be configured, with WooCommerce Memberships to set which membership level gets access to the ticket (VIP), what type of access it gets (purchase), and when the access starts (immediately). Additional rules can be set up for different membership plans.

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

There’s a good chance that you might want to give certain users the ability to publish events to the calendar. The benefits of a crowd-sourced calendar are pretty obvious: users create content for you, and it’s another possible way to generate revenue.

That’s what you’re going to want Community Events for because it extends The Events Calendar why adding a front-end form to your site that can be used to submit events to the calendar without needing to access the WordPress admin.

Community Events adds a couple of pages to your site when it is installed and activated:

  • Submission Form: A page containing a submission form to submit events.
  • My Events: A page that allows users to see events they have submitted to the calendar.

Just as we saw with other plugins so far, a membership plugin can be used to limit access to these pages. For example, you may want two types of membership plans to submit events and only of them to be able to view their events. That gives you an opportunity not only to earn money for submitting events but additional revenue with a higher membership tier that can manage their events. Pretty cool!

And the best part: Community Events includes shortcodes for those pages, so you can drop the submission for and events into your own pages and restrict access specifically for those pages.

Community Tickets

Community Tickets is sort of like an add-on to an add-on because it connects Event Tickets Plus to Community Events so that members can create tickets for the events they submit to your calendar using the Community Events submission form. In other words, they get to sell tickets, and you get to take a slice of the revenue if you choose.

Again, since this is merely an integration, there is no content to restrict. However, since you can limit access to the submission form, you are also limiting who can create a ticket. Further, once a ticket is created, you might be able to limit who can purchase those tickets, depending on the membership plugin you are using.

Virtual Events

Our Virtual Events add-on is the closest thing to a membership plugin without needing another membership plugin. That’s because it allows you to show content selectively to users based on whether they have registered for an event. That includes embedding a live stream video on a page so that only those who have purchased a ticket can access it.

Configuring a virtual event in the WordPress post editor

Combined with certain membership plugins, Virtual Events can be even more selective, by limiting access to purchase tickets to certain members.

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.

ProductWhat it doesRequiresMembership ideas

The Events Calendar
Create and manage events in a calendar formatN/ALimit access to the calendar or specific events

Events Calendar Pro
Shortcodes for embedding calendar contentThe Events CalendarEmbed calendars and events on members-only pages and posts

Event Tickets
Create tickets and RSVPs for eventsThe Events Calendar, if using eventsN/A

Event Tickets Plus
Connect Event Tickets to WooCommerce and Easy Digital DownloadsEvent TicketsOffer 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 formThe Events CalendarLimit access to the event submission form to members

Create a membership plan that can manage and edit their events

Community Tickets
Connect Community Events, Event Tickets, and WooCommerceEvent Tickets, Event Tickets Plus, WooCommerceAllow members to create and sell tickets and split the revenue

Limit tickets only to certain members

Give members access to sales reports and see who has registered for their events

Virtual Events
Give access to a live-streamed event for registered usersThe Events Calendar, Event Tickets, Event Tickets PlusLimit access to a livestream to members who have registered for an event