Difference between iCal Importer and Event Aggregator

[Martin]

Hi,

can you please clarify what is the difference between the iCal Importer and the upcoming Event Aggregator (https://theeventscalendar.com/wordpress-event-aggregator/)?

In my scenario I would like to sync events between four sites. Three of them are Worpress sites with The Events Calendar plugin installed and one is a Drupal site with the Drupal Calendar module installed (https://www.drupal.org/project/calendar).

Which solution fits my needs? Can you give information about the pricing of the Event Aggregator plugin?

Thanks!

-Martin

[Geoff]

Hi Martin,

Great questions! We’re really excited about Event Aggregator. It’s not only going to be a huge upgrade to iCal Importer, but a plugin that eventually replaces it altogether.

The primary difference is that Event Aggregator runs server side on our servers. That means the burden of running scheduled tasks and imports will hit our servers instead of yours, creating a more performant experience.

Secondly, Event Aggregator will allow you to import from multiple sources. iCal Importer only imports from sources with an active iCal feed whereas Event Aggregator will import from other sources as well, including Facebook, Meetup, and a few others.

Lastly, the UI for Event Aggregator is a major update from iCal Importer. It will be much easier to create and manage your scheduled imports, including a way to view and manage your history of imports. I saw a demo of it the other day and it’s pretty slick.

It sounds like iCal Importer will still do the trick for you, as long as the sources you are importing from have a valid iCal URL to import from. Otherwise, I think holding off for Event Aggregator is a solid idea and, in fact, you can sign up for the beta release of it here if you’d to give it a spin before it’s official release: https://theeventscalendar.com/wordpress-event-aggregator/

We’re still in the process of sorting out pricing and I can’t offer specific details or promises, but I imagine we will be looking into a subscription model that allows you to import a certain number of events per period at a flat rate.

Does this help answer your questions? Please let me know.

Cheers!
Geoff

[Martin]

Hi Goeff,

thank you very much. I am looking forward to test the Aggregator beta next week!

-Martin

[Geoff]

Heck yeah, us too! Cheers to you for checking it out and signing up for the beta — we’ll see shortly to test things out. 🙂

Have a great day!
Geoff

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