Eventonomy

Event plugin

The WordPress event plugin you host yourself.

Events, recurring schedules, RSVPs, tickets and calendars, running on the WordPress site you already own. The difference that shows up on the invoice: there is no per-ticket platform fee, because there is no platform in the middle. You pay your payment gateway, and nothing else comes out of the price you set.

The free core

A working event platform, not a teaser.

Plenty of event plugins put recurring events behind the paywall and call the rest free. Here is what the free core actually carries.

Events, the whole model
Single and recurring events with advanced recurrence, plus venues, organizers, categories and tags. The parts most plugins split across a free tier and an add-on.
RSVPs
Free registration with attendee records, so a no-cost meetup works without touching a payment gateway.
Views and calendars
Multiple event views and an ICS calendar feed, so people can subscribe from the calendar app they already use.
Frontend submission
Let organizers post their own events from the front end instead of handing out wp-admin logins.

When you start charging

Selling tickets without a middleman.

Paid ticketing is Pro. What you get is the whole commerce path rather than a checkout button, and none of it routes your money through a marketplace first.

Paid tickets
Checkout with attendee and order records, run on your own site rather than someone else's marketplace.
Gateways, tax, fees, coupons
Real commerce plumbing rather than a donate button: gateway support, tax and fee handling, and discount codes.
Tiered and early-bird pricing
Price by tier or by date, which is how most real events actually sell.
Refunds and cancellations
Handled in the product, because they happen and the alternative is doing it by hand in a spreadsheet.
Organizer payouts
Stripe Connect payouts, so money can reach the organizer running the event rather than only the site owner.

The half people miss

Pro earns its place on free events too.

Pro comes in two halves and only one of them is about money. If you never sell a ticket, this is the half that still applies.

Door check-in
A check-in scanner that works for any event, free ones included.
Calendar sync
Keep events in step with the calendars your organizers already live in.
Discovery and following
A discovery feed and a follow button, so a returning attendee hears about the next one.
Maps, week and day views
The views that matter once you run more than a handful of events.
Analytics and reports
What actually happened, rather than a guess from ticket stubs.

Pro starts at $99 a year. The free versus Pro breakdown lists what sits on each side, tier by tier.

Where it fits

Events on a site, or events inside a community.

Events are the product

A venue, a meetup, a conference, a class schedule. Eventonomy on its own is the answer, and the free core will take you further than you expect.

The community is the product

If members and discussion are the point and events are something the community does, start with BuddyNext and run Eventonomy on top. Pro adds BuddyPress community tabs so events live inside the community rather than beside it.

Questions

What people ask before installing.

Is the free version actually usable, or is it a trial?

It is a working event platform, not a teaser. Recurring events, venues and organizers, categories, RSVPs, multiple views, an ICS feed and frontend submission are all in the free core. If you run free events, you may never need Pro at all.

Do I pay a fee on every ticket I sell?

No. Eventonomy runs on your own WordPress site, so there is no per-ticket platform fee taken out of what you charge. You pay your payment gateway their processing fee, the same as any other checkout on your own site, and that is the whole of it.

Can I sell tickets with the free version?

No, paid ticketing is Pro. The free core covers RSVPs, which is the right tool for events that do not charge. Selling tickets brings gateways, tax, coupons, tiered pricing, refunds and payouts with it, and those live in Pro.

Is Pro only worth it if I sell tickets?

No, and this is the part people get wrong. Pro comes in two halves. The commerce half only matters if you charge. The community and growth half, door check-in, calendar sync, discovery and following, maps, week and day views, and analytics, works on free events too.

Does it work with an existing community on my site?

Yes. Pro adds BuddyPress community tabs, so events can sit inside a community rather than beside it. If the community itself is the product rather than the events, look at BuddyNext in the same family and let Eventonomy handle the events on top.

What happens to my events if I stop paying for Pro?

Your events, attendees and orders are rows in your own database on your own server. A lapsed license stops updates and support. It does not take your data or your site offline. That is the practical difference between hosting it and renting it.

Put your next event on your own site.

Start on the free core. Add Pro when you need the door scanner, the calendar sync, or the checkout.