5 Free WordPress Plugins to Timetable Different Events

If you host several events throughout the year, you probably understand the chaos of managing them all. To make things easier on you and your visitors, you can leverage a WordPress timetable plugin to display your events in a chart.

With the right plugin, you’ll be able to display your events in a central location for everyone to see. These tools offer the flexibility to display your events in multiple views, navigational controls to help visitors browse your events, and shortcodes to easily add timetables with no need for coding.

In this post, we’ll highlight five free WordPress plugins to timetable your events.

1. The Events Calendar

Best for: Event website owners who want an effective, flexible, and beginner-friendly calendar events plugin.

With almost one million active installations to date, The Events Calendar is one of the first free plugins you should check out when adding a timetable to your website. Jam-packed with useful features, this plugin lets you create and manage an events calendar with ease. You can display your events in a calendar grid, list, or day-by-day view.

There’s also the option to organize and label events to help your visitors locate them faster. If you normally have events at the same venue, the plugin also lets you save your event information for future use.

The plugin developers offer several free and paid add-ons to extend the capabilities of this tool. These include a ticketing system, an Eventbrite integration, and advanced search filters. There is also a pro version ($99/year) that allows for more calendar views, Elementor compatibility, and more.

To get a better idea of what this plugin can do, check out this video from the plugin developers:

2. Modern Events Calendar Lite

Best for: Users who want built-in designs without the need to write code.

Modern Events Calendar Lite is a comprehensive event management plugin for your website. You can create single or recurring events and display them in multiple views. Also, the search feature helps your visitors find specific events on your calendar.

With 50 design layouts, you can customize the calendar to fit the look for your brand. This is especially useful if you’re not comfortable with custom CSS styling that other plugins require to add visual flair.

Other benefits of this plugin include wide page builder compatibility, SEO-friendly markup, breadcrumbs, and a large library of add-ons to tailor the experience of using your calendar. Many of these add-ons are paid and have the same functionality you could get by upgrading to this plugin’s paid version.

3. Timetable and Event Schedule by MotoPress

Best for: Daily color-coded schedules displayed in a weekly view.

Need a schedule organizer? This plugin was designed to help you create and manage online schedules for single and multiple events. You can customize the event, add a date and time, and include a short description.

To help visitors navigate your timetable, the plugin includes filtering, so users only see the things they’re interested in. Plus, the color controls feature makes it easy to highlight and organize similar events. You can even set colors for mouse hover events.

4. Salon booking system

Best for: Appointment-based businesses in need of a calendar-based booking system.

Despite its name, Salon Booking System isn’t just for hair salons — any online business can use this plugin to set up a timetable and booking system on their WordPress website. Adjust the calendar view to display appointments by day, week, or month, and show visitors which slots are open versus which are taken.

There are many additional built-in features you’d expect from a quality booking system: automated email notifications (including confirmation and reminder emails), SMS notifications, rescheduling options, and integrations with payment gateways.

5. BookIt

Best for: WooCommerce users who want to accept appointment bookings through their website.

Closing out our list, BookIt is another high-quality plugin that lets you display a calendar on your website, through which visitors can make appointments. The plugin has options whether you want to allow one-on-one appointments, or open up time slots to multiple sign-ups for things like classes, shows, or tours.

Though it’s not required, BookIt has been built to integrate seamlessly with the WooCommerce plugin. By installing BookIt along with the BookIt WooCommerce add-on, you can incorporate BookIt’s calendar interface to checkout, so visitors can choose their service, select an appointment, and pay in one smooth process.

The Best Timetable Plugins for Any WordPress Business

There’s no need to use Excel spreadsheets to display your events on your website. Instead, install a WordPress plugin to showcase upcoming events, organize similar events, and customize your calendars. With these free tools, you’ll one step closer to driving sign-ups and growing your audience.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.