Amelia vs The Events Calendar
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| Feature | Amelia v2.4.13 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.6/5 Visit Details | The Events Calendar v6.18.2 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.2/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 90,000+ | 600,000+ |
| Last updated | October 22, 2026 | October 15, 2026 |
| Editions | Amelia Lite · Amelia Starter ($) · Amelia Basic ($) · Amelia Pro ($) · Amelia Developer ($) | The Events Calendar · Events Calendar Pro ($) · Event Aggregator ($) |
| Pros | Booking forms for appointments and events via shortcodes, blocks and Elementor widgets; Square payments and email notifications work in the free Lite edition; Customer data stored in dedicated tables, with optional SMS credits service; Usage tracking stays off unless the admin opts in on the free edition | Core calendar with venues, organisers and iCal export included; Works with Elementor, Yoast SEO and WPML; Zapier automation hooks included in the free plugin |
| Cons | Most payment gateways, Google and Outlook sync, Zoom and coupons require a paid licence; Very large codebase (over 6,700 files) with dozens of custom database tables; Lite settings for payments and limits are reset to defaults on save | Recurring events, ticketing and automatic imports need paid add-ons; Event Aggregator import needs a licence key; Large plugin with many modules, so setup takes time |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 1 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Booking, catalog and events shortcodes, Gutenberg booking and events blocks, Elementor booking widgets, Email notifications via wp_mail, SMTP or Mailgun, SMS notifications through the Amelia SMS service (prepaid credits), Coupons ($), Recurring appointments and events ($), Custom booking fields ($), Service packages and resources ($), Waiting lists ($), Webhooks ($), MCP server / abilities registration for AI agents | iCal export of events, Venues and organisers as linked posts, Embedded maps for event venues, Zapier automation, Event Aggregator imports ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | Square, Stripe ($), PayPal ($), Mollie ($), Razorpay ($) | — |
| Mailchimp ($), Mailgun | — | |
| E-commerce | WooCommerce ($) | — |
| Plugins | Elementor | Elementor, Yoast SEO, WPML, Divi |
| Other | Google Calendar ($), Microsoft Outlook Calendar ($), Zoom ($), Google reCAPTCHA ($) | Zapier, Google Maps |
| Requires WordPress | 6.5 | 6.9 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | Only if you agree | Only if you agree |
| External services | smsapi.wpamelia.com, store.melograno.io, bi.melograno.io, middleware.wpamelia.com, www.iplocate.io, api.mollie.com, exp.host, api-m.sandbox.paypal.com, api-m.paypal.com, connect.squareup.com, graph.microsoft.com, login.microsoftonline.com, api.razorpay.com, auth.razorpay.com, www.googleapis.com, api.stripe.com | maps.google.com, maps.googleapis.com, theeventscalendar.com, api.telegram.org, maker.ifttt.com, api.sendgrid.com, licensing.nexcess.com, software.liquidweb.com, herald.nexcess.com, licensing.stellarwp.com, app.trustedlogin.com |
| Blocks | 9 | — |
| Shortcodes | 16 | — |
| Custom tables | 61 | — |