Booking Calendar vs MailChimp for WordPress
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Booking Calendar v11.9.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details | MailChimp for WordPress v4.14.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 40,000+ | 1M+ |
| Last updated | October 11, 2026 | September 16, 2026 |
| Editions | Booking Calendar · Booking Calendar Pro ($) | MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress · Mailchimp for WordPress Premium ($) |
| Pros | Full-day, time-slot and appointment bookings in one plugin; Booking and inquiry forms with email notices; Elementor widget and WooCommerce compatibility | Native HTML sign-up forms with full field control; Sign-up hooks for Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms and WooCommerce; Form widget and block for placing forms; Lists refreshed daily from the Mailchimp account |
| Cons | Large plugin with many admin screens to learn; Newer resource and service catalog needs the Pro edition; Payment gateways are not in the free code | Form designer, logging and user sync are Premium only; Needs a Mailchimp API key connected to the site; Procaptcha bot protection loads a third-party script when enabled |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 2 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Calendar and booking form shortcodes, Import of Google Calendar feeds into availability, Elementor booking form widget controls, Services and providers catalog (Pro-compatible resources) ($), Dashboard What's New page after activation | Sign-up forms built from native HTML, Sign-up form widget, AMP-compatible sign-up forms, Campaigns archive block, Daily Mailchimp list refresh, Background subscribe through Action Scheduler or WP-Cron |
| Integrations | ||
| — | Mailchimp | |
| E-commerce | WooCommerce | WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads |
| Plugins | Elementor, Polylang, WPML | Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms |
| Other | Google Calendar (iCal feed import) | Procaptcha (Prosopo) |
| Requires WordPress | 5.3 | 5.3 |
| Requires PHP | 5.6 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | Only if you agree | No |
| External services | wpbookingcalendar.com | js.prosopo.io, api.prosopo.io, api.mailchimp.com |
| Blocks | 1 | 2 |
| Shortcodes | 10 | — |
| Custom tables | 3 | — |