Are you questioning if Sugar Calendar is the correct occasion and calendar plugin for you?
At IsItWP, we perceive the significance of scheduling and including calendar occasions to a WordPress web site in a easy and sensible method. Utilizing a calendar occasion plugin will help you obtain this with out coding expertise.
However, with so many calendar and occasion plugins on the market, we all the time goal to make use of and check them earlier than making a evaluate. This manner, we will help you resolve which is one of the best.
On this Sugar Calendar evaluate, we have a look at the options, professionals & cons, pricing, and extra that will help you totally perceive what this occasion plugin can do.
Significance of Utilizing an Occasion Calendar Plugin
First, including occasions to your web site is among the greatest methods to enhance engagement. Occasions aid you create an avenue for interacting together with your customers, both in individual or by means of an internet occasion. This primary-hand expertise will help you join higher together with your customers, resulting in model consciousness, loyalty, and return clients.
Occasions additionally assist put a face on your small business, giving your clients extra confidence and leading to extra leads and gross sales.
They’re additionally the right alternative to get real-time suggestions and critiques out of your purchasers so you possibly can enhance your services or products. On prime of that, you should utilize occasions to community and construct each your companion and shopper lists.
As you possibly can see, internet hosting occasions will be very helpful to your small business. However how will you reap the benefits of occasions in your WordPress web site?
The answer is to make use of Sugar Calendar, one of the best calendar occasion plugin for WordPress.
This plugin is extremely easy to make use of. It permits you to create and customise your calendar occasions utilizing the Block or Basic WordPress editor. You can even handle and monitor them in your WordPress dashboard, making it handy.
Sugar Calendar contains scheduling, recurring occasions, time zone options, and extra to make occasion administration even simpler.
It really works with completely different on-line calendars, corresponding to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook Calendar. Plus, you will be linked to fee choices like Stripe to make use of with the built-in ticketing system. This ensures you possibly can simply monetize your occasions, creating one other supply of earnings.
It permits you to arrange on-line occasions like webinars, digital conferences, workshops and coaching classes, on-line programs, dwell streaming occasions, and extra. Aside from that, you may also use Sugar Calendar to arrange in-person occasions like sporting occasions, demonstrations, native exhibitions, and extra.
Listed below are different causes to make use of Sugar Calendar in your WordPress web site.
- Comfort: You possibly can view all of your occasions or appointments in your WordPress dashboard with out altering platforms. This occasions plugin, alternatively, permits your customers so as to add occasions to their favourite on-line calendar with a click on of a button.
- Customization: Utilizing the block or Basic WordPress builder, you possibly can shortly create and personalize a number of calendars and calendar occasions. Then, paint completely different occasions and calendars in varied colours for straightforward administration.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Sugar Calendar has built-in monitoring instruments that mean you can see who will attend your occasion and higher plan for it.
Sugar Calendar Assessment: Is it Definitely worth the Hype?
Now that you simply higher perceive Sugar Calendar, let’s break down completely different facets of this plugin. It will aid you see if it suits your small business properly. We’ve got additionally divided this evaluate into sections to make it simpler so that you can observe. You possibly can skip to any part by clicking on the hyperlinks beneath.
With that stated, allow us to get into the evaluate.
Set up & Set Up
You will need to do not forget that Sugar Calendar affords each a free and premium model of the plugin. The excellent news is that no matter which you select, it’s tremendous straightforward to put in and arrange.
So, how do you get the free Sugar Calendar Plugin?
First, go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins » Add New Plugin. Then, utilizing the search bar, discover “Sugar Calendar.” After this, all you might want to do is Set up and Activate the plugin such as you would every other.
If you happen to face any points, try this text on tips on how to set up a plugin.
As soon as Activated, you do not want to do anything. Now you can use Sugar Calendar Lite options like including a brand new occasion to a calendar of your selection, including an occasion location, establishing easy ticketing programs, enhancing calendar colours, and extra.
However, for this evaluate, we’ll deal with Sugar Calendar Professional.
This manner, we will have a look at all its options to provide the greater image of what you are able to do with this calendar occasions plugin.
To get Sugar Calendar Professional, buy a plan on the plugin’s official website. Don’t fear; this plugin affords 4 packages, making certain you get one that matches your finances and desires.
After you purchase the plugin, log into your Sugar Calendar account and go to “View Particulars and Obtain.” Obtain the plugin’s ZIP file on this web page to your PC and duplicate the License Key. This code will aid you activate the professional model in your WordPress dashboard.
After this, head to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins » Add New Plugin. On this web page, choose Add Plugin, then drag and drop the Sugar Calendar ZIP file out of your Pc to the add space.
Subsequent, choose “Set up” and provides WordPress time to finish the method. As soon as you’re finished, hit Activate to finish the set up.
It’s best to now see a brand new menu choice labeled “Sugar Calendar” in your WordPress dashboard. Now, go to Sugar Calendar » Settings and navigate to the “Normal” tab. Right here, paste the code you copied earlier into the License Key textual content bar and choose “Confirm Key.”
That’s It! You possibly can set up and arrange Sugar Calendar, whether or not you need the free or premium variations.
Subsequent, allow us to present you tips on how to customise Sugar Calendar.
Customization
One factor we actually appreciated about utilizing Sugar Calendar is that it comes with many customization choices to assist enhance consumer expertise on the entrance finish and make work simpler for you on the again finish.
So, we’ll begin with the customization choices you discover below the “License Key “textual content bar whenever you go to Sugar Calendar » Settings » Normal in your WordPress dashboard.
Within the Show part, you possibly can arrange the utmost variety of occasions you possibly can show in your calendar in a single go. This ensures you management what number of occasions are displayed on the occasion web page in order that you don’t overwhelm your customers.
This feature additionally ensures the occasion web page shouldn’t be too crowded, which might make your web site look spammy and discourage sign-ups. Since each enterprise runs in a different way, you may also arrange when your week begins for you. In consequence, you possibly can present which occasions of the week seem first.
On prime of this, Sugar Calendar permits you to choose the date and time format utilizing checkboxes.
This ensures you show the occasion instances and dates in essentially the most handy format to your viewers. Sugar Calendar shows an instance below the date and time checkboxes to make choosing a format simpler.
Now, with this calendar occasion WordPress software, you possibly can choose particular colours for every calendar.
You possibly can select “None” in order that no colours are utilized to the calendar. If you happen to go together with “Every,” Sugar Calendar will use a single coloration for every occasion hyperlink. Then, if you choose “First,” the occasion plugin will use the primary coloration discovered within the background. Whereas “Mix” makes use of the averages of all colours for the background.
Aside from that, you may also choose the WordPress editor you need to use to create and edit your occasions. To do that, transfer to the Enhancing part on the web page. Then, go to “Editor Kind” and use the dropdown to pick out both Basic Editor or Block Editor.
After this, you should utilize a toggle button beneath this feature to activate Allow Customized Fields. This lets you add extra, personalised info to your occasions past the default fields offered by the plugin. With this feature, you possibly can create customized fields corresponding to textual content bins, dropdown menus, checkboxes, dates, and extra.
Lastly, choose your Default Occasion Calendar from the dropdown menu. This manner, all of your occasions will go to this calendar except you alter it on the event-building web page.
As talked about, you may also edit the time zone. This function permits you to allow Customer Conversion, which can try and replace the occasion’s time in accordance with the consumer’s time zone. You can even add a number of time zones so the plugin can have completely different begin and finish time zones.
As you possibly can see, Sugar Calendar customization choices will be activated or disabled utilizing toggle or checkboxes. This makes the entire course of straightforward, even for newbies.
Now that you simply perceive tips on how to customise Sugar Calendar allow us to see how straightforward it’s to make use of.
Ease of Use
Sugar Calendar ensures you don’t expertise a studying curve whereas utilizing the software. That’s the reason you possibly can select both the Block or Basic editor that will help you construct your occasions. This offers you the flexibleness to make use of an interface you’re already aware of.
With that stated, allow us to see tips on how to create an occasion with Sugar Calendar.
To do that, go to Sugar Calendar » Add New in your WordPress dashboard. Relying on the builder you chose, the occasion editor will resemble the Basic or Block WordPress Builder. For this tutorial, we went with the Basic Editor.
On this web page, first, create a reputation to your occasion. It will act because the occasion web page title and web page slug. So, be sure that it’s straightforward to recollect and Web optimization-friendly.
Then, go to the Occasion part beneath this and choose “Length.”
In case your occasion will run the complete day, all you need to do is use the All Day toggle button. This allows you to place the occasion begin and finish date. The benefit of this feature is that the occasion can run over a number of days. This ensures that it seems persistently throughout every day it runs, with out the necessity to handle particular person time slots.
If the All Day choice is off, You will want so as to add a begin date and time and an finish date and time. This ensures that you simply present all the mandatory info to your customers in order that they’ll plan and schedule the occasion.
Subsequent, skip to the Location tab and add the small print of the place the occasion will happen within the “Tackle” textual content bar.
Subsequent, transfer to the Hyperlink tab so as to add a customized URL to show extra occasion particulars or ship customers to a registration web page.
After this, you possibly can allow Redirect with a Toggle button to ship guests to a web page on a unique web site robotically. However, to ship your customers to a unique web page in your web site, go away this feature off and enter the URL. If you do not need to show the bare URL, enter anchor textual content within the Textual content bar.
To enhance consumer expertise, you may also allow the hyperlink to open in a brand new tab with a checkbox.
As soon as finished, go to the “Particulars” textual content bar and add extra details about the occasion you’re internet hosting. On this textual content bar, you possibly can type your content material with H tags, bolding, italics, and extra. You can even add photos and different media recordsdata to supply visible aids for the occasion.
After this, add a Featured Picture and choose a calendar utilizing a checkbox below Calendars. Lastly, hit Publish, and Sugar Calendar will create a brand new occasion web page for you.
If you wish to view your created occasions, go to Sugar Calendar » Occasions.
Right here, you will note a calendar with all of your occasions positioned. When you choose an occasion, a popup shows all the data. You possibly can Edit, Delete, Duplicate, or View the occasion from right here.
Plus, you may also go to the highest proper nook, the place one can find choices to view the calendar from a month-to-month, weekly, or day by day standpoint. You possibly can then use the Settings gear icon to pick out which columns to view, the beginning of the week, and the utmost occasions.
In consequence, these choices guarantee you possibly can shortly monitor and handle the occasions in your calendar.
Now, when the consumer visits the occasion web page, they’ll see particulars just like the date, time, and hyperlink. With a dropdown menu, they’ll additionally choose the calendar they want to add the occasion calendar to.
On prime of this, they’ll open a web page displaying all of the occasions you’ve gotten positioned on this specific calendar.
With that, it’s evident that Sugar Calendar is an easy-to-use plugin. The truth is, you possibly can create, edit, and customise each facet of the occasion straight from the occasion editor. Subsequent, allow us to have a look at a few of Sugar Calendar’s hottest options.
Options
1. Recurring Occasions
With Sugar Calendar, you possibly can arrange an occasion to repeat day by day, weekly, month-to-month, or yearly. You can even schedule the repeat occasion after a specific interval or days of the week.
Automating your recurring occasions will help you save time and cut back errors. This additionally ensures constant scheduling with out your occasions overlapping or lacking time slots.
This improves consumer expertise and permits guests to see all upcoming recurring occasions conveniently, permitting them to plan higher.
The perfect half is that establishing repeat occasions could be very easy. You’ll create it in your occasion editor utilizing checkboxes and dropdown menus.
2. Ticketing System
Sugar Calendar presents you with the right alternative to create a brand new income from promoting occasion tickets.
The ticketing system is built-in into the calendar web page, making it straightforward for customers to buy tickets whereas viewing occasion particulars. In consequence, you possibly can streamline the consumer expertise and encourage customers to buy tickets.
Like with most Sugar Calendar options, you possibly can arrange ticket costs and capability within the occasion editor.
On prime of this, you possibly can automate and customise the receipt notifications and the ticket particulars web page. This occasion plugin permits you to ship out order receipt emails and ticket receipt emails with out extra instruments.
The truth is, the Sugar Calendar ticket receipt type fields are already mapped out. This makes the method straightforward, as usually, mapping out type fields to an electronic mail can overwhelm many newbies.
This implies you merely must arrange the “From E mail Tackle,” “From E mail Title,” “Order Receipt Topic,” and “Order Receipt Message.”
Since all of the heavy lifting is completed, you possibly can shortly monitor all of your tickets and orders in your WordPress dashboard.
Sugar Calendar affords particulars like which buyer bought the ticket, which occasion they signed up for, the date of order, and extra. You can even see refunds, pending funds, and accomplished transactions.
3. Cost System
Now, one function that units Sugar Calendar other than different occasion plugins is its integration with Stripe, among the finest and most safe fee gateways. In consequence, you do not want one other software or plugin to just accept funds to your occasion tickets.
Stripe permits you to obtain funds from bank cards and debit playing cards. You can even settle for funds from well-liked digital wallets like Apple Pay and PayPal.
Most significantly, Stripe permits you to obtain in-person funds so long as you’ve gotten a card reader. That is very helpful for occasions as you possibly can accumulate fee on the gate. In consequence, you can provide your customers the flexibleness to pay for his or her occasion ticket beforehand or on the occasion itself.
So as to add to this, connecting Stripe to Sugar Calendar is tremendous easy. All you might want to do is log into your Stripe account by means of Sugar Calendar and observe the steps.
After this, you possibly can choose the forex to obtain funds, the forex image place, and extra. You can even create a fee affirmation web page that lets the consumer know the transaction was profitable.
4. Occasion Feeds
These knowledge streams enable customers to subscribe to your occasion calendar and obtain computerized updates about upcoming occasions. They’re usually offered in iCal or RSS codecs, which make them appropriate with most calendar functions and RSS readers.
This implies customers can add your occasion feeds to their Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Microsoft Outlook Calendar and even obtain occasion particulars on to their PC.
So as to add to this, your customers obtain updates everytime you add, take away, or modify occasions, making certain they all the time have the newest info. Maintaining your viewers knowledgeable in actual time encourages constant occasion participation and attendance.
Aside from these, listed below are different Sugar Calendar options you possibly can anticipate.
- Create New Calendars: Sugar permits you to create a number of calendars in an effort to simply handle several types of occasions. On prime of this, it makes a singular web page and URL slug, enhancing your web site’s Web optimization. You can even join new calendars to a mother or father calendar for higher administration. After this, you possibly can paint the calendars in several colours, serving to you monitor and determine them shortly. This hierarchy permits you to manage a number of associated calendars with ease.
- Frontend Occasion Submission: You possibly can combine Sugar Calendar with a type builder like WPForms to permit customers to submit occasions on the entrance finish. In consequence, your customers don’t must create an account or get entry to your backend, enhancing safety. Permitting your customers to submit occasions is a good way to attach together with your local people and assist initiatives from different folks. This will help present that you’re a part of the group, serving to them belief you extra. On the identical time, it could aid you enhance native Web optimization.
- Maps: This calendar occasions plugin permits you to show maps with pins and dynamic views. This permits your customers to visually discover the occasion location by interacting with the map on the occasion web page. All you need to do is create a Google Maps API on Google Console and paste it into your WordPress dashboard.
Talking of WordPress integrations, Sugar Calendar permits you to join over 7000 instruments with Zapier.
All you need to do is join a free Zapier account and join it to Sugar Calendar. By way of Zapier, you possibly can overcome many shortcomings of this occasion plugin. For instance, you possibly can ship SMS notifications for occasion tickets, add ticket clients to your mailing record, sync attendee info to Google Spreadsheets, and extra.
Documentation & Help
Though Sugar Calendar is straightforward to make use of, it nonetheless comes with detailed documentation that will help you navigate all of the plugin options. Go to the official Sugar Calendar website and choose Help to entry the documentation web page.
Then, from the dropdown, choose “Documentation.” This opens a web page with articles categorized and positioned in tile tabs, making it easy to observe.
The variety of articles is listed so that you shortly know the way a lot studying materials you’ve gotten for every class. You additionally get a search bar on the prime of the web page that will help you discover the precise documentation useful resource you’re searching for.
If you choose any of the tiles displayed on this web page, you open one other web page with all of the articles within the class listed so as. This helps you learn the documentation step-by-step to keep away from forgetting something.
On this web page, you additionally get a search bar, classes, and hottest articles listed on the left. Once more, this lets you shortly discover the article you’re searching for.
Now, every article is written with simplicity in thoughts, permitting anybody to grasp the documentation shortly. You additionally get screenshots and different media recordsdata that will help you visually perceive the steps to take. Sugar Calendar documentation articles undergo an intensive writing and enhancing course of.
The truth is, you will note the author who wrote the article and the editor who edited the put up displayed. This ensures they’re error-free and well-edited.
You can even contact assist conveniently.
To do that, go to the plugin’s homepage as soon as extra and choose Help » Contact. In case you are logged into your Sugar Calendar account, the contact type can be prefilled together with your info. This makes it simpler and sooner to fill out. In case you are not logged in, you’ll manually add this info.
All the identical, the shape could be very brief, which improves the completion price.
To finish this way, choose an choice from the “What can we aid you with at the moment?” checkboxes. After you have finished so, paste your web site URL in order that assist is aware of which web site you’re having issues with.
After this, you’ll use the “Entry to your WordPress Web site” checkboxes to grant Sugar Calendar assist entry. You possibly can create a brief admin account, share your WordPress admin account, or not grant assist entry in any respect.
Lastly, sort out the issue you’re experiencing within the Problem/ Message space.
Bear in mind, Sugar Calendar assist is out there Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. CST.
Sugar Calendar Pricing
As talked about, Sugar Calendar affords a free plugin. This free plugin permits you to handle occasions, Google Maps integration, occasion ticketing, translation prepared, and extra.
In order for you the premium plugin, you possibly can choose from 4 plans.
The largest variations within the plans supplied by Sugar Calendar are the variety of websites you should utilize it on and the kind of buyer assist you get.
For instance, the most cost effective package deal is the Fundamental Plan, which begins from $49.50 / Yr. This plan can solely be used on one web site and affords customary assist. It’s the excellent plan in case you are simply beginning out establishing calendar occasions in your WordPress web site.
The most important package deal is the Elite Plan, which lets you use Sugar Calendar on as much as 10 websites and affords VIP assist. Pricing begins at $299.50/ Yr for this plan.
These premium plans include options like recurring occasions, integration with Stripe to obtain occasion funds, calendar feeds, WordPress and Elementor blocks, and extra. We must also add that Sugar Calendar addons are solely accessible on the Plus, Professional, and Elite plans.
On prime of this, you get a 30-day money-back assure, which supplies you safety in case you don’t just like the plugin. If you happen to cancel your plan, you’ll proceed to make use of the premium plugin till the license expires.
Execs & Cons
Execs:
- Straightforward set up and setup
- Seamless integration with Stripe
- Helps recurring occasions
- Consumer-friendly customization choices
- Can create a number of calendars
- Entrance-end occasion submission
- Suitable with a number of on-line calendars
- Constructed-in ticketing system
- Helps a number of time zones
Cons:
- Want the professional model to entry all options
- Wants Zapier connection to entry superior connections
FAQs: Sugar Calendar Assessment
How do I buy Sugar Calendar addons?
You can’t buy particular person addons with Sugar Calendar as they arrive as a part of the plan you get. However to get these addons you want a Plus Plan or larger. With these plans, you get addons just like the Zapier and Occasion Ticket that aid you add the plugin’s functionalities.
Is sugar calendar free?
Sure, Sugar Calendar affords a free model of the plugin to assist with easy occasion administration, however it could accomplish that way more. It could actually aid you arrange a easy ticketing system, integrates with Google Maps, comes with occasion calendar WordPress blocks, and extra.
What number of occasions can I show in my Sugar Calendar calendar?
You possibly can show as much as 999 occasions in your Sugar Calendar calendar. However you possibly can create a vast variety of occasions. It’s because Sugar Calendar is designed to deal with a big quantity of occasions effectively. It’s optimized for efficiency, making certain that your calendar stays responsive even with an in depth record of occasions.
Can I view consumer occasions from my Google Calendar?
Sure, you possibly can view consumer occasions out of your Sugar Calendar. This integration is constructed into the plugin and doesn’t require extra instruments or addons. On the occasion web page, you will note a dropdown with completely different calendar choices like Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Calendar. So as to add the occasion to any of those choices, merely choose it from this record, and try to be redirected to the calendar’s interface. After this, all you need to do is settle for the invitation.
Remaining Verdict: Sugar Calendar Assessment
After testing Sugar Calendar, we should admit it’s the greatest occasion calendar plugin accessible. It’s straightforward to make use of and customise, making it nice for each newbies and skilled customers. The plugin has options that will help you arrange easy occasions or advanced schedules.
Past its user-friendly design, Sugar Calendar is ideal for organizing each in-person and on-line occasions. It could actually aid you create a ticketing system that integrates seamlessly with Stripe, a preferred fee gateway. This makes it simpler to handle occasion registrations and funds.
With completely different plans accessible, you possibly can select a package deal that most closely fits your necessities. These plans provide superior options like recurring occasions and occasion ticketing.
We hope you loved studying this Sugar Calendar evaluate. In case you are searching for extra management over occasion registrations, right here is an article on tips on how to create a reserving type.
Aside from that, listed below are different articles you might be taken with studying.
The primary article discusses tips on how to let customers submit calendar occasions in WordPress. Then, the following put up lists the 13 greatest reserving and appointment plugins. Whereas the final article teaches you tips on how to add appointments to Google Calendar from WordPress Varieties.
Leave a comment