# Event Espresso review (2026): is the free plan enough? > WordPress plugin for event calendars, registration and tickets Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Event Espresso is a WordPress plugin that adds an event calendar, registration forms and ticket sales to a site you host yourself. Payments go through your own gateway account, and the vendor says it takes no per-ticket commission on paid licenses. A free edition called Decaf covers the basics, and paid licenses add support, extra features and add-ons. - **Category:** Event Ticketing - **Made by:** Event Espresso - **Website:** https://eventespresso.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Not for you if you do not run WordPress, as it works only inside it. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Event Espresso has a free plan, and paid plans start at $129 per year for 1 live site. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Decaf: free plugin with unlimited events, registrations and ticket sales, PayPal payments and community support, with a 3% pay-as-you-go fee. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Decaf | $0 | Unlimited events and ticket sales, PayPal payments, basic forms; community support, not compatible with add-ons, 3% pay-as-you-go fee. | | Core | $129 per year for 1 live site, plus staging sites | Decaf features plus custom forms, taxes, email support and no app fees; works with 30+ add-ons sold separately; 0% pay-as-you-go. | | All Access | $399 per year | Core plus every add-on (discount codes, recurring events, waitlists, mobile scanning app, gateways) and premium support. | Read from https://eventespresso.com/pricing/ on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Event Espresso before buying. ## Key features - **Event calendar:** Publishes events on your WordPress site in month, week, day, agenda and list views, with category colors and filters. Calendar+ is a separate add-on. - **Registration forms:** Custom forms per event with text, radio, dropdown and multi-select questions, plus group registrations for several attendees at once. - **Ticket types and dates:** Unlimited ticket types with sale start and end dates, capacity limits, and events or tickets that span several dates. - **Direct payments:** Payments go into your own gateway account such as PayPal, Stripe or Square, with no per-ticket commission on paid licenses, per the vendor. - **Check-in apps:** A mobile app scans tickets and tracks attendance in real time. It is listed among the add-on features of the All Access plan. - **Developer hooks:** A REST API, hooks, filters and logging let developers extend the plugin; the site lists 25+ translations. ## Good for - WordPress site owners who want ticketing on their own domain - Organizers who prefer paying a yearly license over per-ticket fees - Agencies building event sites for clients ## Worth knowing - It runs only inside WordPress, which you install and maintain yourself. - The free Decaf edition charges a 3% pay-as-you-go fee and cannot use add-ons. - Core covers one live site and sells add-ons separately; All Access bundles them for $399 per year. - Payment processing fees from your chosen gateway still apply. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Event Espresso is a WordPress plugin for event calendars, registration and tickets, with a free Decaf edition and Core at $129 a year for one site. You install and look after it yourself, and the free edition takes a 3% fee and cannot use add-ons. - **Value for money: B.** Core is $129 a year, about $10.75 a month, inside the category's cheaper quarter ($15), though add-ons are sold separately and All Access is $399. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Decaf is free with unlimited events and ticket sales, but it takes a 3% fee, takes PayPal only and cannot use add-ons. - **Features: C.** Calendar, registration forms, ticket types, direct payments and check-in apps. Discount codes, waitlists and the scanning app are add-ons. - **Ease of use: D.** No store rating on record. It needs a WordPress site you install and maintain yourself. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, through WordPress, with PayPal, Stripe, Square, Mailchimp, QuickBooks and Elementor connections. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Event Espresso's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among event ticketing platforms - Event Espresso's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 39 of the 79 other event ticketing platforms we grade, and level with 9. - It stands best on value for money (B, above 56 of 79) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $10.75 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $50 for the category: 2 of the 22 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 13 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/event-ticketing ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** The plain part of Event Espresso you could make: calendar. What surrounds it you could not. The 2 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. It costs $129 a year. - You could make: Calendar: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Selling tickets and checking them at the door. - You could not: It plugs into other products, PayPal, Stripe and Square among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with PayPal, Stripe, Square, Authorize.net, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, Keap, Elementor **Tags:** Ticketing, Calendar, Public API ## Alternatives - [Tickera](https://toolgpa.com/tools/tickera): WordPress ticketing plugin with no per-ticket commission. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/event-espresso-vs-tickera) - [FooEvents](https://toolgpa.com/tools/fooevents): WooCommerce plugins for selling event tickets on your own site. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/event-espresso-vs-fooevents) - [Ticket Tailor](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ticket-tailor): Event ticketing for a flat fee per ticket, with prepaid credits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/event-espresso-vs-ticket-tailor) - [pretix](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pretix): Open-source ticket shop, hosted or on your own server. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/event-espresso-vs-pretix) - [Eventbrite](https://toolgpa.com/tools/eventbrite): Ticketing and event marketplace, with fees usually paid by buyers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/event-espresso-vs-eventbrite) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://eventespresso.com/pricing/ - https://eventespresso.com/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/event-espresso Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).