CraftForms vs Pie Calendar
Pie Calendar is a lightweight WordPress events calendar: tick a toggle and any post, page or custom post type becomes an event on a month, week or list calendar. CraftForms is a form builder with booking inventory, payments, PDFs and emails built in. They barely overlap. Pie Calendar shows events; CraftForms takes the registration, the seat limit, the payment and the ticket, so many sites use both.
- Compared with
- Pie Calendar 1.3.1.2 (Free), Pro and Connector
- Features checked
- 25
- Checked on
- Summary
- Where each one leads
| Feature | CraftForms | Pie Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Platform & pricing | ||
| Free version | Yes | Yes |
| One-time licence for unlimited sites | Yes€129.99 | Yes$299 |
| Gutenberg blocks | Yes | Yescalendar + event info blocks |
| Works with any theme via shortcode | Yes | Yes |
| Embed on a non-WordPress site | Yes | No |
| Event display | ||
| Front-end calendar (month, week, day, list) | No | Yes |
| Turn any post, page or CPT into an event | No | Yes |
| Event dates from ACF / Meta Box fields | No | Yes |
| Recurring events and blackout dates | No | YesPro |
| Visitor time-zone conversion | No | YesPro |
| Category / tag filtered calendars | No | YesPro |
| Add-to-calendar links | .ics in the confirmation email | YesPro |
| Eventbrite sync | No | YesConnector add-on |
| Import external ICS feeds | Yesblocks busy time in bookings | Yesshows them as events (Connector) |
| Registration & booking | ||
| Registration form with any fields | Yes | No |
| Conditional logic and file uploads | Yes | No |
| Seat limit per date or time slot, checked on the server | Yes | No |
| Seats-left / sold-out labels | Yes | No |
| Date-range, date, time-slot and continuous-time booking | Yes | No |
| Payments & tickets | ||
| Online payment at registration | YesStripe, PayPal, Mollie, Square | via WooCommerce / EDD / SureCart products |
| Deposits and price formulas | Yes | No |
| PDF tickets with QR code | Yes | No |
| Branded confirmation emails | Yes | No |
| Orders screen with status and refunds | Yes | No |
| Mailchimp, Brevo, FluentCRM, MailPoet | Yes | No |
Competitor details as published on the date above; tell us if something has changed.
Where CraftForms leads
- It takes the registration: names for each attendee, dietary choices, uploads, conditional questions. Pie Calendar has no form.
- Real capacity: a 20-seat workshop closes at 20, checked on the server, with seats-left and sold-out labels on the date
- Payments without WooCommerce: full price or a deposit through your own Stripe, PayPal, Mollie or Square account, worked out by a formula
- Branded confirmation email with a PDF ticket and QR code, free
- Bookings, not only events: rooms by the night, appointments by the slot, meeting rooms by the hour
- Lifetime deal: €129.99 one-time for unlimited sites
Where Pie Calendar has an edge
- The calendar itself: month, week, day and list views, colour-coded and filterable by category or tag. CraftForms has no public event calendar.
- Any post is an event, with dates from ACF or Meta Box if you already store them
- Recurring events, blackout dates and visitor time zones (Pro)
- Eventbrite and ICS feeds shown on the calendar (Connector add-on)
- Small and focused: less to set up if all you need is to show what’s on
The bottom line
If visitors only need to see what’s on, Pie Calendar does it with very little setup. If they need to sign up, pick a date, pay and get a ticket, that’s CraftForms. The two don’t conflict: put Pie Calendar on your events page and a CraftForms registration form on each event post. The setup is step by step in WordPress event calendar with registration and payments.