Why I Don’t Use All In One Events Calendar Plugin Anymore (2025)

“The All-in-One Event Calendar version has been updated to the new SaaS version. Enjoy your new journey.”

I encountered this message when trying to visit the list of Timely’s All in One Events Calendar (AIOEC) events in my WordPress admin of a new website after installing AIOEC.

What does this message mean?

As of the latest update to All in One Event Calendar (~May 2023), for new installations, AIOEC has migrated completely to an SaaS model.

What that means in practice is:

• All in One Event calendar no longer uses a WordPress custom post type — just fyi…this is a big difference.
• Your event data is not stored in your WordPress database, it is stored at Timely. If the Timely service goes down, so does your calendar. If they delete your account, your events are deleted as well.
• You have to login to Timely in order to add and manage events.
• URLs of individual events are no longer SEO friendly urls because the events no longer use WordPress permalinks….because the events are not housed in WordPress.
• You embed the calendar on your WP site with embed code and all the events display in modal pop up windows. It hardly qualifies as a true WP plugin any longer, in my opinion.

Help me understand the advantage of this change.

Reasons I No Longer Use All-In-One Event Calendar (Updated for 2025)

Canonical URLs for Individual Events are Not on Your Website or Just for the Main Calendar

From the embedded calendar on your website, all events now share the same canonical URL, which is the URL for the main calendar.

The canonical url for your event on the Timely network is a Timely url (such as https://events.timely.fun/qghubkcd/event/76684564/20230618190000 ), and not the url for your website, so their website is reaping the benefits of your event content from an SEO perspective (and not yours).

The following insight was taken from a review in late 2023:

The events are hosted on Time.ly’s servers, which may result in your events being held hostage, as other reviewers have pointed out. However, the core issues have to do with functionality. Specific events are rendered via pop-ups, rather than distinct pages — again because you are essentially embedding a widget in events from THEIR website, not yours.

No Way to Opt Out of Your Events Being Included in Timely’s Event Network

Timely seems to be trying to become a large ‘Event Network’, and the documentation mentions that your event will be available on their ‘Event Network’. I imagine there are times when you may be creating events for your WordPress website when you do not want the event distributed widely on an external network. I see no option to opt out of this behavior.

Only 25 Events Available on the Free Plan

As of August 15, 2024 only 25 events are available on the free plan (down from 100 previously)…and only 125 available on the first tier paid plan (down from 200). I am all for paying for a premium plugin, but the limitations on the number of events even on their paid plans is a deal breaker. These limitations are obviously in place because Timely is storing the events in their database instead of the events being stored in your WordPress database as before.

Credit Card Information is Required to Set Up the FREE Plan

I tried to evaluate the free version in March of 2025 but was unable to do so because Time.ly requires a credit card be entered before the plugin can be implemneted. This is really a huge RED FLAG. Why? Why should you need my credit card info in order for me to evaluate the free version of the plugin? It makes it seem as though they are itching to charge you for overages without warning.  Sketch.

Event Posts Have No Access to Your WordPress Resources

The event posts, even though they are being created within WordPress have no access to the media library, shortcodes or other WP resources because the events are being actually being created on the Time.ly servers. The event posts cannot be located using the WordPress search box. they are completely separate from WordPress.

Potential Issues with Account Deletion (& Events)

In 2024, this user had an experience where a client’s Time.ly account was deleted because they had not logged in within a specified period of time. The emails notifying the client that they needed to login were going to their spam folder. As a result, the client’s account and subsequently ALL of their events were deleted and disappeared from their website.