How to sell event tickets on a WordPress site

Write down the event date, venue or meeting URL, total capacity, ticket types, prices, sale dates and refund policy. Decide whether one buyer can purchase several tickets and whether you need the name and email address of every attendee.

Do not leave capacity until later. If stock is not connected to the checkout, two people can buy the last place at the same time.

For a small event, create a WooCommerce product for each ticket type, mark it as virtual, set the price and limit its stock. Add the event details to the product description, then use the order confirmation email as the registration receipt.

This route is acceptable when you only need to collect payment and can manage the attendee list yourself. Standard WooCommerce does not provide proper ticket records, attendee fields, ticket delivery or event reporting, so it becomes awkward as volume grows.

For real ticket sales, install an event and ticketing solution rather than building the process from separate products and forms. You need a system that connects each ticket to an event, manages stock, records attendees and completes payment before treating a registration as valid.

Paid event ticketing cannot be completed reliably with WordPress alone unless you develop these functions yourself. The ticketing system must also handle failed payments, refunds and cancelled orders without leaving false attendees behind.

Create the event with its title, date, time, location and description. Add separate ticket types such as General admission, VIP and Early bird, then set each ticket's price, available quantity and sale window.

Save the event before testing the public page. Ticket systems commonly attach ticket records to a published event, and a ticket that is created but not properly attached or published may not appear to visitors.

Connect PayPal or Stripe, configure the currency and return pages, and decide what information is collected at checkout. If a buyer can purchase several tickets, enable individual attendee collection when you need every person's name or email rather than only the purchaser's details.

Send confirmation and ticket emails from a properly configured domain mailbox. Test a successful payment, a failed payment, a refund and a multi-ticket order before advertising the event. Individual attendee collection can be enabled globally or for a specific ticket.

Place a real or test order from an incognito browser on a phone. Check that stock decreases, payment status changes, the purchaser receives the expected email and the attendee appears in the admin list. Also verify that the event stops accepting sales at capacity or after its closing date.

On the event day, export or search the attendee list and decide how staff will check people in. Keep backups of the list. A payment can succeed while an email is delayed, so use the order or attendee record as the source of truth rather than relying on inbox searches.

Use The Events Calendar Event Tickets Plus when you want event pages and ticket sales managed in WordPress. It supports ticket types, PayPal and Stripe through its supported commerce options, attendee information, discount codes, recurring events and attendee management.

Install the required event and ticket components, create the event, add ticket types, connect payments and run the same checkout tests. Choose this route when manual WooCommerce products would leave you maintaining stock and attendee records by hand.