Installing Site Calendar Lite and Pro

Before you start

Site Calendar comes as two plugins that work together. Lite is the free calendar engine — it handles event posts, venues, organizers, the month grid, the list view, the ICS feed, and free RSVP. Pro is the paid add-on — it depends on Lite being installed and adds week/day/photo views, recurring events, paid ticketing, QR-code check-in, branded emails, CSV import, and front-end submission.

You should have both plugin zip files ready:

• site-calendar-lite-X.X.X.X.zip — the free engine (also available from the public download endpoint at getsitecalendar.com/scp-download-lite/)
• site-calendar-pro-X.X.X.zip — the Pro add-on (available from your account dashboard after purchase)

If you don't have your account dashboard URL, check the welcome email sent to you after purchase. The button labelled "Open my account dashboard" signs you straight in and shows the Pro download link.

Step 1 — Upload Site Calendar Lite

In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin.

Click Choose File, select site-calendar-lite-X.X.X.X.zip from your computer, then click Install Now. WordPress will upload and unpack the zip — this usually takes 5–10 seconds.

When the install completes, you'll see a success message and an Activate Plugin button. Click it.

 

After activation, you'll see a new Site Calendar menu item in the WordPress admin sidebar. Lite is now installed and working.

Step 2 — Verify Lite is working

Before installing Pro, take 30 seconds to confirm Lite is healthy:

1. Go to Site Calendar → Events in the sidebar. You should see an empty events list with an "Add New Event" button.
2. Click Add New Event. The event editor should open with Date & Time, Venue, Organizer, and Categories meta boxes visible.
3. Go to Site Calendar → Settings → Appearance. You should see colour pickers for Primary, Accent, Event link, and Week view chip colour.

If any of those checks fail, see the Troubleshooting section below before proceeding.

Step 3 — Upload Site Calendar Pro

Same process as Step 1, but with the Pro zip. Go back to Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, choose site-calendar-pro-X.X.X.zip, click Install Now, then Activate Plugin.

After Pro activates, the Site Calendar menu expands with new items: Tickets, Attendees, Series, Custom Fields, and Import. The Settings page also gains additional tabs (Tickets, Integrations, Licence).

Step 4 — Activate your Pro licence

Go to Site Calendar → Settings → Licence. Paste the licence key from your welcome email into the Licence Key field and click Activate Licence.

If the activation succeeds, the page reloads and shows your licence tier (Single / Plus / Agency), expiry date, and a green "Active" badge. Pro is now fully unlocked.

If activation fails, see the troubleshooting section below or the dedicated Activating your Pro licence guide for detailed help.

Step 5 — Confirm everything is working

Take 60 seconds to confirm the full installation is healthy:

1. Go to Plugins. Both Site Calendar Lite and Site Calendar Pro should show as Active.
2. Go to Site Calendar → Settings → Licence. The licence should show Active with your tier and expiry.
3. Create a test page (Pages → Add New) and add this shortcode in a Shortcode block: [pro_calendar]
4. Publish the page and view it on the front-end. You should see the calendar's month grid with view-switcher tabs (Month, Week, Day, List, Photo).
5. Click each view tab. All five should render without errors.

Troubleshooting

"Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error"

The most common cause is uploading Pro before Lite is active. WordPress activates Pro, Pro tries to extend Lite's classes, and fails because Lite hasn't loaded yet. Solution: deactivate Pro, confirm Lite is active, then activate Pro. If Lite is missing entirely, install Lite first.

If Lite is active and Pro still fatal-errors, check that both plugins are the same major version generation — e.g. Pro 1.1.x with Lite 1.1.x. Mixing Pro 1.0.x with Lite 1.1.x can cause class compatibility issues. Update both to the latest releases.

"The package could not be installed. Destination folder already exists"

You're uploading a plugin that's already installed (often a previous version). Either delete the existing plugin folder first (Plugins → Deactivate the old version → Delete), or use the "Replace current with uploaded" option that WordPress 5.5+ shows during upload.

"Cannot declare class PCAL_Help, because the name is already in use"

This was a known conflict in Pro versions 1.0.3 and earlier when paired with newer Lite. Solution: update Pro to 1.0.4 or later. If you're seeing this on a recent Pro version, contact support@getsitecalendar.com with the contents of wp-content/debug.log — it's likely a duplicate-file situation specific to your install.

"Site Calendar menu doesn't appear after activation"

Two possible causes. First, hard-refresh the admin page (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + R) — sometimes the admin menu is cached. Second, check that your user role has the edit_posts capability. The Site Calendar menu is hidden from users who can't edit posts (this includes Subscriber and Customer roles by default).

"Licence Activate button does nothing / spins forever"

Most common cause: your server can't reach getsitecalendar.com. Some shared hosts block outbound HTTPS to certain domains. Check wp-content/debug.log for any line mentioning SCP Licence or cURL error. If you see cURL error 35 (SSL handshake failure) or cURL error 6 (DNS resolution), contact your host and ask them to whitelist outbound HTTPS to getsitecalendar.com.

"My calendar shortcode shows raw text instead of rendering"

You've added the shortcode inside a code block or paragraph that's escaping it. Use a Shortcode block specifically (search "shortcode" in the block inserter), not a Paragraph block. Alternatively, if your theme is a classic theme without the block editor, ensure no plugin is escaping shortcode brackets in page content.

Keeping both plugins up to date

Once your Pro licence is active, Site Calendar Pro automatically polls getsitecalendar.com for new releases. When a new version is available, you'll see the standard WordPress update prompt on the Plugins page. Click Update Now to install it — no manual zip upload needed.

Lite updates work the same way. Once Lite is listed in the WordPress.org plugin directory, updates flow through WordPress.org's standard channel. Until then, watch for release announcements at getsitecalendar.com/news.

It's worth keeping Lite and Pro on matching version generations — Pro 1.1.x with Lite 1.1.x, for instance — to avoid the rare class-compatibility issues that can arise across major versions.

What's next

• Activating your Pro licence — detailed walkthrough including multi-site licence behaviour
• Creating your first event — the event editor walkthrough, including the Tickets meta box
• Setting up Stripe payments — required if you want to take paid ticket sales
• Match your brand colours — make the calendar visually consistent with your site