Comparing Lista Recurring Events with Pie Calendar

Recently, I wrote a review comparing Lista Recurring Events (LRE) plugin with other similar events plugins. There have been questions since then about the difference between LRE and Pie Calendar, so here is a comprehensive comparison between the two plugins.

First off, LRE and Pie Calendar are very similar in a lot of ways, but they were built to serve different purposes. Pie Calendar is primarily a calendar plugin that presents your events from any post type in an attractive calendar display, while LRE is purpose-built to display recurring events with identical styling to the primary event display. Comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges: both fruit, but different kinds of fruit.

Here is where LRE and Pie Calendar intersect.

• Ease of use: settings, integration and usage are simple and intuitive.
• Calendar display: both have attractive, responsive calendars, with colour-coded events.
• Use of Custom Post Types: CPTs are used to source events details. LRE is built on a CPT platform, and Pie Calendar has CPT compatibility (can require mapping for existing custom fields).
• Recurring events support: LRE specialises in calculating and displaying recurring events (the clue is in the name), without the need for a separate post. Pie Calendar recurring events logic is different and sometimes requires separate posts, but it still does the job of calculating and displaying recurring events.
• Flexible recurring event options: dates can be excluded from recurring events, or shown as multi-day or all-day events.
• Compatibility with page builders: both have Bricks Builder and Elementor integration.
• Dynamic content: both incorporate shortcode/query loop/dynamic content functionality.
• Lightweight and nimble: neither plugin has problems with bloat and sluggishness.
• Creators who are accessible and receptive: the builder/s of LRE and Pie Calendar are both very responsive to suggestions, bug fixing and user optimisation of the plugins.
• Multilingual support: LRE and Pie Calendar both use WordPress fullcalendar.io built-in local support allowing users to display their calendar day labels and other data in their WordPress defined language settings.  
• One-off purchase: both plugins are available as lifetime purchases. Pie Calendar has free, subscription and lifetime pricing tiers, LRE has a limited free version and a range of lifetime purchase choices that only differ in activation number.

Here is where LRE and Pie Calendar diverge

• Different areas of expertise: LRE is devoted to recurring events logic with a calendar as a side note, while Pie Calendar is devoted to calendar logic with recurring events as a side note.
• Available add-on differences: Pie Calendar released its Connector Addon late in 2025 that provides integration with Eventbrite and ICS feed support, which allows users to bring events from outside the app and add them to the calendar. LRE has ticketing and attendee tracking add-ons currently in development.
• Integration with Bricks Builder: LRE integrates seamlessly with Bricks Builder by design. Pie Calendar has a minor bug in which shortcodes do not render live inside the Bricks editor, even though they display correctly on the front end. This generally does not cause problems for the limited integration necessary.
• Ability to change details in specific instances of a recurrence: Pie Calendar allows limited editing of individual instances of a recurring event by a rather complicated system of combining blackout dates with a single recurrence rule. Any other changes to recurring events require complicated custom development in templates. LRE provides complete and effortless control of any of the details of a recurring event via the override function. Overridable fields are selected in the plugin settings overrides tab, and these fields can then be customised for a specific recurrence in the post settings. Overrides work with native tags, automatically showing override information for specific recurrences in the events display.
• Differences in database usage: Pie Calendar creates real posts to handle recurrence rules, with more entries necessary when patterns are split across posts. ​LRE uses one post per event and generates occurrences virtually, minimizing database clutter. This efficient recurrence logic is LRE’s area of specialty, while Pie Calendar concentrates on calendar logic. instead.
• Differences in page builder reliance: Pie Calendar has simple setup and native event fields without the need for heavy builder work, because of its focus on calendar logic. Lista Recurring Events is heavily reliant on page builders and CPTs in order to optimise the plugin for recurrence logic. As a result, LRE accomplishes high-control customisation and minimal database bloat.

LRE and Pie Calendar are both great plugins that have a lot of the same core abilities, but were designed with different uses in mind. If you are looking for a fabulous calendar on which to display your events, Pie Calendar is specifically designed for that – even though LRE has great calendar functionality too. If you are after a plugin to generate recurring events from a parent event in a page builder, Lista Recurring Events (LRE) is your best and most functional option – even though Pie Calendar could do the job. Again, apples to oranges.

Lista Recurring Events plugin is currently on sale.