GatherPress is a community-driven, free event management plugin for WordPress. As of 2026, it has positioned itself as the leading “Meetup alternative,” allowing you to build and manage your own event ecosystem without relying on third-party platforms. It is built natively for the block editor, ensuring that your events look modern and perform fast on the mybox infrastructure.
Unlike many bloated event plugins, GatherPress focuses on “The WordPress Way”-using native blocks, custom post types, and the Abilities API introduced in WordPress 7.0 for a seamless, lightweight experience.
Table of Contents
What is the GatherPress Plugin?
GatherPress turns your WordPress site into a complete event hub. It is perfect for local meetups, conferences, webinars, or corporate workshops. Because it is open-source (GPLv2), you have full ownership of your data-no more worrying about external platforms changing their terms or charging for attendee lists.
- Native Gutenberg Integration: Every event and venue is built using blocks, giving you total design control.
- Participant Ownership: You own the registration data, which is stored securely in your mybox database.
- Modern Architecture: As of the latest 2026 updates, GatherPress now supports AI-assisted event creation, allowing you to generate event descriptions and calculate dates using natural language.
Main Features for 2026
Advanced Registration & RSVPs The 2026 version of GatherPress features a robust RSVP system. You can set attendance limits, allow “plus-ones,” and choose between public or anonymous attendee lists. It now includes RSVP Token Authentication, which improves security for private events.
Venues and Maps Manage multiple physical locations or online meeting rooms. The 2026 update allows for multiple venue blocks per event, making it ideal for hybrid meetings (e.g., a physical room plus a Zoom link). Note: To display interactive maps, you will need to add a Google Maps API key in the GatherPress settings.
Automated Notifications The plugin sends automatic email reminders to attendees. In 2026, these notifications have been improved with better translation support and customizable templates, ensuring your branding stays consistent in every email sent from your mybox server.
Installation and Configuration
GatherPress is available on GitHub and the WordPress repository.
- Installation: Go to Plugins > Add New and search for “GatherPress”. Install and Activate.
- Compatibility: Ensure your mybox environment is running PHP 8.3 or higher (PHP 8.5 is recommended for 2026) and at least WordPress 6.9+ (WordPress 7.0 is best for AI features).
- Basic Setup: Navigate to the new GatherPress menu. Set your default time zone and choose your “Events” slug (e.g.,
yourdomain.com/events).
Creating Your First Event
With the latest 2026 workflow, creating an event is as easy as writing a blog post:
- Add New Event: Enter your title and use the Event Date/Time block to set the schedule.
- Add Venue: Use the Venue block to search for an existing location or create a new one.
- Registration: Insert the RSVP Form block. You can customize which fields (Name, Email, Dietary requirements) are required.
- AI Assistant (Optional): If you are using WordPress 7.0, you can use natural language prompts to have the “AI Assistant” help draft your event description based on a few keywords.
Best Practices and Troubleshooting
- Database Performance: If you host events with thousands of attendees, regularly export old attendee lists to CSV and clear the logs to keep your mybox database fast.
- Email Deliverability: Because GatherPress sends many transactional emails (RSVPs, reminders), we recommend using a dedicated SMTP plugin (like WP Mail SMTP) to ensure your emails don’t end up in spam.
- Theme Integration: GatherPress is fully compatible with Full Site Editing (FSE) themes. You can use the “Event Query Block” to create custom lists of upcoming events on your homepage.
Summary
GatherPress is the “sovereign” choice for event management. It avoids the subscription fees and data tracking of external services while providing a professional, block-based interface. For mybox users, it offers a future-proof, high-performance solution for community building.