GatherPress vs Arena – Group Chat for Real-Time Engagement

Running a meetup, a user group, a conference, or a class? GatherPress gives you what you need to publish events, collect RSVPs, and keep everyone in the loop, all from your own WordPress site. Your events live on your site. You own the data, you control how it looks, and you keep the relationship with the people who show up. GatherPress is built by the WordPress community for the people who organize it: meetup organizers, WordCamp teams, user groups, and anyone else who gets people together in a room. It is free, open source, and shaped by the people using it every day. What you can do Publish events with the date, time, venue, and everything people need to know Collect RSVPs, with anonymous listing for attendees who would rather not be named Let people RSVP without an account, so nobody bounces off a signup wall Let attendees bring guests Email everyone who is coming, or everyone who is not, without leaving WordPress Run events in person, online, or both, with maps for physical venues Build and arrange it all in the block editor Multisite ready and fully translatable Try it before you install Hit the Live Preview button on this page to open a working demo in your browser. No signup, no setup, and real data to click around in. Prefer to watch first? There is a short intro demo. Join our community GatherPress is built in the open, and contributions are always welcome, whether that is code, translations, documentation, or just telling us what broke. Get involved Contributor guide Open issues on GitHub External Services This plugin connects to external services to provide address autocomplete, geocoding, and map tiles for venues. Each service has its own filter so you can point at a self-hosted alternative or disable the feature. Photon geocoding (photon.komoot.io) Used to resolve venue addresses into latitude/longitude coordinates and to power the address autocomplete dropdown while editing a venue. The plugin proxies these requests server-side: your WordPress site sends the search query string and a User-Agent identifying the site (plugin version, WordPress version, site home URL) to the Photon API. Responses are cached on your site for 15 minutes. Photon homepage / terms: https://photon.komoot.io/ Komoot privacy policy: https://www.komoot.com/privacy Override the endpoint (for a self-hosted Photon instance) with the gatherpress_photon_api_url filter. CARTO Basemaps (basemaps.cartocdn.com) Default map tile provider when the OpenStreetMap map platform is selected. When a venue map is displayed on the front end or in the editor, the visitor’s browser requests raster tiles directly from basemaps.cartocdn.com. No data beyond the standard tile coordinates (zoom, x, y) and the visitor’s IP / browser headers is sent. CARTO terms: https://carto.com/legal/ CARTO privacy policy: https://carto.com/privacy/ Override the tile URL or attribution with the gatherpress_interactive_map_tile_url and gatherpress_interactive_map_tile_attribution filters. Google Maps (maps.googleapis.com, www.google.com, maps.google.com) Alternative map provider, only used when a site opts in by choosing “Google Maps” in GatherPress settings. What the visitor’s browser requests depends on whether a Google Maps API key is configured: With an API key, the browser loads the Maps JavaScript API from maps.googleapis.com and renders the map in the page. Without a key, or if that script fails to load, the browser embeds a Google Maps iframe from www.google.com or maps.google.com instead. Either way the request carries the venue coordinates, the visitor’s IP, and standard browser headers. A configured API key travels with the request and is visible in the page source, so restrict it by HTTP referrer in Google Cloud. Google Maps terms: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/ Google privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy Map and address data used by Photon and CARTO are sourced from OpenStreetMap contributors (https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright).

Arena Group Chat is the ultimate tool for driving user engagement in real-time. Whether hosting live events or maintaining ongoing community interactions, Group Chat helps transform your audience from passive viewers into active participants. It seamlessly integrates with your website, offering advanced customization and analytics to enhance engagement and business growth. Key Features of Arena Group Chat: – Real-time group messaging for events and communities – Polls, Q&As, and interactive features for enhanced user participation – Customizable layouts to match your brand’s identity – Responsive design optimized for both desktop and mobile – Easy to integrate with a free Arena account – GDPR compliance with a focus on privacy and first-party data collection – Powerful analytics to track engagement and impact – Integration with Arena’s other products like Live Blog and Arena Community – Scalable to support major events with millions of users Group Chat helps to keep your audience engaged by offering dynamic, interactive experiences that encourage participation and increase time spent on your site. Third-Party Services This plugin utilizes the Arena.im API (https://api.arena.im/v3) to provide chat functionality. The plugin communicates with Arena.im servers for the following purposes: Authentication (/oauth/tokens) Retrieving organization information (/organizations) Fetching site details (/organizations/{organization_id}/sites) Managing chat instances (/sites/{site_id}/chats) Data Transmission When you use this plugin, it sends requests to the Arena.im API. This may include: – Authentication tokens – Organization and site IDs – Chat-related data No personal user data is sent to Arena.im servers unless explicitly input by users in chat messages. More Information For more information about Arena.im and their services, please visit their website: https://arena.im By using this plugin, you agree to Arena.im’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy: – Terms of Service: https://arena.im/terms-of-service/ – Privacy Policy: https://arena.im/privacy-policy/ It is your responsibility to ensure that your use of this plugin and the Arena.im service complies with all applicable laws and regulations, including data protection laws in your jurisdiction. Arena Group Chat – Support For additional setup and usage guidance, visit Arena’s Help Center. Website Find more details at Arena.im. Contact Us Need help? Chat with us at app.arena.im, and our team will respond within hours.