Are you looking for the best digital download plugins? If you’re a creator who wants to sell downloads on your WordPress site, you need a plugin that will make it easy.
In this post, we’ll look at 5 WordPress plugins you can use to sell your digital media online.
Can You Make Money Selling Digital Downloads?
Yes, there are numerous ways you can make money by selling digital goods. Digital downloads might include:
- Documents and Spreadsheets
- eBooks
- Videos and Music
- Graphics
- Software and apps
- Plugins
- Automated subscriptions
- WordPress themes
If you can create it as a digital file, you can sell it. Maybe you even want to make free downloads available. To avoid getting lost in a sea of digital downloads, make sure your content really stands out!
Best Digital Download Plugins for WordPress
Whether you need a simple solution for a few files or something more robust to manage a library of content, we’ve reviewed 5 of the best WordPress plugins that can help you achieve success with digital downloads.
Let’s jump in!
In This Article
1. WPForms
You probably know WPForms as the best form builder plugin, letting users easily create beautiful forms in seconds. Did you know that it’s also an effective solution for selling downloadable products, especially if you’re only working with a small number of files?
To start selling, all you need to do is create your form, set up the email notification to send the download link, and set up a payment gateway to accept payments. Then you can embed the forms anywhere on your WordPress website where you want to promote your downloads.
When a customer completes the transaction by paying for the download, they’ll receive an email with the link to download the digital asset.
We love how easy it is to use WPForms. The drag-and-drop form builder is user-friendly, and setup is fast so you can get right to business.
Other Features:
- 600+ customizable form templates
- Payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Authorize.net
- Form styling to match your forms to your site theme
- Conditional logic
- Entry management
- Spam protection, including Google reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Cloudflare Turnstile, and Custom Captcha
Pricing
A free version is available. Pricing for pro versions begins at $49.50 per year.
2. Easy Digital Downloads
There are a lot of things to love about Easy Digital Downloads. It gives you unlimited products with no hidden listing fees and unlimited transactions, as well. It even works with any theme. Easy Digital Downloads has all the features you want to sell digital products.
Easy Digital Downloads sends emails to customers with a download link to the digital product they purchase, to the entire process is completely automated and hands-off.
We found that Easy Digital Downloads has the same core functionality across all of what it calls “passes,” or pricing tiers. The core functionality includes features like support for Stripe and PayPal (for free), automated digital product delivery, customizable buttons, detailed reporting, order management, and customer management.
You can purchase additional passes (plans) to add more extensions.
Other Features
- 100+ integrations
- Rest API
- Extensions that include custom deliverables, all access passes, fraud monitor, and many more
- Discount codes
- Frontend submissions for multivendor shops
- Payment gateways include Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay
Pricing
There is a free version of EDD available. Paid plans begin at $99.50 per year.
3. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a popular eCommerce platform for digital and physical products. Its’ core platform is free, and it’s loaded with features and upgrades that make it an easy choice for a lot of sellers.
At the time of this writing, WooCommerce has 800+ extensions to improve functionality, 70+ themes you can customize, and 100+ payment gateways.
While all the features, extensions, themes, and payment options provide a ton of functionality, we found that it could be a little overwhelming sometimes.
That’s not a deterrent, per se. It could make decisions tougher for some users when it comes to deciding what you want for your eCommerce store. Other users will certainly appreciate all the options for customization.
Other Features
- Open source
- No-code customization using block themes (20+)
- A comprehensive dashboard lets you see all your most important data at a glance
- Automated tax calculations
Pricing
The core platform is free. You pay for customizations and extensions, which range from free to $299.
4. WordPress Download Manager
WordPress Download Manager is a file and document management plugin that also serves as an eCommerce solution to sell downloads.
We found that WordPress Download Manager was pretty user-friendly because adding downloads mimics the same action as adding a post in WordPress. It’s a comfortable platform for WordPress users.
Another feature we liked was the ability to easily allow different license levels for downloads (simple, extended, and unlimited).
Other Features
- Support for file storage, including DropBox, Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive
- Password and CAPTCHA protection, IP blocks, and terms agreements
- Shortcodes
- Digital store addon adds PayPal integration, discount coupons, sales tax, save shopping cart for later checkout, and more
Pricing
There is a free version available. Paid licenses start at $99 per year.
5. Download Monitor
Rounding out our list of the best digital downloads plugins for WordPress is Download Monitor.
Download Monitor also uses the WordPress interface, so it’s familiar to WordPress users from the start. It lets you organize and manage downloads, and sell them right from your site.
Other Features
- Downloads are easily trackable
- Gutenberg-friendly with a block you can use
- Customizable access to different downloadable files
- Extensions to improve functionality
- Lifetime licensing available
Pricing
There is a free version available. Paid plans start at $39 per year.
Next, Manage Your File Uploads
Whether you’re accepting job applications, documents, or anything in between, managing file uploads on your site is an important job. Check out our suggestions for file upload plugins to remove all the stress.
Looking for a no-code form builder solution? We tested and compared 9 no-code form builders to help you choose the one that’s right for you.
In need of a content locking solution for hiding some or all of your content before users complete pre-set actions? Check out these best content locker plugins.
And don’t forget to check out our guide on the best social media plugins for WordPress!
Ready to fix your emails? Get started today with the best WordPress SMTP plugin. If you don’t have the time to fix your emails, you can get full White Glove Setup assistance as an extra purchase, and there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans.
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