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9 Best WordPress Digital Downloads Plugin to Sell Your Digital Product

Last Updated on January 4th, 2024

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In this modern era, selling digital products on WordPress site make more sense economically than selling physical goods. It is because not only is it possible to create and distribute digital products more quickly and cost-effectively, but they don’t have the logistical issues that physical goods have, such as storage or shipping. In digital downloads, you urge users to enter the email address to download on your site. This way, you can capture the email address of users and use them for future targeted marketing purposes.

Whether you are an artist, musician, writer, or anyone who wants to sell digital products like eBooks, journals, magazines, online courses, music, videos, etc., on the WordPress site, you can achieve it with the help of a plugin. With so many WordPress digital downloads plugins in the market, it becomes hard to choose one.

To simplify your task, we have curated the list of the best WordPress plugins for selling digital downloads with their pros and cons to help you make an informed decision. 

So, let’s dive right in.

1. Easy Digital Downloads

easy digital downloads wordpress plugin

The first one on the list is the Easy digital downloads WordPress plugin. This free plugin will let you sell digital products directly through a WordPress site. It has excellent functionality, with various tools to set up a shopping cart and manage your customers. Furthermore, it is possible to create and process discount codes, plus a range of analytics tells you how well your products sell.

Pros

  • Sell any type of digital product.
  • Collect payments via PayPal, Stripe, and Amazon Payments.
  • An extensive range of free and premium extensions is available to tailor the plugin to your precise needs, e.g., software licensing, additional payment gateways, recurring payments, Mailchimp, reviews, etc.
  • It supports several languages.
  • The “Buy Now” button bypasses the shopping cart and transfers the customer directly to the payment page, allowing instant purchases.
  • Support is available through a globally distributed full-time support team and an IRC chatroom, forums, documentation, etc.
  • The code is open source and developer-friendly, allowing greater flexibility with customization and integration.

Cons

  • Free downloads are only possible using a premium extension ($99).
  • The cost of adding multiple premium extensions soon mounts, possibly making this free plugin expensive compared to other digital download plugins. However, extension bundle subscriptions are available starting from $199.50 per year to cap the cost of adding premium extensions.
  • Only suitable for selling digital products, so if you also sell physical items, you may want to look at other options.

Easy Digital Downloads is a well-liked plugin, with over 4,150,807 downloads from the WordPress plugin directory plus a 4.7/5.0 stars user rating. It is an excellent option for creating a digital download store or adding digital download capabilities to other site types.

Get Easy Digital Downloads

2. Dokan

dokan - wordpress digital downloads plugin

Dokan is a multivendor marketplace platform that allows you to create any type of marketplace, including digital ones. A marketplace is precisely what the name says – a place where many vendors can sell their wares, in this case, digital products.

The plugin works in conjunction with WooCommerce, so your site will need to be running that. However, the two together are a powerful combination, and you will soon be selling your digital products alongside other people’s (for a fat commission, of course).

Dokan is a freemium WooCommerce digital downloads plugin. The free version offers enough functionality to get you started, e.g., unlimited vendors, frontend vendor dashboard, order management tools, and store widgets. But, of course, the paid plans have lots more features for managing your vendors and products. Those plans cost between $149 and $999 per year, with the number of features and site licenses included being dependent on the plan purchased.

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Pros

  • The free version has great functionality and would be an excellent starting point for those wanting to create a digital product marketplace.
  • Paid plans are competitively priced and structured to scale with your business.
  • It can be used for any type of marketplace and is not restricted to digital products only.
  • Paid plans have a 14-day moneyback guarantee.

Cons

Dokan is an excellent option for creating a digital marketplace to sell goodies such as software, apps, electronic publications, and MP3s. The plugin has attracted an impressive 4.5/5.0 user rating from WordPress users, and the free version alone has been downloaded over 70k times from WordPress.

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3. WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart

 wordpress simple paypal shopping cart - wordpress digital downloads plugin

WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart gives you a clean, simple way of selling digital products on your site. It does this by embedding an “Add to Cart” button wherever you want it, and customers can easily view and amend their cart contents before completing the purchase at the PayPal checkout.

Pros

  • Sell digital or physical products or both
  • Customers automatically receive an email containing the digital files or instructions on downloading their purchase
  • Lightweight code means it will not significantly impact site performance
  • Optional smart PayPal payment buttons
  • Create and process discount coupons
  • Customizable
  • Helpful online video tutorials make setting things up super-easy
  • PayPal is a highly trusted payment gateway

Cons

  • Limited to PayPal only
  • Minimal support

WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart is entirely free, and even though it is minimalist, it does precisely what it is supposed to. Sure, it only works with PayPal, but that supports several payment methods and is trusted by millions worldwide.

More than 30k active downloads of this plugin are currently operating, and WordPress users rated it 4.5/5.0 stars.

Get WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart

4. WordPress Download Manager

wordpress download manager - sell digital downloads wordpress plugin

WordPress Download Manager is a freemium plugin for tracking and controlling files downloaded from your site. Access to the files can be password-restricted to specific user roles, plus users can be required to accept your terms and conditions before being allowed to download. However, to license and sell digital products, you will need the WordPress Digital Store Solution – Premium Package add-on, but thankfully that is free.

The free version only provides access control and password protection of files. The premium plans add more functionality, such as custom templates, bandwidth control, sidebar widgets, pay-as-you-want (discretional) pricing, and multi-file downloads. Those plans cost between $99 and $499, depending on how many domains you have.

Pros

  • The ‘single step’ checkout process makes purchasing digital files quick and efficient.
  • The plugin uses a PayPal shopping cart to collect payments. PayPal is highly trusted and is used widely for online purchases.
  • Create custom update access periods. These allow you to create subscriptions, for example, one year of free updates for software downloads, with a regular subscription payable for subsequent years.
  • The premium plans add lots of extra functionality.

Cons

  • It is suitable only for digital files, not physical products.
  • You need to add both the plugin and the extension to your WordPress to sell (as opposed to just managing) digital products.
  • It supports only PayPal, although premium extensions are available for other payment methods.
  • Restricted features and limited support with the free version.

The free version of WordPress Download Manager, coupled with the free WordPress Digital Store Solution – Premium Package add-on, will allow you to start selling digital items on your site with no financial investment whatsoever. However, the extra functionality offered with the premium plans does provide greater flexibility, control, and security.

WordPress Download Manager has been downloaded over 100k times from the plugin directory and has a 4.1/5.0 stars user rating.

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5. Download Monitor

download monitor - best wordpress plugin for selling digital downloads

It is yet another great WordPress digital downloads plugin. Its interface enables you to upload and manage single or multiple downloadable files and then sell them via download links placed in your posts. It comes with a Gutenberg block, so using it is a breeze if that is your page builder. Alternatively, as with most other plugins, you can embed the download links using shortcodes.

A free version of the plugin is available. However, as is often the case with freemium offerings, it lacks functionality, and certain key features are likely to be strategically absent. Therefore, it would be best to purchase a paid plan, which costs $39 to $159. Those cover up to five sites and include features such as CSV import and export, the ability to add terms and conditions, Captcha spam prevention, email notifications of when customers have downloaded their purchases, download duplicator, premium support, and more.

Pros

  • Capture email addresses for future targeted marketing campaigns
  • All paid plans cover up to five domains
  • The premium plans add extra functionality and won’t break the bank
  • Paid plans have a 14-day moneyback guarantee, so trying them is risk-free

Cons

  • Only for digital files, not physical products also
  • Restricted features and limited support with the free version
  • Only the most expensive plan offers priority support

Over 100k people have downloaded this plugin from the WordPress plugin directory alone and have given it an average of 4.4/5.0 stars.

Get Download Monitor

6. WP Express Checkout

download monitor - sell digital downloads wordpress plugin

WP Express Checkout comes from the same developer as WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart, which I covered earlier. However, whereas the latter plugin allows users to browse and add digital products and add them to a virtual shopping cart before completing the purchase process, WP Express Checkout instantly captures sales of individual items. Therefore, a “Buy Now” instead of an “Add to Cart” button takes the customer directly to PayPal to complete the purchase rather than going through a cart first.

Pros

  • The plugin avoids abandoned carts. It can be problematic with plugins that use a shopping cart between browsing products and payment.
  • Lots of configurable options
  • Completely free
  • Supports PayPal’s “Pay in 4” buy now, pay later feature
  • Ideal for single product sites

Cons

  • Customers can only purchase single products at a time, unlike plugins that use carts
  • Limited support, although the developer does provide some excellent video tutorials

As WP Express Checkout does not use a shopping cart, it only allows customers to purchase one product at a time. Therefore, it is best suited to sites that offer only a limited number of products. For example, you may be an author with a website promoting your new book, and that could have a “Buy Now” button for people to purchase and download the eBook version instantly.

Over a thousand active downloads of WP Express Checkout are in operation, and the full 5.0/5.0 user rating shows that people really like it.

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7. Digital Goods for WooCommerce Checkout

digital goods for woocommerce checkout - woocommerce digital downloads plugin

Digital Goods is yet another popular WooCommerce digital downloads plugin. It offers WooCommerce Checkout, which is a helpful addition to your WooCommerce store as it removes fields on the checkout page that are irrelevant to digital product purchases. That keeps customers happy, as they won’t need to add unnecessary details like shipping or billing addresses, something many folks resent doing. Furthermore, it is effortless to use.

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The free version has plenty of features to get you up and running. Not only can it exclude multiple fields from the checkout form, but it allows you to add quick checkout buttons on shop or product pages. The premium version starts from $29 and goes up to $249.

Pros

  • Detects digital (or virtual) products and tailors the checkout process accordingly
  • Lots of configurable options
  • The free version has much of the functionality you will likely need, although I recommend using the free 14-day trial of the premium version first.

Cons

  • It only works on WooCommerce sites.

Digital Goods for WooCommerce Checkout is an excellent addition to eCommerce stores that sell physical and digital products, providing the most appropriate checkout experience.

Downloads-wise, 7k people have downloaded the plugin from WordPress, and the average user rating is 4.5/5.0 stars.

Get Digital Goods for WooCommerce Checkout

8. Simple Download Monitor

simple download monitor - wordpress digital downloads plugin

It is one of the best WordPress digital downloads plugins that is suitable for managing and tracking your digital file download counts. 

The plugin works well for free downloads as compared to eCommerce ones. It allows you to configure download links anywhere on the website using the WordPress admin dashabord through its simple user interface. The plugin lets you know which files get downloaded and how many times. It also records the IP address and time of download to help you measure the performance.

Pros 

  • It has a simple interface for uploading, managing, monitoring, and tracking all the downloads.
  • Create a shortcode for the download link file as well as the showcase. 
  • The plugin offers several security features, like password-protecting files, limiting downloads to registered users, and restricting downloads per user.
  • Give categories & tags to the downloadable files & documents.
  • Option to integrate Google reCAPTCHA and T&C into your download buttons.

Cons 

  • It has limited features when considering integration with third-party services and more advanced analytics.
  • No support for multiple files or batch downloads.

The plugin is absolutely free and lets you sell digital downloads on the WordPress site. It has over 30,000+ downloads and 4.5 stars out of 5 on the WordPress directory. 

GET SIMPLE DOWNLOAD MANAGER

9. Subscribe to Download

subscribe to download - best wordpress plugin for selling digital downloads

As the name suggests, it is a WordPress digital downloads plugin that urges users to subscribe to emails, newsletters, courses, etc., in exchange for a free digital product. Doing this lets you gather the entire email list and send all future offers to the subscribers. 

The plugin has 20+ beautifully pre-designed templates and offers a drag-and-drop builder to create as many forms as possible. It integrates well with third-party email subscription services like Mailchimp, Mailterlite, SendinBlue, and Constant Contact. You can later showcase the form with the popup trigger after the user spends a specific amount of time on the page or post. 

Pros

  • Built-in templates reduce the amount of time you spend making forms.
  • Customize the style of the forms you create with the help of the form style customizer.
  • Enable or disable the form components whenever you want.
  • Export subscribers with a single click.
  • By having email addresses, the plugin allows you to send personalized emails and build a relationship with your subscribers, which can lead to more sales & conversions.
  • The dedicated support team is always available to assist you whenever required.

Cons

  • Based on your email list, you may need to pay for a third-party email marketing service to manage subscribers, which can increase your overall costs.
  • Several visitors may only be interested in the downloadable content and not interested in hearing from you in the future. It can result in a lower quality of subscribers who are less likely to engage with your future emails.
  • The plugin does not enable you to sell downloads. It entices users to provide emails in exchange for downloadable files.

The plugin is available at the cost of just $18.

GET SUBSCRIBE TO DOWNLOAD

Conclusion

Selling digital products on a WordPress website is an excellent way of monetizing a blog or other site with little or no financial outlay. For example, photographers and artists can sell digital versions of their work and use social media to promote them. Another idea would be to create a range of downloadable craft or business templates and sell them through your website, avoiding paying fees to marketplaces like Etsy or Creative Fabrica. With digital downloads, the world is your oyster.

The WordPress digital downloads plugins we have shared are the best in the market. From managing downloads to securing your files, these plugins provide a range of features to streamline the selling process.

Now, it’s time to choose a plugin to help you set up your digital store and generate good profits. Based on your needs, you can select a suitable plugin for your WordPress site.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add downloadable products to WordPress?

To add a downloadable product to WordPress, you need to follow several steps.

  1. Choose a digital product.
  2. Create a website using WordPress
  3. Install a WordPress digital download plugin
  4. Create a link to the product and share it on relevant pages & posts on your WordPress site.

How to choose the best WordPress digital downloads plugin?

For choosing the best plugin, you must consider several crucial factors.

  • Check that the plugin has all essential features like file uploads, download tracking, report, etc.
  • Ensure it’s compatible with WordPress plugins & themes.
  • Check the reviews & ratings of the plugin.
  • The plugin should be easy-to-setup and use.
  • Make sure that the plugin supports your preferred payment gateway.
  • Look for a plugin with regular updates and a good customer support team.

Go for a plugin that provides secure downloads, including encryption and protection against unauthorized access.

A team of WordPress experts that love to test out new WordPress related software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes.