7 Best Digital Downloads Plugins for WordPress

Last Updated: July 21, 2023
Category: WordPress
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Selling downloadable products online is a great way to make a profit without putting in the effort that goes into selling physical products. Not only do digital products have zero overhead costs, but also they are easier to sell, are never out of stock, and can offer an irresistible profit margin. As a digital product seller, you are also free to have a lifestyle uninhibited by the requites of having a physical store. Although the internet is a large market, your product can always be in demand.

Summary
  • The 7 Best Digital Downloads Plugins
    • 1. Easy Digital Downloads
    • 2. Digital Downloads Pro
    • 3. Gumroad
    • 4. MemberPress
    • 5. Download Monitor

To aid you in this venture, Wordpress offers its users with several download plugins. These plugins help you sell digital downloads seamlessly. Among them, you can select the best digital downloads plugin that suits your needs. Ranging from software to photos, videos, PDFs and any other digital products, Wordpress free digital downloads plugin helps you create simple links for download and a neat checkout page.

How to Choose The Best Digital Downloads Plugin

There are a few yardsticks to measure how good a digital downloads plugin is. With plenty of options available, you should rely on the following pointers to determine the best digital downloads plugin.

  1. Control over download files - You should have full control over your file downloads no matter if it's a subscription or a membership or a social sharing. 
  2. Customer record - The WordPress download plugin should have an interface for creating a customer account page and maintaining records for each customer.
  3. Organizing files - Your digital download plugin should allow you to use categories and tags and enable you to remove, add, and edit features.
  4. Recording the download history - A download history for each help will help you see the number of downloads a site has and its logs and stats.
  5. Quick Integration - Integration with famously used payment modes such as PayPal and more.
  6. Easy to navigate - The plugins should enable downloading files with a Gutenberg block or a shortcode. 

The 7 Best Digital Downloads Plugins

All the features mentioned above can be found in the top digital download plugins for WordPress mentioned below:

1. Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads

Ranging from ebooks to pdf to images and videos, you can sell any digital product on Easy Digital Downloads without any code. Even WordPress plugins and themes can be sold on this platform.  Easy Digital Downloads offers password protection for your files and gives you access to an organized customer dashboard.  The Easy Digital Downloads plugin is easy to navigate and has unparalleled features that make your selling journey smooth. Here are some features that will show you how user-friendly and efficient this WordPress plugin is. 

Key Features:

  • The Easy Digital Downloads plugin integrates with various payment gateways, such as PayPal and Stripe, for free.
  • It allows potential customers the feature to save products in a cart. It also offers support to guest checkouts and registered users. 
  • Easy Digital Downloads plugin gives you detailed reporting that includes actionable insights in your reports. The reports are also sorted as per dates and products. You can also check refunds and monitor every aspect of your digital store.
  • You can manage order status and reassign details of the consumers. You can also access an advanced refund feature.
  • The Easy Digital Downloads plugin manages customers by maintaining separate records for each. You can easily view and edit customer records and track their value and activity on your platform. 
  • Easy Digital Downloads also create a proper customer account page with all the necessary details to assist the buyer and the seller. 

Pricing: Easy Digital Downloads plugin has several plans based on user needs. The Personal plan is priced at $99.50 a year. This plan will only give you the basic features. But, other plans such as The Extended plan (priced at $199.50 per year), the Professional plan (priced at $299.50 per year), and the All Access Pass (priced at $499.50 per year) give you access to multiple payment gateways and other features that will give you a competitive edge. 

2. Digital Downloads Pro

Add as many digital products as you want to your store through Digital Downloads Pro. This platform allows you to swiftly set up your products, control payment, translate and customize customer emails, fraud checks, and download pages. To top that off, Digital Downloads Pro has several automated services that take away chunks of your labour. Starting from books and tutorials to software, Digital Downloads Pro enables you to add, edit, and manage digital content quickly and provides you with organized file attachments to your products.

Key Features:

  • In your Digital Downloads Pro Shopify app, you can add and manage as many numbers and types of digital content as you want.
  • Being one of the top digital download plugins for WordPress, Digital Downloads Pro allows you to upload and attach files to several products efficiently and safely.
  • Digital Downloads Pro also provides manual and automatic license Key support. You also have the option of API validation.
  • Since this tool caters to a global audience, it can customize and translate customer emails and help you download pages easily. 
  • Digital Downloads Pro also provide 24/7 support along with a simple setup guide for newbies.

Pricing: The plan providing some basic features is freely accessible to all. It has a limit of 50 orders a month. The Advanced plan priced at $10/month offers a 1000 order/month limit, and the Plus package priced at $20/month offers a 10,000 order limit per month. 

3. Gumroad

Gumroad

Gumroad is an e-commerce platform that lets you sell anything - starting as small as blog posts, memberships, courses, and books. After opening your account on Gumroad, you can add products and start selling digital goods. You can set up your store online with Gumroad’s page editor and customise everything. If you have a site, you can easily set up this free digital downloads plugin there. Apart from these, you can quickly add all the convenient payment gateways and the “follow” button to your website. 

Key Features:

  • With Gumroad, you can create easy-to-navigate memberships. By subscribing to these, the users can access a library of content.
  • Gumroad lets you manifold your sales chances by accepting various international currencies. 
  • With the Gumroad download plugin, you can create discount codes for your customers in either a fixed amount or percentages over the original prices.
  • If you intend to sell software, this plugin lets you generate license keys. You can sell multiple versions of anything, such as in pdf or ePub or Mobi format. If you want your work protected, Gumroad can also create a lightweight DRM.
  • With these tools, you can make a profit quickly and have the correct reports ready at your fingertips.
  • This free digital downloads plugin ensures that your payments are smooth and secure. 
  • Get improved sales analytics and get automated channels of connecting with your audience to grow your business.

Pricing: Gumroad’s pricing is very business-friendly as it charges a small percentage of your sales and does not have a fixed amount. 

4. MemberPress

MemberPress

MemberPress lets you commercialize your WordPress site and helps you build a membership that lets you control who accesses your content. You can sell your digital content there, such as online courses powered with LMS features. MemberPress offers various integrations and add-ons - the most beneficial among them are user-friendly payment gateways and other WordPress sites. 

Key Features:

  • MemberPress helps you build and sell online courses powered with LMS features. Navigation through this course is with a basic click-and-go process. All the courses are built-in, so there is no need for the user to download anything.
  • MemberPress helps you create your community with password protection and seamlessly integrates with other WordPress forum plugins. 
  • With a few basic guidelines, you can set up your membership site quickly. MemberPress Setup Wizard and ReadyLaunchTM make your website sales-ready swiftly.  
  • Based on their membership and the kind of online products your consumers purchase, you can access the content they can see. 
  • With this free digital downloads plugin, you can make as many coupons as possible to attract more buyers. You can set up their expiry date, limit their number of uses, and customize your coupon codes.
  • You can also create a professional pricing page to display your memberships, and the design is super easy to customize.

Pricing: There are three packages offering different features. The $179.50/year Basic plan is for beginners getting started with their first membership website. The $299.50/year Plus package is perfect for entrepreneurs, whereas the $399.50/year Pro package is excellent for Pros and advanced memberships. 

5. Download Monitor

Download Monitor

Download Monitor is a WordPress plugin with an interface where you can upload and manage downloadable files (with multiple versions). Download Monitor helps you boost your reach and attract subscribers with Download Monitor’s easy-to-use digital solutions. Manage any document, track performance, protect files, generate email leads, and build your audience. Insert any downloadable link into your posts and quickly convert your traffic into your subscribers. 

Key Features: 

  • With Download Monitor’s WP interface, you can add, edit and remove downloads as convenient.
  • You can sell all your downloads from inside your WordPress website.
  • This plugin is 100% compatible with Gutenberg.  
  • Create your site and link your page to your blog posts and social media.
  • You can add meta to your downloads and display download links on the front end with the help of shortcodes.
  • Download Monitor provides Sales and marketing tools along with detailed reports which help users have actionable information and take the right strategic decisions. 
  • This top digital download plugin for WordPress helps with easy file management, advanced file activity and limiting content for users depending on their subscriptions.

Pricing: For those starting with online selling, the Basic plan of $39 is recommended. The $99 plan offers more control for those needing more features. The $159 plan is for the ones looking to scale their business rapidly. 

All you need to do is choose the right digital products to sell, and the rest will be taken care of by these top digital download plugins for WordPress. These plugins provide you with a comprehensive solution to sell any online goods, and the Internet being an expansive marketplace, you can quickly attract traffic through suitable marketing measures. All the plugins mentioned in this article are widely used and are user-favourites.

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Debosmita Saha is currently pursuing English Literature. She is a scribbler of poetry, short stories, and book reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

A downloadable digital product involves online documents, multimedia, software or file that can be downloaded electronically.

With the help of the above-listed free digital downloads plugin, you can add as many digital products as you want and sell them without hassle.

Yes, selling digital goods on WordPress is profitable because digital goods do not have any overhead costs. Moreover, they do not need the time and marketing effort that physical products do. They are easy to manage, upload, and sell.

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