Everything Easy Digital Downloads charges $500/year for. Yours at $0. A complete digital storefront for WordPress — cart, Stripe checkout, software licensing, an update server, discount codes, sales reports, and secure download delivery, all in one free plugin.
Selling digital files on WordPress has two options: pay EDD hundreds of dollars a year for features that should have been in the core product, or bolt WooCommerce together with a stack of third-party plugins and call it a day. Neither is acceptable.
Free Digital Downloads is the third option. It handles everything a serious download store needs without a subscription, without a "Pro" upsell, and without adding WooCommerce to a site that doesn't need it.
- Products — Custom post type with price, sale price, file attachments, categories, tags, and frontend display with sale pricing
- Shopping cart — Full AJAX cart with add and remove, no page reloads
- Stripe checkout — One-time payment processing, configured in settings and ready to go
- Secure downloads — HMAC-signed links that expire by time and download count, backed by .htaccess file protection
- Software licensing — Key generation, activation limits, and a remote validation API for plugins and themes
- Update server — Serve plugin and theme updates directly to licensed customers, the way a real software business works
- Discount codes — Percentage or flat discounts with date ranges, usage limits, and minimum order amounts
- Order management — Full order records with status tracking
- Sales reports — Earnings over time, top products, and customer counts in one dashboard
- Download logging — IP address and user agent recorded per download
- Email receipts — Automatic receipts with download links on purchase
- Email marketing — Mailchimp and ConvertKit integrations built in
- Customer accounts —
[fdd_account]shortcode for customer-facing order and download history - Receipt page —
[fdd_receipt]shortcode for post-purchase confirmation - Product reviews — Customers can leave reviews on products
- REST API — Endpoints for orders, licenses, and products
- Clean uninstall — Removes its own data completely if you decide to leave
Products admin list — All your digital products in one place with price and status at a glance.
Product editor — Set price, sale price, attach files, and configure licensing options per product.
Settings page — Connect Stripe, configure download limits and expiry, set up email receipts.
Sales reports dashboard — Earnings over time, top-selling products, and total customer count.
Orders management — Every order with status tracking and customer details.
Discount code management — Create and manage codes with full control over conditions and limits.
Frontend product page — Clean product display with sale pricing that works with any theme.
- Go to Releases and download the latest
.zipfile - In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
- Upload the zip and click Install Now, then Activate
- Go to Downloads → Settings and enter your Stripe keys
- Create a page for your receipt (
[fdd_receipt]) and one for customer accounts ([fdd_account])
- Clone or download this repository
- Copy the
free-digital-downloadsfolder into/wp-content/plugins/ - Activate the plugin from Plugins in your WordPress admin
- Follow steps 4 and 5 above
- WordPress 6.0 or higher
- PHP 7.4 or higher
- A Stripe account (free) for payment processing
- HTTPS — required by Stripe and strongly recommended for download security
- WordPress developers selling plugins or themes who need real software licensing and an update server, not a $129/year add-on
- Designers selling templates, presets, and fonts who want a clean store without WooCommerce's overhead
- Course creators selling PDFs, resource packs, and digital kits
- Anyone who looked at EDD's pricing page and closed the tab
- Agencies building download stores for clients at zero licensing cost
Nothing. No tiers. No feature gates. No annual renewal.
For context: Easy Digital Downloads charges $499.50/year for the complete suite. Their free version does not include Stripe. WooCommerce is free at the base but digital product licensing requires third-party plugins starting at $129/year. Free Digital Downloads includes everything those stacks charge for and does not ask for anything in return.
Pull requests are welcome. If you're fixing a bug, open an issue first so we know it's being worked on. If you're adding a feature, open an issue to discuss it before building — not everything belongs in core.
- Fork the repository
- Create a branch:
git checkout -b fix/your-fix-name - Commit your changes with a clear message
- Push and open a pull request against
main
Open an issue on GitHub with a description of the problem, your WordPress and PHP versions, and what you expected to happen versus what actually happened.
For general information about the plugin, visit the product page.
Initial release.
- Custom product post type with price, sale price, file attachments, categories, and tags
- AJAX shopping cart
- Stripe checkout for one-time payments
- HMAC-signed, time-limited, download-count-limited secure download links
- .htaccess file protection
- Software licensing with key generation, activation limits, and remote validation API
- License update server for distributing plugin and theme updates to customers
- Discount codes with percentage and flat options, date ranges, usage limits, and minimum order
- Order management with status tracking
- Sales reports with earnings, top products, and customer count
- Download logging by IP and user agent
- Email receipts with download links
- Mailchimp and ConvertKit integrations
[fdd_account]customer account shortcode[fdd_receipt]receipt page shortcode- REST API endpoints
- Product reviews
- Clean uninstall
GPL v2 or later. See LICENSE.
Built by AI Or Die Now — tools that work without asking for anything back.