Building a successful online store isn’t just about listing products. It’s about choosing the right eCommerce plugin for WordPress.
We’ve learned from experience that the eCommerce plugin you select can make or break your store.
Now, we use Easy Digital Downloads across our partner brands for selling digital products, but we also understand that one size doesn’t fit all.
That’s why we tested multiple plugins in the market and found Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, Shopify, and MemberPress to be best options.
In this article, we’ll show you the best WordPress eCommerce plugins for digital downloads.
How to Choose the Right Plugin for Selling Digital Products?
WordPress is one of the most popular website platforms around the world. There is no wonder that it has tons of plugins available, including those for selling digital goods.
Each of them has its own set of features, advantages, and disadvantages. That’s why sometimes it might be challenging to opt for the best one.
To help you out, we tested multiple solutions based on different factors. Here are some common features you should look for in a plugin for selling digital products, such as:
- Variety of Supported Products – Whether you’re selling eBooks, PDFs, or something else, you want to use a plugin that supports your product type by default. The best choice is a plugin that supports the largest number of digital product types.
- Payment Flexibility – If customers don’t see a payment option that suits them, they can leave your store. That’s why it’s super important to use a plugin that offers as many payment gateways as possible.
- Ease of Use – When you launch an online store, it’s crucial to sell from the very first day, so your plugin needs to be as easy to use as possible.
- Sales Accounting – A great plugin for selling digital products must give you reports on your store’s performance and sales analytics.
- Extensions Availability – Make sure that the plugin you’re going to use has a solid base of extensions so you have additional features when you need them.
- Customer Support – One of the most important features of any WordPress plugin is responsive customer support. They can help you to get your store up and running so that you can focus on growing your business.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best WordPress eCommerce plugins for digital downloads.
1. Easy Digital Downloads
The first plugin in our showcase is Easy Digital Downloads. We chose this because it is the most powerful and user-friendly WordPress plugin that’s designed specifically for selling digital goods.
Once you install the plugin, you can turn your WordPress site into a full-fledged online store with tons of features. Using it, you can sell any type of digital product, get advanced sales statistics, accept credit card payments, and many more.
Many of your partner brands like WPForms, MonsterInsights, and more also use Easy Digital Downloads to sell their software.
Plus, it’s trusted by over 50,000 merchants around the world, making it a popular plugin for digital eCommerce.
Features:
- Sell Digital Products – Easy Digital Downloads supports all popular types of digital products such as PDFs, eBooks, plugins, multimedia files, and many more.
- Easily Promote Your Digital Products – Using this plugin you can create a product landing page, run giveaways, capture abandoning visitors, and many more, so you can boost your sales with a few clicks.
- Add Multiple Payment Methods – With Easy Digital Downloads, you can accept payments via credit cards through Stripe, Apple Pay, PayPal, and other gateways. You can also accept recurring payments to grow a stable and predictable source of income.
- Full-fledged Shopping Cart – Due to the Easy Digital Download shopping cart system, your customers can purchase multiple downloads. You’re also free to customize the shopping cart page appearance the way you want.
- Discount Codes Feature – Using this plugin, you can add flat rate or percentage-based discount codes for products in a few clicks. You can also set the promo start and end dates, specify the minimum cart total for discount use, and limit discount usage per user.
- Download Activity Tracking – Using Easy Digital Downloads, you can easily monitor the number of your store’s downloads and sales. This lets you view stats and make custom reports in just a few clicks.
On top of that, Easy Digital Downloads comes with a lot of useful extensions. They ensure seamless integration of various services and bring additional features, such as recurring payments, software licensing, and more.
Pricing: Starting at $99.5 per year.
Pro Tip: You can make your digital products searchable on WordPress using SearchWP. It easily integrates with SearchWP and makes it very easy for your customers to discover digital products on your site.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugins that has a couple of noticeable features.
While testing the plugin, we found that it allows you to create a professional looking and functional online store in just a few minutes, even if you’re not a tech-savvy person.
Plus, WooCommerce is free to use and has tons of extensions that further expand its functionality.
Unlike Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce was originally designed for selling physical products. But you can also use it to sell digital products as well, setting it up properly can be quite tricky.
It also easily integrates with other third party tools and WordPress plugins, including SearchWP.
Features:
- WooCommerce Payments – Just like Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce allows you to accept payments via the most popular gateways. You can track transactions directly in your WordPress dashboard.
- Mobile App – WooCommerce has its own mobile app that allows you to manage your business on the go.
- Plenty of Extensions – Similar to Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce has many useful extensions. By installing them, you can add dropshipping, booking, and other features to your store. It also integrates with SearchWP and allows you to include product details in the search process.
- Inventory Management – WooCommerce also allows you to easily manage your inventory. You can even add a store manager and assign this task to it.
Pricing: Free.
3. Shopify
Shopify is one of the best and most comprehensive eCommerce solutions that you can use to start selling your digital products online.
Even though it’s not a WordPress plugin but a cloud-based platform, we discovered that you can add the Shopify Buy Button to your WordPress site with a few clicks.
The button is fully customizable and has some ready-made templates, so you can easily adjust its appearance to fit your website design. On top of that, Shopify helps you accept payments using over 100 payment gateways at no additional cost.
That said, a downside we found while using Shopify is that you are no fully in control of your online store. The website’s code and data are in Shopify’s hands, which can be changed at any given moment.
If you want total control of your eCommerce store, then a better alternative is Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce.
Features:
- Handy Inventory Editor – Just like Easy Digital Downloads, Shopify provides you with a highly convenient way to manage your inventory. You can easily add new products, change prices, check stock, and many more.
- Easy for Beginners – As in the case with Easy Digital Downloads, it’s super easy to start using Shopify and launch your online digital products store.
- Secure Checkout – Using Shopify, you don’t have to worry about storing sensitive customer information. It’s a super reliable service that transfers all data via a secure connection.
- Customer Support – Because Shopify is a global service with millions of clients, they provide 24/7 professional support.
Pricing: Starting at $19 per month.
4. MemberPress
MemberPress is another flexible WordPress plugin that allows you to sell subscription-based digital products.
What we really liked was that with the help of this plugin, you can get a membership site up and running within a few minutes, even if you’re not a tech-savvy user.
MemberPress lets you obtain full control over what content your users can see. You can set the visibility depending on their membership plan or purchased product.
Also, this plugin lets you effortlessly create top-notch pricing pages that are sure to grab your audience’s attention.
Features:
- Sell Courses – MemberPress comes with a powerful Courses add-on. With it, you can turn your WordPress site into a full-fledged educational platform.
- Coupons Feature – With MemberPress, you can add discount coupons to your store and control their expiration date and number of uses. This is a convenient feature for running promotions and giveaways.
- Build Your Community – Using MemberPress extensions, you can easily create forums and communities directly on your online store. This is a great way to stay in touch with your audience and announce new products.
- Many Payment Gateway Options – As Easy Digital Downloads, MemberPress supports a lot of payment gateways, like Stripe, PayPal, and many more.
Pricing: Starting at $179.50 per year.
5. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is the next WordPress eCommerce plugin on our list and it is a fully hosted platform. However, it comes with a WordPress store plugin which easily integrates with your website.
We tested the plugin, connecting a BigCommerce account to a WordPress site, and explored its key features.
Notably, the plugin automatically syncs your BigCommerce product catalog with WordPress every five minutes, and it creates essential eCommerce pages like cart and account for you.
Besides, you get Gutenberg blocks to easily create an eCommerce website, get real time shipping rates for popular delivery services like FedEx and UPS, and more.
But just like Shopify, you’re not in total control of your online store’s code and data. BigCommerce handles everything for you, so there is a chance things can change at any give moment.
Features:
- Multi-Channel Selling – Integrates with major marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Shopping.
- Flexible Product Catalog – Robust tools for managing a large and complex product catalog, including variations, options, and digital products.
- Multiple Payment Gateways – Supports a wide range of payment options, including PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, and more.
- Advanced Marketing Tools – Includes features for email marketing, abandoned cart recovery, promotions, and discounts.
- Analytics and Reporting- Provides detailed insights into sales, customer behavior, and marketing performance.
Pricing: Starting at $29 per month.
Bonus Plugin: SearchWP
Although SearchWP is not an eCommerce plugin, it can be super useful to any WordPress online store owner.
The thing is, the default WordPress search engine is pretty weak. Specifically, it searches only for title, content, and excerpts of posts and pages.
But most eCommerce WordPress plugins store product data as custom fields and taxonomies. That’s why this data stays hidden from search.
It’s crucial to make this data searchable to help your customers find products they’re looking for much easier and boost your sales.
With SearchWP, you can make any product additional info searchable in just a few clicks. Plus, it easily integrates with popular plugins like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and BigCommerce.
On top of these, you can use this plugin to:
- Index PDF files and Office Documents: Using SearchWP, you can make WordPress index text within documents and PDFs. It can be really helpful if you sell specifically this type of digital content and want to make it easier for customers to find it.
- Track Searches: SearchWP gathers information about search activity on your site and gives you detailed reports about it. Using this information, you can find out what type of products your customers are most interested in and cover their needs.
- Display Search Results in Live Mode: By default, WordPress shows search results by opening a new page. With SearchWP, you can display search results as users type in the search term, allowing your customers to find products instantly.
- Add and Use Multiple Search Engines: SearchWP allows you to create multiple search engines and assign them to different search forms. This way, you can create search forms limited to a specific category or product type.
Pricing: Starting at $99 per year.
If you’re ready to give your customers the most relevant search results and boost your sales, you can grab your copy of SearchWP here.
Which WordPress eCommerce Plugin for Digital Downloads is The Best?
After testing multiple solutions, we found that each of the mentioned above plugins has its strengths and weaknesses. But one of them stands out from the others, and that’s Easy Digital Downloads.
This plugin has been specifically developed with digital merchants in mind. That‘s why it perfectly combines powerful features, user-friendly design, and affordable price.
In fact, Easy Digital Downloads can offer you:
- Fast and Easy Setup: You can start selling your digital products immediately after installing the plugin.
- Set of Powerful Features: This plugin can seamlessly replace 2-3 other plugins for digital downloads.
- Many Useful Integrations: You can accept payments through various gateways, gather emails, use cloud storage, and many more.
- Detailed Analytics: Using this plugin, you can collect comprehensive data about your sales and customers.
It’s super easy to sell your digital products and increase your sales with this plugin.
Considering all of the above, Easy Digital Downloads deservedly takes first place in our showcase.
We hope this article helped you learned about the best WordPress eCommerce plugins for digital downloads. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a custom search form in WordPress and how to prioritize specific search results in WordPress.
Ready to create a better and more personalized WordPress search experience? Get started with SearchWP today!
