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If you are considering creating an e-commerce website for digital goods, this Easy Digital Downloads review will teach you everything you need to know to maximize this valuable and versatile plugin.
There are plenty of plugins for creating e-commerce sites on WordPress, offering different ways of doing so. One standout choice for a budding online business is Easy Digital Downloads (EDD).
Designed to simplify the process of selling digital products (and physical ones, if need be), Easy Digital Downloads plugin comes with an intuitive design and purpose-driven features that will enable you to build a thriving marketplace.
Why Do Digital Product Sellers Prefer EDD?
Unlike other e-commerce tools that try to balance physical and digital product sales, EDD is laser-focused on those selling e-goods, offering clarity, efficiency, and adaptability.
Sellers of e-books, software, music, and design templates appreciate its unrivaled simplicity. Unlike all-purpose solutions, EDD addresses all aspects of selling digital goods, including licenses and subscriptions.
The plugin comes with dozens of essential and optional features, and in most cases, you will be just fine with the Lite (Free) version. That said, the plugin’s functionality can be enhanced with integrations and extensions.
Advantages Over Competitors
Here are three reasons why EDD is better than its competitors:
- Purpose-Built Simplicity: EDD specializes in the sale of digital goods. It basically works on the “set it and forget it” motto. Other plugins are more complex considering they cover all types of sales activity. You can learn more about this issue under “Comparison With Alternatives” heading.
- Rich Customization: Its robust ecosystem of extensions allows sellers to shape their stores exactly as they envision.
- Community Connection: EDD is backed by a community that supports and nurtures new ideas and approaches to digital commerce.
Who Should Use Easy Digital Downloads?
While compiling this Easy Digital Downloads review, one of the biggest concerns we saw from the business owners while trying to sell anything online was the technical side of e-commerce.
EDD offers a powerful, secure, and customizable platform that does its best to empower users to efficiently manage their digital storefronts and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Plus, it’s no code. This means you can create automated processes without any coding (for the most part).
All of this makes EDD a great choice for anyone looking to sell digital products online. And when we say anyone, we really mean it.
Developers and SaaS providers use EDD for software licenses, plugins, and subscriptions, leveraging its licensing management and automatic updates.
Authors distribute e-books and digital publications securely, avoiding restrictions from mainstream retailers. Graphic designers market digital art, templates, and fonts using EDD’s file management and licensing features.
Content creators sell courses and educational materials through LMS integrations, drip content, and recurring payments. Musicians and audio producers distribute tracks and podcasts with flexible pricing and bundling options.
Entrepreneurs and small businesses enjoy EDD’s customizable storefronts for selling consultations, resources, and exclusive content, while membership sites use them to create premium member areas.
Developers and agencies sell templates and plugins utilizing EDD’s APIs. Nonprofits and educational institutions share reports and materials securely, while publishers and filmmakers monetize subscriptions, articles, and video content efficiently.
All in all, building your own store with EDD instead of distributing goods on popular marketplaces like Amazon, Gumroad, and the like is a great and rather feasible idea, as it allows you to operate without being bound by the rules of these platforms.
Key Features of Easy Digital Downloads
Just as architects rely on their toolkit, EDD equips sellers with everything they need to succeed. The plugin operates on a freemium revenue model, which means that the basic features are available for free, but advanced features are paid.
Comprehensive Shopping Cart
Easy Digital Downloads offers a complete shopping cart system tailored for digital products. It supports both Stripe and PayPal payment gateways at no additional cost, enabling secure transactions for your customers. You can change the “call to action” button to fit your business needs.
Moreover, EDD has a fantastic built-in feature for reducing cart abandonment. It can “save” a shopper cart with a unique and temporary link, allowing potential customers to save and revisit their carts at their convenience. The system handles both registered users and guest checkouts, catering to diverse customer preferences.
Additionally, EDD protects business owners by requiring customers to agree to terms before finalizing their purchases. Collectively, these features make EDD a robust solution for efficiently managing digital product sales.
Detailed Reporting
EDD stores every data point inside a sales funnel for you to see and act on. First up, you can export data in CSV for record-keeping and in-depth study.
Next, you can filter reports by specific dates and products, leading to a detailed analysis of sales performance over chosen periods. EDD also has a built-in tracking mechanism, giving you control over churn rates and helping to identify areas for improvement.
Order & Customer Management
Through the intuitive dashboard, you can manage order statuses, ensuring accurate tracking of each purchase from initiation to completion. You can also create role-based control access and assign different roles to different team members, thus making certain that every member has the appropriate access level for managing orders and other store operations.
Sometimes, customers may ask you to modify details, and with EDD, you can do it with just a few clicks. The plugin also has advanced refund management capabilities, allowing your customers to receive their money back. The system records the transaction dutifully for transparent financial bookkeeping.
When it comes to customer management features, EDD assigns a unique profile containing a detailed record of their transactions and activities, along with a customized “Account” page. As a store owner, you can view, modify, or delete any customer profile.
API Access
For most users, EDD is a delightfully easy, no-code solution for creating a store for digital products and services. However, the plugin does not lock store owners in if they have a technical need. The RESTful API facilitates the retrieval of information on products, customers, sales, and earnings, supporting both JSON and XML formats.
Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up EDD
Stepping into the world of EDD requires nothing more than an open mind and a clear focus. Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up your first EDD store:
1. Installation
Begin your EDD experience within WordPress. Log in to your WordPress admin. From the dashboard, Navigate to Plugins > Add New, then search for ‘Easy Digital Downloads’ and activate it with one click. Alternatively, install EDD through the official WordPress plugin repo.
2. Configuring General Settings
It’s advisable to spend some time exploring the settings. Define your currency, configure payment gateways, and set download email templates that resonate with your brand’s voice.
3. Creating Your First Product
Head to Downloads > Add New and showcase your inner writer for the product description. Upload your digital file and set a suitable price.
4. Customising Your Store
Ideally, you want to create a storefront that resonates with your business’ identity. Choose from clean, modern layouts that offer ease of navigation (and a little bit of eye candy) for your customers.
5. Setting Up Extensions
Enhance your store’s abilities by incorporating extensions like recurring payments or email marketing integrations.
6. Launch and Reflect
With the setup complete, it’s time to launch. Pay attention to customer feedback – it’s a mirror reflecting your store’s vibe and potential for growth.
Pricing
EDD offers flexible pricing, allowing you to start small and scale as you grow:
- Free: A generous option for new sellers exploring possibilities.
- Personal Pass ($99.50/year): Great for small stores that need more commercial options.
- Extended Pass ($199.50/year): Unlocks more advanced features, like Subscriptions, Advanced Marketing Tools, Advanced Payment Tools, etc.
- Professional Pass ($299.50/year): Ideal for thriving businesses seeking unlimited possibilities.
- All Access Pass ($499.50/year): Best for creating multi-faceted marketplaces with advanced automation.
Extensions
There are two types of EDD extensions: Free and Paid. If you are looking to extend the functionality of your store with a free extension, just use the ‘Free’ filter on the Extension Downloads page. Notable options include Hide Downloads, Terms per Product, and Lock Download to IP. A few themes are also included at no extra cost.
In case you are looking for a real boost, then investing in a few paid extensions might be the way to go. There are dozens of them, though you might want to check these out:
- Recurring Payments: Stay connected with your customers through subscriptions.
- All Access Pass: Invite your customers to explore your entire catalog for one fee.
- Email Marketing Integration: Build insightful connections with your community via tools like Mailchimp.
- Zapier Automation: Automate your store with 5,000+ third-party web services for the ultimate power-up.
- AffiliateWP: Make your store grow by offering an affiliate program with management directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Comparison with Alternatives
In the next few minutes, we’ll assess how EDD stacks up against two of the most popular e-commerce platforms: WooCommerce and Shopify.
EDD vs. WooCommerce
EDD is tailored specifically for selling digital products, such as software and e-books, while WooCommerce is a more “open-ended” e-commerce solution that supports both physical and digital products.
- Setup and Usability: EDD offers a more straightforward and intuitive setup for digital sales, making it easier for users who primarily sell digital goods. In contrast, WooCommerce tends to be more complex due to its extensive features and options.
- Built-in Features: EDD includes essential features for digital product management, like file access control and download limits, which are specifically designed for digital sales. While versatile, WooCommerce may require additional plugins to achieve similar functionality.
- Customization and Extensions: There are a lot of extensions and plugins for WooCommerce that can be used to make it more customizable and add extra features like inventory management and shipping choices. EDD has similar options, but its main goal is to boost sales of digital products.
- Payment Processing: Both platforms support various payment gateways, ensuring secure transactions. However, WooCommerce provides a broader selection of payment options, accommodating a wider range of business models.
- Market Share and Community: WooCommerce has a significantly larger user base, with over 61 million installations, making it one of the most popular e-commerce platforms globally. EDD, while smaller with around 2 million installations, has a dedicated community focused on digital products and specialized support.
EDD vs. Shopify
EDD is primarily geared toward digital goods, while Shopify is a more encompassing e-commerce platform that caters to both physical and digital products.
- Ease of Use: EDD provides a straightforward setup for digital sales, making it user-friendly for those focused on online goods. Shopify is also rather user-friendly but offers a more extensive setup process due to its wide range of features and customization options. Also, Shopify is a “hosted” e-commerce platform with an “Acceptable Use” policy which controls what can be sold or not. On the other hand, EDD doesn’t have such restrictions, except as required by the hosting company or local laws.
- Customization and Themes: Shopify offers a variety of professional themes and a robust app store for additional functionalities, allowing for extensive customization of online stores. EDD has fewer themes and extensions due to its primary focus on digital product sales.
- Payment Processing: Both platforms support multiple payment gateways, but Shopify has built-in support for a broader range of payment options, including its payment processor, Shopify Payments – albeit with processing charges.
- Inventory Management: Shopify excels in inventory management for physical products, providing tools for tracking stock levels and managing orders. EDD focuses on digital product management, offering features like download limits and file access control.
- Cost Structure: EDD typically costs less for businesses focused solely on digital products, with fewer associated fees. Shopify, while offering a comprehensive package, can become more expensive due to monthly subscription fees and transaction fees based on the chosen payment gateway.
EDD Websites Perform Best on Rapyd Cloud Hosting
The foundation of digital success largely lies in the speed and reliability of your web host, as well as trust – all the qualities embodied by Rapyd Cloud. If you are looking for best managed WordPress hosting for your EDD site, here are four good reasons why Rapyd should be your EDD hosting partner:
- LiteSpeed Caching: Ensures a seamless purchasing experience, no matter how many customers visit.
- Uptime Reliability: Your store remains open 24/7, ensuring a stable user experience every time.
- Auto-Scaling: Fluid scalability that goes hand in hand with your store’s growth.
- Global Reach: Geographic limitations dissolve with Rapyd CDN, which is available for free with all plans.
Although we have a dedicated WooCommerce managed hosting, that performs equally well with EDD Sites. Your site will be hosted on an optimized and managed WordPress environment with LightSpeed Enterprise, Object Cache Pro, and free CDN. You’ll also benefit from powerful protection with services like Patchstack, Monarx, and free SSL.
If you need more convincing, how about a quick testimonial?
The Happy Pear, a health and wellness membership website built on WordPress, saw a monumental performance improvement of 400% with Rapyd Cloud. While it’s not a 100% apple-to-apple comparison, an optimized WordPress hosting environment makes a big difference in the performance of a plugin-based e-commerce site.
That’s not all, as the Happy Pear experienced a second benefit: savings. Thanks to optimizations by Rapyd Cloud, the hosting bill was reduced by 40%!
Like what you see? Then give Rapyd Cloud a go!
Conclusion
The Best WordPress Plugin for Digital Downloads.
For those of you thinking of starting a business with online goods, EDD is the optimal WordPress plugin as the cost to get started is very low. The Core version (also known as ‘Lite’ or ‘Free’) is good enough to get the ball rolling. Once you get traction (fingers crossed), you can always level up to a paid plan.
We hope this Easy Digital Downloads review was helpful to you. And you can always let us know if you still have any questions.
FAQs
What types of products can I sell with Easy Digital Downloads?
Easy Digital Downloads is perfect for digital products, like e-books, courses, music, design templates, and so on. You can also sell subscriptions with recurring payments and licensable software with automatic updates.
How does EDD compare to WooCommerce for digital sales?
WooCommerce is built for retail e-commerce, where store owners sell physical products. While it can be used for digital goods, it’s too complex. EDD is much easier, as it is purpose-built to serve e-commerce sites with digital assets.
Is Easy Digital Downloads free?
Yes, Easy Digital Downloads is a free plugin that can be installed directly from the WordPress Plugin directory. However, EDD has paid plans with advanced features, like duplicate products, lead magnets, multi-currency support, multi-vendor marketplace, etc.
What hosting features are important for EDD websites?
If you have a WordPress website with EDD that generates income, then performance-optimized WordPress hosting with a LightSpeed server and advanced caching will be a great investment. Digital goods stores should be good at concurrency, stability, and scalability. Rapyd Cloud is a great option if your store is facing any performance bottlenecks.
Can I use EDD with payment gateways like PayPal or Stripe?
EDD has built-in support for Stripe and PayPal, even for the free version. The EDD Pro (paid) provides you with more options.
