Selling digital stuff online is where the money's at these days. And with WordPress, you've got the perfect platform to set up shop.
Videos, PDFs, photos, software—you name it, you can sell it using WordPress.
Between picking a payment processor, delivering files, and everything in between, selling digital goods can get really complicated really fast.
That's where digital download plugins come to the rescue.
The right plugin can help you get started with minimal configuration. But with so many options, finding the best of the bunch is challenging.
This guide will take the guesswork out of picking plugins.
I'll walk you through the seven best-selling digital goods on WordPress in 2023. You'll understand what they do, how much they cost, and which is right for your business.
You'll have the tools and know-how to turn your WordPress site into a fully-fledged digital store by the end.
Let’s get started!
WP Plugins for Selling Digital Products
If you’re still deciding what products to sell, this list of the best digital products would be a great start.
SureCart
SureCart makes selling digital products smooth sailing. It's built using the same tech as Shopify, Basecamp, and Stripe—so you know it's robust and optimized.
You can sell online courses, memberships, subscriptions, services, event tickets, donations, downloads, and more.
It also works for physical products, making it a robust and complete ecommerce solution for WordPress—while also being super-intuitive.
Some handy features:
- Connect to Stripe, PayPal, and Mollie for payments. Accept ApplePay and GooglePay too.
- Offer one-time payments, subscriptions, and donations as digital download payment choices.
- Build custom checkout forms super quickly with drag-and-drop.
- Secure delivery for downloads like ebooks, software, and printables.
- Auto VAT and sales tax calculations are accessible in all plans—including the free version.
Pricing: SureCart has a free version with all the bells and whistles, so ecommerce is accessible to everyone. An affordable pro plan is coming soon with extras like affiliate marketing, subscription saver, multi-currency, and other sales boosters.
SureCart is perfect for selling digital goods without traditional ecommerce plugin headaches. Its modern, simple design means excellent performance and usability—even for newbies.
If you want a visually stunning, no-fuss solution for digital sales, SureCart is a top choice. Its focus on accessibility, reliability, and ease makes it stand out—great for beginners or anyone tired of older, clunkier options.
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) makes selling digital products on WordPress smooth and efficient. It's a handy, all-in-one solution.
Some key features:
- Shopping cart to let customers buy multiple downloads seamlessly.
- Discount codes to drive sales and attract customers.
- Accept payments through Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal—flexible options customers love.
- Extend functionality with extensions for recurring payments, extra gateways, and more.
Pricing: The pricing plans start at an affordable $99 per year. Good value for businesses of any size.
We're fans of EDD because it's great for anyone selling digital stuff on WordPress—videos, PDFs, photos, software, you name it.
The straightforward interface and powerful features make it excellent for beginners and experienced sellers alike.
CartFlows
CartFlows takes your WooCommerce store to the next level for conversions and revenue. It's more than a plugin—it's perfect for WooCommerce owners who want a high-converting online store.
Some awesome features:
- A fresh, fast checkout for more conversions—express checkout, real-time email validation, Google address autocomplete, and more.
- Create unlimited sales funnels to guide customers through buying, with upsells, order bumps, and “smart” offers to increase order value.
- Replace the default WooCommerce checkout with an optimized one—customize order button text, control coupon box, and make a unique page.
- Free cart abandonment recovery addon to track and recover lost revenue. Handy!
- Works with Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi, Gutenberg, and more to design perfect landing pages.
- The pro version has one-click upsells, order bumps, A/B testing, and more revenue-boosting goods.
Pricing: The free version has a ton of features. Pro offers additional powerful features like WooCommerce one-click upsell, smart offers, Canvas Mode — where you can create automated email sequences and workflows through visual drag-and-drop, and more.
CartFlows works excellent for any WooCommerce site—physical products, courses, tickets, services, digital downloads, and dropshipping. You name it.
Perfect for eCommerce stores, course creators, event organizers, coaches, bloggers, niche sites, and any business wanting to boost conversions and build dedicated funnels.
Membership and Content Locking Plugins for WordPress
If you want people to purchase a subscription and only enable downloads to subscribed members, SureMembers is what you need.
SureMembers
SureMembers is a super powerful membership plugin for WordPress. It makes it easy to restrict content or create subscription-based courses.
It’s the perfect tool for creating a membership website and enabling paid downloads and premium content.
Some of the best features include:
- Quickly make content paywalls, drip feed content, and set custom access rules to protect premium products.
- Ensure secure delivery of digital goods like ebooks, courses, and downloads.
- Show/hide menu items by access group for a customized user experience.
- Works seamlessly with your favorite plugins to enhance functionality.
- User role syncing for deeper integration with page builders and custom designs.
- Bulk edit users to add/remove from access groups in a snap
- Connect to SureTriggers to integrate your favorite plugins/services and add automation.
You can drip content over time and ensure secure file delivery – perfect for selling digital products.
Pricing: SureMembers starts at $99/year for the Pro plan. This plan includes all the features of SureMembers, including selling digital downloads, locking content, and others for a single site.
SureMembers is perfect for agencies, bloggers, podcasters, influencers, ecommerce gurus, and course creators—anyone wanting to create member areas, content upgrades, paid podcast access, Patreon-style sites, and more.
The easy setup, flexibility, and features make SureMembers a top choice for membership sites with WordPress.
Payment and Checkout Solutions
Let’s look at two ways to set up payments on WordPress quickly. Setting up any of the plugins above should give you payment capabilities, but enabling more payment options is always a good idea.
SureCart
We’ve already discussed SureCart for its ability to enable paid downloads. SureCart is a full-fledged ecommerce solution that competes directly with WooCommerce—the ecommerce platform designed by WordPress.
If you’ve tried WooCommerce, you know it’s complex and prone to break. SureCart fixes that. It has been built from the ground up with simplicity and ease of use.
But there’s more to SureCart.
It doubles as a robust payment gateway for WordPress.It currently supports Stripe, PayPal, Paystack, and Mollie. Support for additional regional gateways like Mercado Pago, RazorPay, and more is being worked on.
Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce
If you only need Paypal, Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce might be the perfect plugin for you.
With a streamlined setup, you can start selling products or services in minutes with a basic plugin configuration.
The checkout process is simplified as the entire payment flow happens in a popup window without leaving your site. For selling digital goods, Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce generates encrypted and auto-expiring download links.
It can also integrate with WooCommerce to combine its store management capabilities with simplified payments.
Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce ensure complete security and compliance with PayPal standards.
Note: The developer Payment Plugins also has individual plugins for different payment gateways.
However, we’d recommend going with them only if you have particular payment gateway requirements—for example, you only want to enable Paypal and nothing else.
That’s because additional plugins can increase the load on your website, causing it to slow down.
Other Considerations While Selling Digital Downloads on WordPress
Apart from the plugin, keeping a few other things in mind is useful. Let’s go over the most important things to know.
1. Compatibility With WordPress Themes
Choosing a WordPress theme that will stay compatible over time is tricky. Updates from WordPress or the theme developer can cause bugs.
Pick a theme that has remained compatible throughout all WordPress updates.
This is where a theme like Astra shines. Astra is free and lightweight, and the dev team thoroughly tests bugs before releasing new features.
The internal quality checks and the versatility of this theme are why Astra is also the #1 theme on WordPress.
However, if you want to see what else is out there, here are some of the best free themes for WordPress.
2. Security Considerations
Like anything online, there are always risks. Fortunately, WordPress offers robust tools to lock things down.
Here are some top tips:
- Stay updated. New WordPress versions patch vulnerabilities, so upgrade regularly. Same for themes and plugins.
- Use strong, unique passwords everywhere. For WordPress, FTP, and the database. Limit user roles and permissions too. The less access, the better.
- Back up the database frequently. Change the database prefix to obscure it. Lockdown wp-config.php and core files too.
- Choose secure web hosting with firewalls, malware scanning, and other protections. An SSL certificate encrypts data and adds a layer of defense.
Top security plugins like Sucuri, Wordfence, and iThemes Security harden WordPress in critical ways.
They have all the tools for two-factor authentication, firewall rules, and malware scanning.
Adopt a whole-site security policy. Monitor closely for threats and have an incident response plan. Limit integrations and custom code, which increases risk.
With precautions in place, WordPress can be very secure.
Keep it updated, back it up, limit access, and use security plugins. WordPress has robust defenses if you employ them properly.
Stay vigilant, and your site will stay safe!
3. Picking the Right Web Host
Picking the right web host is important for any WordPress site. It affects performance, security, scaling—everything that makes or breaks a site.
Let's break it down:
For WordPress, managed WordPress hosting and shared hosting are standard options.
Managed hosts like SiteGround or WP Engine handle optimization, security, updates, caching – the technical stuff.
Prices start from $5/month for the basic hosting plans.
Consider these factors when picking a host:
- Can they quickly scale as your traffic grows?
- Where are their servers located for fast speeds?
- What security protection do they offer?
- Is support responsive?
Research those items before settling on a web host or package. Managed WordPress is a great option if budget allows.
It removes more work since you no longer have to worry about keeping your WordPress setup up-to-date and secure, as the host does it all for you.
Why Wait? Start Selling Your Digital Products Using WordPress
Selling digital products is how most online entrepreneurs make money these days. I hope this guide showed you how WordPress provides the perfect platform to set up a digital shop.
We discussed the essential plugins for handling payments, downloads, subscriptions, and more.
While it can feel overwhelming initially, take it slow and focus on getting one piece working at a time. Before you know it, you'll have a fully functioning digital store that makes sales a breeze.
So, don't let complexity hold you back, and take the first step today!
