Easy Digital Downloads Reviews

Pros

I found EDD through the need to find an e-commerce solution for my Wordpress based site fast. I was having a very bad system implemented, as the makers of the previous platform we used was purely supported and gave us more headaches than smiles.

Via search, I came across EDD and started searching more information.

It was not exactly what I was searching, as our previous solution was acting as a "keeper of records", saving us form the hustle of keeping VAT information and take care of transaction frauds, etc.

EDD has a very informative website and also all my questions towards their support team was answered so fast that made my research easy. We already had a broken webstore and needed a solution faster than yesterday.

Installing EDD on our website was very easy, they have excellent support, solid documentation and they seem open to dialog all the time, which is awesome.

What me and my team liked mostly about the software, was that they provide everything needed to sell your own digital goods, using a system of core elements and plugin extensions, making it very easy to integrate and manage the whole thing.

Anyone already struggling with the management of digital goods on their own stores or having a bad experience with the plugins or providers that they use, should consider switching to EDD.

Cons

Some minor bumps, but I can't really complain, are that EDD needs to keep all products beneath a specific pages category, so in WP you have to have all your products beneath a specific URL structure. This is somewhat limiting, but there are solutions by using extensions to hide the original product page and just use their "buy" button with custom pages of your own. A bit more work, but we can live with that.

They have a bug affecting stores based in the European Union. EDD at the moment cannot calculate discounts correctly when used with VAT calculations and showing prices including taxes. This is sad ans it should be fixed, as it takes away the ability to show the customer/site visitor, the final price on the product page and also be able to offer discounts. This pains in two domains, the ability to show the user final prices - there is evidence from research that adding taxes later on the cart, is one of the main reasons for cart abandonment. And also it takes away the ability to provide discounts like take 3 pay for 2 kind of deals, which are sales boosters. This should be addressed to free us Europeans and enable us to provide same sales experience like our colleagues in the US, that don't have to use VAT.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce, Digital River and Shopify

Reasons for Choosing Easy Digital Downloads

Bad support, bugs, difficult and very outdated interface. We actually felt like we were beta testers and not clients. Answers from their support were coming from their engineers and was abrupt and not helping at all. I'm very sad that we had to switch. We used their platform for 10 years, but lately the service was not the same at all. At the end we had a webstore that wasn't functioning at all.

Switched From

FastSpring

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

Integration with various payment transaction platforms, one of them being Stripe with their excellent fraud radar technology. Full integration with Stripe. Interoperability with WP. Easy management of features through extensions. Different pricing tiers, even free to use, to grow with us. One time payment if you think about it, and if you are just getting started, free.

Pros

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) allowed me to start selling premium WordPress plugins quickly & effectively. Setting up recurring subscriptions with multiple payment gateways and software licensing is usually a complicated endeavor. But EDD made the process very manageable and allowed me to get up and running quickly.

Their support was very helpful when I needed it, but their documentation got me through most of it. And once it's up & running... it JUST WORKS. It's reliable. In 2 years of use, I've had only 1 very small issue, and it was resolved quickly.

I also love how they manage many of their popular, more essential add-ons themselves, instead of leaving it up to third-party developers. There is a great third-party ecosystem as well, but knowing that they built many of their add-ons themselves, and continue to update/support them... that's great piece of mind.

Cons

The reporting is somewhat lacking. The default reporting could be better, and even their Advanced Reporting add-on (which costs more) is not up to par with other software. They're working on this in their next version (3.0, aka 3DD), but they're behind the curve on this.

I'd also like a better system in place for partial refunds. Full refunds are easy via the WP dashboard, but partial refunds are more complicated.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

I talked to a few folks, and for WordPress plugin sales, they said EDD was faster and less complicated than Woo. They also said the software licensing was easier to set up. Since I haven't tried WooCommerce for this purpose, I can't say for sure... but I can say that the speed of my site is excellent, and the set up was indeed pretty straightforward. I wanted something that I could host myself, and customize if/when I needed to, so a more hosted solution like Freemius was not as appealing to me.

Pros

Easy to get things up and running pretty quickly. Works if you have only basic digital download requirements.

Cons

If you pair Easy Digital Downloads with more than a few addons, the bugs start to come out of the woodwork. We run recurring payments with stripe and paypal, along with software licensing and the all access addon. Running these together seems to have bugs that we spend a least a few hours a week tracking down each week.

- All access passes sometimes don't get regenerated on subscription renewals. This means we have to go in an do another manual purchase in order to generate a new pass for them, which throws off our numbers.
- If a customer renews early (to take advantage of a deal), their license expiration and subscription renewal dates get out of sync, which is very confusing for customers. https://cloudup.com/csN5haQFdhZ/f
- Customers sometime are able to cancel another customer's subscription.
- "Your license is about to expire" emails are sent to uses who have upgraded to lifetime licenses.
- No abandoned cart integration - need to use a 3rd party service and pay additional money.
- Customer's purchases are sometimes assigned to the wrong user.

Customer account UI is very difficult for clients to use. We get multiple support requests weekly related to site activations or account-related questions.

Admin UI is very difficult to use.

Takes a lot of time to implement:
- Styling checkout/account pages is all on you.
- Integrating into your plugin/theme is difficult - you need to develop a UI for the user to enter their license key, as well as validate and store it.

Pros

The EDD interface is simple and intuitive, making it easy to set up products, manage orders, and configure settings even if you’re new to WordPress or eCommerce.

Cons

EDD is designed specifically for digital products, so if you need to sell both digital and physical items, its capabilities are limited. You may need to use additional plugins or switch to a more comprehensive eCommerce solution if you want full support for physical goods.

Pros

The best thing about EDD is that it is simultaneously simple to use, but also full-featured for the more complex stores. Setup takes less than 5min for basic functions to get your digital product store up and running. And if you need more features, there are lots of useful add-ons to get you what you need. As compared to other ecommerce solutions I've used, I've never had an easier time getting things set up and running.

Cons

Although it is also a strength, the amount of extensions available for EDD are a bit daunting. It would be nice if it were easier to figure out which extensions you need without having to go one-by-one through all of them and read the features. There are also a handful of extensions that feel lacking in documentation and explanation of what they do.

Pros

Has been out on the wild for years now so is pretty battle-tested. A lot of the bugs have been ironed out. Is totally focussed on digital downloads which simplifies everything. Has a lot of options and there are a whole load of extensions out there so you can do pretty much whatever you with it - everything from sell a single download to setup a whole marketplace with vendors.

Cons

Major updates can be a bit slow. The pricing was updated a while ago to be significantly more expensive. Customer support not always the fastest but usually gets there in the end.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

We like the fact EDD is totally focussed on digital products and we put our trust in the CEO (Representative) to ship good code.

Pros

The software licensing system is par to none. With a few added lines of code to your downloadable software, you can manage customer licenses with extreme precision.

Cons

While super powerful, there is a learning curve. That said, it's worth it as it will save you time and money in the long run with your business.

Alternatives Considered

Lime License Manager

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

I chose EDD because it can be easily implemented into our WordPress site, which we use to sell our products.

Pros

I love this plugins ease of use and setup. It’s so much easier to sell digital products with this over woo commerce. I recommend it to anyone selling or distributing plugins!

Cons

Lack of shortcodes and some up to date documentation. It’s really hard to find shortcodes in the docs, i had to write a lot of my own that are small but should be in core.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

It had the most features and was easy to use, and customize.

Pros

It's very easy to use, even for beginners & non techs

Cons

I wish it would provide options for selling a service ( i.e. book an appt)

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

I am only selling a few digital products, so I wanted something easy to use. Back when I started online (2003), there weren't very many options and products needed t be posted manually. creating the PayPal button & getting the code- very time consuming. Thankfully WordPress and then Easy Digital Downloads makes it so much easier & quicker to sell products online. I also use EDD to sell coaching, consulting, & trainings as well.

Pros

Value is great - the all access pass is preferable to the "death by a thousand cuts" WooCommerce model.

Stable codebase with backwards compatibility prioritized lends itself to stability and maintainability.

Software licensing module is solid.

Free mobile app!

Cons

Legacy menu naming (assuming "download" vs other digital products is unfortunate but livable.

Payment History vs. Orders take some adjustment time.

Pace of development is fairly slow compared to WooCommerce.

Default product templates are a bit on the light side feature wise.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

Cost, maintainability, supporting independent shops

Pros

I like the simplicity of using the software, no complications in product setup and configuring payment gateways. The extra add-ons makes us easy for providing our customers, a professional and most appealing experience. Overall, EDD reduces our overall stress over running a complex e-Commerce system.

Cons

1. As digital products need product supporting. It is better to have a separate licencensing or pricing option for support with renewal facility.
2. The addition of product update notification email to customers is required in the free version apart from Software licensing add-on.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

As it is dedicated to Digital products and the main development focus is based on digital products only.

Pros

It's very easy to use and offer a lot of needed functionality

Cons

The reporting can be improved but I've seen that's coming in EDD 3.0

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Choosing Easy Digital Downloads

Wanted Software licensing for my products

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

It offered everything I need at the best price.

Pros

Just as the name goes, likewise this application is very easy to use. You can easily integrate it into applications like WordPress. It has numerous extensions and addons to use and is compatible with many popular payment methods.

Cons

Not suitable for physical products which I will really like to use.

Pros

The software just works. Nine extensions have been added to create the functionality needed - free downloads, email capture etc. Inevitably there have been hiccups - such as the Dropbox extension creating a duplicate folder if the original folder has spaces in the file name - but CS has addressed the issues quickly.

Cons

1) Lack of email integrations. Yes there are a few integrations for Mailchimp etc. but the "big players" have LOTS of problems from predator pricing to overly complicated to poor user interface. And some of the extensions do not work with the Free Downloads - but that is not stated and only discovered after wasting huge amounts of time installing, configuring, troubleshooting and then abandoning.

2) Not clear if Free Downloads and Paid Downloads can work side by side - so opted to use another service for paid downloads. Forcing free downloads through a checkout would be a terrible user experience. Because of the challenges discovering what email extensions actually work with Free Downloads, did not want to invest and potentially waste a lot of time configuring and troubleshooting what may well not work.

Pros

This is a fantastic product, supported by a dedicated and skilled team. The software is at the heart of my small digital download-based business and does absolutely everything I need it to.

Cons

Some of the reporting features could be improved, but I believe this will be sorted in the next major release.

Pros

I am a developer and I am using this product from 9+ years. I can say this is only the solution for your digital store.

Simple Setup and Easy to use for any end user
Well and Descriptive Documentation
Rich with Features
Add-on which helps for your digital store
Easy to integrate with other APPS like Mailchimp, Zapier and etc

Cons

As a developer I have not seen any cons in this,

If you want to integrate it with other Apps then you can go with built-in add-ons or you have basic knowledge of WordPress and coding.

Pros

Very easy to set up and start selling digital products via WordPress. It has many add-on and connections so you should be able to do whatever workflow or payment processer you need.

Cons

The reporting even with the advanced reporting is lacking and many times does not match the payment processer. I suggest using a third-party reporting tool such as Putler if you have a high-volume site.

Pros

Very light as software, with a good impact on performances. Very well handcrafted, with code clean and well documented. Easy to use and customize. Newbies or customers low skilled in technology can use it. Experts could find all they need to build complex systems or functionalities to sell digital goods. I love EDD.

Cons

Costs of payment gateway (third party): the same one for WooCommerce is free.

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Reasons for Switching to Easy Digital Downloads

Because of the focus on digital products.

Pros

Very easy to set up. In comparison to woo, night and day in setup time

Cons

It's not as extendable as woo. It's great at what it does but can be limiting

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Pros

I have used Easy Digital Downloads for say 2 years now and I love the seamlessness, no shut down and ease of use setting up once's personal marketplace.

Cons

Maybe it's developers can make it more responsive

Pros

Software is easy to use especially if you're a non-techy like me.

Cons

Many times I was tempted to use other software because of the delivery of the products. It is always land in spam.

Pros

Ease of use & Easy Integration with WordPress along with the Flexibility of using other addons.

Cons

UX can be improved. Try merging common fields & give more control to users(keep extra fields disabled by default)

Pros

Payments Solutions, Software Licensing, Recurring Payments and Set up WordPress auto-updates are the BEST.

Cons

Probably nothing so far :)

It's hard to say on Cons.

Pros

Ease of setting up a webshop for digital products

Cons

No simple VATMOSS integration for users who need it

Alternatives Considered

WooCommerce

Pros

user friendly about step to use and download the selling product

Cons

maybe can improve about design/ui style, like have a theme manager or builder so we can custome the style like company style