By WP EnhancedFree Downloads EDD Plugin
Allow users to instantly download your free products without going through the checkout.
Free Downloads EDD is the definitive plugin for offering free downloads on your Easy Digital Downloads store. It allows users to bypass the checkout to download your free products, supports single and multiple files, and is highly customisable.
This plugin has been designed for content creators and distributors to fully take advantage of their digital store. Whether you sell audio files, course documentation, software, themes or plugins, Free Downloads EDD allows your visitors to get to your free downloads with ease.
This plugin is safe and rock-solid secure, and everything is handled by your server including authentication, so you don’t have to worry.
Basic Edition
What you can expect in the basic free version.
- Free digital products can be downloaded by your users without going through the checkout.
- Supports downloading products straight from the shop listings pages.
- Built-in support for PDF files.
- Fully supports products with multiple files, with several layout options to choose from.
- Download buttons and links will automatically style to match your theme.
- Add custom CSS and HTML classes to the download buttons and links for extra visual customisation.
How it works
By default downloads that are free will be affected by this plugin.
The plugin works right out of the box as it should, and only requires customising if you want to.
Rather than the Add to Cart button showing on product pages, site visitors will be presented with a download button, or for multiple files on a single product a set of links to each individual file will show. You can customise the experience for your visitors with several display options from links, to buttons, and even checkboxes. Once clicked the file will be securely downloaded automatically. For multiple files, the plugin dynamically creates a zip file that includes all the files for that product, and downloads that instead.
Customisation
The plugin can be customised in several ways including how the download buttons or links are presented, their appearance, should users be logged in, and more. Check out the plugin settings page for everything.
Support
Full supporting documentation is included with the plugin, available on the plugin settings page. There’s a user guide, explanation of every setting, and FAQ with support forum links.
Installation
Manually in WordPress
- Download the plugin ZIP file from WordPress.org
- From the WordPress admin dashboard go to Plugins, Add New
- Click Upload Plugin, locate the file, upload
- In the WordPress dashboard go to Plugins, Installed Plugins, and activate Free Downloads EDD
Manually using FTP
- Download the plugin ZIP file, extract it
- FTP to your server and go to your root WordPress directory
- Navigate to wp-content/plugins
- Upload the parent directory som-free-downloads-edd – the folder that contains the file som-free-downloads-edd.php – to that location
- In the WordPress dashboard go to Plugins, Installed Plugins, and activate Free Downloads EDD
You can customise Free Downloads EDD on the Downloads, Free Downloads dashboard page.
Screenshots
Product with single file
Multiple files (with optional filenames)
Multiple files (with optional checkboxes)
Message shown when "Require login" is set for free downloads
FAQ
Free Downloads EDD always works best with the latest version of Easy Digital Downloads. If there is a backwards compatibility issue, please let us know.
Free Downloads EDD comes complete with a full guide and explanation of the plugin settings. These are available on the plugin settings page. If you need more help, please feel free to post in the support forum.
The short answer is the plugin uses a safe and secure form on the front-end which requests the file. A second round of security checks is performed, and if everything is ok the file is downloaded using the EDD downloader; as well as using the download method you set for EDD (Force Downloads or Redirect).
The product files must have been uploaded to your WordPress site, for example using the EDD Add File option, otherwise the ZIP file will be empty. They will not be included if they are external links.
Once created with either all of the files for a product or a selection of the files, it is temporarily saved in a folder on your server. Every hour that folder is emptied. If you deactivate this plugin, that folder and its contents will be removed.
If you use external file links it is recommended that you use the Links Only display method, if you have products with multiple files.
That depends on your EDD settings.
If you use the Force download method (found in the EDD settings, Misc, File Downloads) for your store downloading, the file paths and URLs will be hidden. If there are multiple files downloaded as a dynamically created ZIP file, regardless of setting, the URLs will be hidden.
If you use the Redirect download method, the full URL may be visible for single files. For example, a PDF. This is the same as it would be without this plugin.
If in doubt and you’re worried test it yourself on your own site, or please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Free Downloads EDD should be compatible with most plugins. If you have a problem please get in touch and we will include support if possible.
Below is a list of plugins offered by WP Enhanced that work beautifully with Free Downloads EDD:
- Strong Passwords EDD
- Frontend Reset Password
Changelog
1.0.4 – 8th March 2023
- Rebranded as WP Enhanced
- Fixed WP tested notice
1.0.3 – 28th August 2018
- Fixed missing file error
1.0.2 – 27th February 2018
- Change to error displayed if ZipArchive is not install. Now shows in Multiple File plugin setting page
1.0.1 – 27th February 2018
- General housekeeping and minor fixes
1.0 – 21st February 2018
- Initial Release