In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through how to install and activate the Easy Digital Downloads plugin.

• Downloading the Easy Digital Downloads plugin
• Installing Easy Digital Downloads on Your Site

Note: This tutorial is intended for brand new installs of Easy Digital Downloads (Pro). If you are upgrading from the free version of Easy Digital Downloads, please see our tutorial on how to upgrade to our paid plugin from EDD Lite for more details.

Downloading the Easy Digital Downloads (Pro) Plugin

To get started, first log in to your Easy Digital Downloads account. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll see your dashboard, and you link to download the Pro version.

This will show you a page with all of your available passes. To download the plugin, click on the Download Easy Digital Downloads (Pro) button next to one of your licenses. This will save a zipped file of the plugin to your computer.

Note: In some cases, this file may unzip as you download it, and instead appear as a regular folder. However, the folder must be zipped to use the WordPress plugin uploader. For more details on how to zip and unzip files, be sure to check out these guides for Windows and Mac operating systems.

For now, you don’t have to download any of the extensions, since you’ll be able to easily install and activate extensions from inside your WordPress dashboard later.

Installing Easy Digital Downloads on Your Site

Once you’ve downloaded your zip file, go ahead and navigate to the site where you’d like to install Easy Digital Downloads. Then, inside the admin dashboard, go to Plugins » Add New and click the Upload Plugin button.

From here, you’ll see the option to upload the plugin. Click on the Choose File button and select the Easy Digital Downloads zip file you just downloaded.

After your file is uploaded, click on the Install Now button.

This will begin the installation process for you. Once the plugin is installed, click on the Activate Plugin button to activate Easy Digital Downloads on your site.

After activating the plugin, be sure to activate your EDD (Pro) license key to receive automatic updates and plugin support. Adding your license key will also allow you to easily install and activate EDD extensions from inside your WordPress dashboard.

That’s it! Once installed and activated, you’ll be guided through our Setup Wizard which will have you up and running in a matter of minutes, so you can start selling your products today!

The post Easy Digital Downloads Quickstart Guide first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Easy Digital Downloads for Digital Media

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) was built from the ground up to sell downloads; software, ebooks, music, etc. Options, features, and addons are built specifically to help you sell your digital products.

Easy Digital Downloads for physical products

EDD is designed for selling digital products, but if you wish to sell simple physical products, there is an extension for that. If you are selling advanced physical products, consider using an alternate eCommerce solution

Basic Terminology

To get a grasp on some of the terms used in Easy Digital Downloads, read through their descriptions here:

• Downloads (or Products) – In various places these terms are used interchangeably. A download is a product. It is the ‘thing’ that is available for sale.
• Payment  – A payment is typically recorded whenever money is paid (even if the amount is $0). A single payment can contain multiple different downloads (or products)
• Sale – The term sale is only used in relation to a single product and is recorded when a payment is made that contains that product. For example, if a single payment contained 3 different products, each product has a sale recorded.
• Customer – A customer profile is created when a payment is completed. Think of this as a place where all of a single person’s payments are listed together. It also holds some of their personal information – like the customer’s email addresses, their name, custom notes, and more.
• User – Users are a part of WordPress core but Easy Digital Downloads makes use of them in connection to customers. Each customer can have a user attached to it. This is what allows a customer to log in to view their account. Each user has a username and password (whereas customers do not).
• File Downloads – Each time a file is downloaded by one of your customers, a file download is recorded so you can track how many times a product (or download) is downloaded. This is found in various places including under Dashboard → Downloads → Reports → Logs → File Downloads.

Product Options

Here are some of the capabilities that products have:

• Product Title
• Product Description
• Variable pricing
• Easy uploading of media right on the product admin page
• Custom notes that can be added to receipts
• Single or bundled products
• Categories
• Tags
• Download limits (how many times a buyer may download the item they purchased
• On the admin page for each item, you can see sales and earnings data

Payment Gateways

EDD has many dozens of payment gateways available, from a variety of sources. Here are just a few of the common ones:

• Stripe
• PayPal
• Authorize.net
• Braintree

Please browse the links below to see if it supports the gateway you need.

• Official EDD Add-Ons Store
• WordPress.org Plugin Repository
• CodeCanyon

Product Delivery

When a product is purchased the customer is presented with a purchase confirmation page. It contains details of the transaction as well as download link(s) so the customer may immediately download the product.

In addition, two emails are sent, one to the customer with a receipt and download link and one to the store owner with sale details.

Customer Email

This email functions as a receipt and contains BOTH financial details as well as a download link to the product(s) purchased.

Seller Email

This email alerts the store owner to a purchase and includes sale details.

Both of the above emails may be configured via the Downloads Settings area. This allows the store owner to decide how much detail is included in each.

Templates

WordPress has a standard convention for templates in plugins. A plugin may have its own set of templates in its own folder but may look first in the active theme folder for templates. EDD follows this standard and has a templates folder in

/wp-content/plugins/easy-digital-downloads/templates

These templates may be copied to a theme folder and placed in a folder called

/edd_templates

Then those templates get used by the theme rather than the EDD core templates.

Shortcodes

EDD has a number of shortcodes that are well documented.

• [downloads] – shows a list or grid of downloadable products
• [download_history] – shows a list of all products the current user has purchased, including download links.
• [purchase_history] – shows a complete purchase history for the current user, including download links
• [download_checkout] – shows the checkout form.
• [purchase_link] – displays a purchase button for the specified download ID
• [download_cart] – shows a shopping cart on any page or text widget.
• [edd_profile_editor] – shows a profile editor for logged-in customers.
• [edd_login] – shows a login form
• [edd_register] – shows a general account registration form

Discounts

EDD has a built-in system for providing discount codes. They can:

• be a percentage or flat rate
• match product-specific requirements before taking effect
• have an expiration date
• have a limited number of total uses
• be limited to one use per customer

Additionally, there are many Discount addons in the EDD store to enhance this functionality.

Reports

EDD offers reports in a number of formats. On the main reports page, there’s a chart showing earnings over time, with options for varying time spans.

Reports can also be exported in a variety of formats:

• Sales and Earnings in PDF format
• Sales and Earnings Stats in CSV
• Payment History in CSV
• Download History in CSV

There’s also a real-time log page listing:

• File Downloads
• Sales
• Payment Errors
• API Requests

Importing

EDD settings from another site may be imported, and Sales and Products may be imported with the EDD CSV Manager.

Exporting

As mentioned above, several different kinds of reports may be exported. Additionally, EDD settings, sales, and products may be exported with built-in tools under Downloads → Tools.

Miscellaneous

• EDD supports discount codes.
• Default styles can be disabled with a Settings switch, making it easier to use custom styles if you wish
• EDD has flexible national, international, and local tax settings
• There’s a TESTING switch, so you can safely process orders without actually having to move money around.
• There’s a very extensive add-ons library

Easy Digital Downloads Server Requirements:

Click here to see the current server requirements and recommendations.

Note: We recommend you test all updates on a staging site before applying them to your live site.

The post Easy Digital Downloads Introduction first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install EDD (Pro).

1. Install EDD (Pro)
2. Activate Your License Key
3. Installing EDD (Pro) Manually

Installing EDD (Pro) Automatically

Once you’ve purchased a license, you can upgrade to EDD (Pro) by adding your license to your download settings. This will install EDD (Pro) for you.

Activating Your License Key

Note: Activating your key is the same whether you have the free version of EDD or EDD Pro.

To start this process, you’ll need to log into your WordPress site. Then go to Downloads > Settings. On this screen, you’ll see a field for your license key.

To find your license key, log into your Easy Digital Downloads account in another browser tab or window. Your license key is listed with your pass on the main screen of your account:

Copy the license key; paste it into the EDD settings and click the Verify License Key button.

To begin the installation process, you’ll need to click the Connect and Install Easy Digital Downloads (Pro) button.

Next, the pro plugin will be automatically installed for you (this may take a few moments). Once it’s all done, you’ll see a success message.

Note: If the automatic installation fails, your host may have restrictions that prevent it from running. You’ll need to manually install the paid version of the plugin instead.

After you click the OK button, you should be redirected back to the Easy Digital Downloads settings for your WordPress site. The pro version of EDD is all set and ready for you to use!

You should see that your license key has already been verified, and key license data will be displayed.

You can now Install Extensions directly from your WordPress site.

Additionally, you will no longer need to enter a license key for individual extensions covered by your pass; they’ll be covered by the license automatically.

Installing EDD (Pro) Manually

To get started, log into your EDD account. Just click on the Download Easy Digital Downloads (Pro) button next to your active pass. This will save a zipped file of the pro plugin to your computer.

For now, you don’t have to download any extensions, since you’ll be able to easily install and activate extensions from inside your WordPress dashboard later.

Once you’ve downloaded your zip file, go ahead and navigate to the site where you’d like to install EDD (Pro). Then, inside the admin dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New (1) and click the Upload Plugin (2) button.

From here, you’ll see the option to upload the plugin. Click on the Choose File button and select the EDD (Pro) zip file you just downloaded. After your file is uploaded, click on the Install Now button.

This will begin the installation process for you. Once the plugin is installed, click on the Activate Plugin button to activate EDD (Pro) on your site.

After activating the plugin, be sure to activate your EDD (Pro) license key to receive automatic updates and plugin support. Adding your license key will also allow you to easily install and activate EDD extensions from inside your WordPress dashboard.

That’s it! You can now begin using EDD (Pro) on your WordPress site.

The post How to Upgrade from EDD Lite to Pro first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install and activate addons in Easy Digital Downloads.

1. Accessing the EDD Extensions Page
2. Installing and Activating Extensions
3. Frequently Asked Questions

Before getting started, you’ll first need to make sure that Easy Digital Downloads Pro is installed and activated on your WordPress site and that you’ve verified your license.

1. Accessing the Easy Digital Downloads Extensions Page

In your WordPress admin area, navigate to Downloads » Extensions to view the addons available with your license level.

If you don’t see any extensions for your license level, click on the Refresh Extensions button to force a refresh.

To search for a specific addon, you can type its name into the Search Extensions field located in the top-right corner of the page.

2. Installing and Activating Extensions

To install a specific extension to your site, simply click on the Install button.

This will automatically install and activate the extension for you. Any extension that’s installed and ready to use will show Activated.

Click the Gear Icon at the top-right of the extension box to open that extension’s settings.

You may deactivate an extension at any time by clicking on the switch next to Activated status. To reactivate an inactive addon, click on the switch next to the Deactivated status.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are some of the most common questions we see regarding installing and activating extensions in EDD.

How do I install extensions manually?

In some cases, you may see an error in EDD that says, “Could not install the extension.”

To do so, log in to your EDD account and go to the Account Dashboard (tab). On the page, you will have the Download Extensions link in the bottom section after your license details.

Then click Download Now for the extension you want to install.

Upload the downloaded .zip file to WordPress and activate it like you would a normal plugin. For more information on installing WordPress plugins, check out this WPBeginner tutorial on installing WordPress plugins.

That’s it! You can now install and activate your extensions.

Downloading Extension(s)

EDD’s paid extensions are not available via the WordPress.org Plugin Directory. They need to be downloaded from our site after you have made a successful purchase. There are several ways to access extension files:

• Your email receipt will either have download links or instructions on how to access our site.
• If you purchased a pass, you can access extensions via your account by following the steps above.
• If you purchased extensions individually, you can access extensions via your account by going to the File Downloads tab.

After Installing

Once you’ve installed and activated your extension, there are several things you should do.

Activate Your License

If your extension has a license key you’ll want to go to
Downloads > Settings > Licenses and enter the key there. If the extension does not require a key, you can skip this step.

Read the Documentation

Each extension sold by Easy Digital Downloads comes with complete documentation. You can find all our documentation by going to https://easydigitaldownloads.com/docs.

The post How Do I Install an Extension first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Note: EDD pages that require a shortcode can use the equivalent block in place of the shortcode. Not all shortcodes have block equivalents.

EDD Buy Button

The EDD Buy Button is a simple block and adds a single purchase button for a specific download (will show price options for a variable download). It can be used anywhere.

EDD Cart (Widget)

The EDD Cart is intended to be used in the WordPress widgets, but can be used anywhere blocks are supported. The block can display as a mini cart (showing just quantity/total) or a detailed cart which resembles the cart on the checkout page.

Block Settings:

Mini Cart will present a cart icon, number of items and total. When disabled, a ful cart will be presented, listing added products and amounts.

Hide When Empty will hide this block if no items have been added to the cart.

Hide on Checkout will hide the block when visiting the checkout page.

Link Cart to Checkout will add a link to your checkout page.

Show Number of Items in Cart will present the number of items added to cart.

Show Cart Total will present the total cost of items in cart.

EDD Checkout

The checkout block is intended to be used on the Checkout page in place of the [download_checkout] shortcode. This has improved design over the shortcode and is aware if the user is logged in.

EDD Confirmation

This block is very similar to the receipt block but should not be used in its place, as it does not include details from subscription information, for example. This is an updated version of [edd_receipt] but only used on the order confirmation page. It cannot be used on the order receipt page (use the EDD Receipt block instead).

EDD Login

The EDD Login block allows you to add a login form to any page.

EDD Order History

The Order History block displays the purchase history which is intended to be used on a customer account page.

EDD User Downloads

The User Downloads block displays a list of files available to the customer for download. This block replaces the [download_history] shortcode. Available block settings:

Show a Search Form: When enabled, a search form will appear at the top of the block. This feature is only available for Easy Digital Downloads (Pro) users.
Show Product Variation: If your product variations have access to the same file(s), you may want to hide this.
Hide Products With No File: When enabled, products with no files will not appear in the list.

EDD Products

The EDD Products block displays your product(s) with rows and columns. It is a replacement for the [downloads] shortcode. There are a number of block settings available to customize how your products are laid out.

EDD Receipt

The receipt block is a detailed receipt and the order is similar to the shortcode, although all markup has been redone for improved responsiveness. It’s intended to be used on the “Receipt Page” (previously “Success Page”).

When viewing the receipt block as a user who is not logged in, you should experience one of two flows:

• If the purchase does not have a user ID associated (it’s a guest purchase), you can enter the purchaser’s email address to confirm the order and can view all details.
• If the purchase does have a user ID associated with it then you will get a login form.

EDD Registration

The EDD Registration block presents a WordPress user registration form.

EDD Download Terms (Categories / Tags)

The EDD Terms block displays download categories or tags. Visitors can click the Category / Tag name and view products within that term.

The post WordPress Blocks for Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

In this article, we’re show you where to find common features from the Gumroad platform within Easy Digital Downloads so that you can easily start selling your products yourself.

Gumroad Product Types

Easy Digital Downloads is perfect for selling all forms of digital products and services. Many of the custom product types offered on Gumroad can be created as a ‘Download’ by going to the Downloads section and clicking ‘Add New’.

Some of the product types that are available in Gumroad require features only available with the Pro version of Easy Digital Downloads.

Membership

The membership product type is equivalent to a Subscription in Easy Digital Downloads and requires the Recurring Payments feature. Additionally with the Content Restriction feature can be used to restrict your site content based on a user’s purchase history.

Both Recurring Payments and Content Restriction are available in the Extended Pass.

Physical Good

While Easy Digital Downloads is designed to sell digital products, we do recognize that you may want to offer a limited number of physical products. For that we have our Simple Shipping feature, which allows you to offer flat rate domestic and international shipping for these products.

Simple Shipping is available in the Professional Pass.

Creating your product

Nearly all of the features in Gumroad have a one-to-one matching feature in Easy Digital Downloads when creating your product. Below is a visual guide of where to insert specific Gumroad product settings into your Easy Digital Download product.

Discount codes

Easy Digital Downloads offers stand-alone discount code management. Discount codes are not tied to a single product and have advanced features to allow you to offer your customers discounts on all products, specific products, and even exclude products. They can also be set with features like:

• Starting and Expiration dates.
• Percentage or Flat Rate
• Included and Excluded products
• Single user per customer
• Max uses
• Maximum discount amount
• Custom name (to make it easier to manage your discounts)

To create your discounts in Easy Digital Downloads, you can head to Downloads > Discounts > Add New. You can also read our full documentation on discount codes.

Accepting Payments

Easy Digital Downloads has partnered with Stripe and PayPal to offer you multiple ways to accept payments including Credit Cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal Credit, and many other available options. Once installed head to Downloads > Settings > Payments, and you can take payments with Stripe and PayPal with our one-click connection.

Additional Features

While we’ve covered the basic settings needed to create your products in Easy Digital Downloads, there are additional features that Easy Digital Downloads also offers. Below we’ve outlined these features, with the Easy Digital Downloads equivalent.

Easy Digital Downloads is a fully self-hosted eCommerce Platform that you can add to your WordPress powered site. Self-hosted means that all your data is yours, and is stored on your server. Either way, if you already have a WordPress site or are ready to get started with a new WordPress site, head over to our getting started page, and you can start selling today.

The post Migrating to Easy Digital Downloads from Gumroad first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Using Gumroad?

If you’re looking to migrate from Gumroad, we’ve written a comprehensive and visual guide about how to quickly sell your products with Easy Digital Downloads.

Squarespace

For a basic store that consists of one-time purchases (not subscriptions), you can follow this guide. If you have subscriptions, it will require a different process. You can reach out to our support team for specific instructions.

1. Export Products From Squarespace: https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000694948-Exporting-products-to-a-csv
2. Import Products to EDD: https://easydigitaldownloads.com/docs/importing-exporting-products/
3. Export orders from Squarespace: https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206540677-Exporting-orders
4. Import Orders to EDD (includes customers). Note, to update the products to make sure they match your EDD products: https://easydigitaldownloads.com/docs/importing-exporting-orders/

The post Migrate to Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

NOTE: these prices are very loose estimates, and should not be taken as a guarantee in any way.

Hosting

Easy Digital Downloads requires WordPress, which needs to be run on a server on the internet. Website hosting for WordPress can range in cost from as little as $5/mo US to hundreds of dollars per month US. You’ll need to find the price and feature set balance that fits your store.

A very low budget host can be great for setting something up and seeing if it will be successful, but if you start getting regular significant traffic it will almost certainly be worth your while to pay more for hosting with faster servers, more bandwidth, and more features.

WordPress hosting recommendations are available here.

Domain Name

Your website will need a domain name. These can be purchased at a wide variety of places and used at almost any host. Prices range from $5/yr to $50/yr for mainstream top level domains like .com,.org, et cetera. More boutique top level domains like .tv, .fm, et cetera can cost hundreds of dollars.

SSL/TLS Certificate

This is a digital certificate that encrypts the information transferred between your customers and your server.  It makes the little lock appear in the browser.

Prices for an SSL Certificate can range from free to several hundred dollars, based both on feature set and where you purchase. Often your web host will sell them, that’s a great place to check. It might be worth paying slightly more to get it from your host for the convenience.

Static IP Address

Often a static IP address is required to have an SSL certificate. This is a numerical address for your site, and usually looks something like this: 10.32.18.134

Prices for this can range from free to $50/mo, depending on the host you use.

Payment Gateway

In order to get paid you’ll need to have a payment gateway. This allows money to move from the customer to your bank.

Easy Digital Downloads includes Stripe & PayPal for free, but also have additional paid payment gateway extensions.

Here’s our introduction to payment gateways.

Payment Gateway Fees

Many payment gateways charge both a percentage of the sale as well as a small flat fee per transaction. This may be as little as 2.5% + 30 cents US per transaction, but can also be more. Paying more usually means you have more features, so don’t simply assume cheapest is best.  Shop around and see what’s available.

Here’s our introduction to payment gateways.

Further Reading

We have also written even more extensively about this topic on our blog:

• How much does it cost to setup a digital eCommerce site?
• How much does it cost to run a digital eCommerce site?

The post How much does it cost to run a digital eCommerce store? first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.