Is Easy Digital Downloads Free? What You Pay For and When
Is Easy Digital Downloads free? What the free plugin includes, the 3 percent fee on card payments, what each paid pass costs and when a service seller needs one.
Yes, Easy Digital Downloads is free to install and has no limit on products or orders. Running a store on it is not free. On the free plugin, card payments carry a 3 percent fee per transaction on top of your payment provider’s own fee, and features such as subscriptions, licensing and a multi-seller marketplace come with the paid passes. This guide separates what costs nothing, what costs money, and when each cost starts.
It is written for someone who sells services or digital products and wants a straight answer before choosing a plan. Prices were read on Easy Digital Downloads’ own pricing page on 12 October 2026, and the fee was checked in the plugin’s own code, version 3.7.1.1. Prices change, so open the pricing page before you budget.
In this guide:
- What the free plugin includes
- The fee most people miss
- What the paid passes cost and add
- What happens at renewal
- The costs that have nothing to do with the plugin
- What a store that sells services needs to budget for
- When does paying for a pass make sense?
- Questions people ask
What does the free plugin include?
More than most people expect. The free plugin on WordPress.org describes itself as having unlimited products, unlimited transactions and no listing fees. On the day we checked it showed version 3.7.1.1, updated on 6 October 2026, on more than 40,000 active sites.
From its listing, the free plugin gives you:
- A shopping cart and a checkout.
- Payments by card, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay through its Stripe and PayPal connections.
- Customer records and order history.
- Sales and revenue reports.
- Discount codes with expiry dates and product limits.
- Protected file downloads.
- Product variations and bundles.
That is a complete small store. You can list a product, take a payment and deliver a file without buying anything. The listing itself calls the free plugin the “lite version” of Easy Digital Downloads Pro, which is where subscriptions, software licensing and content restriction live.
How to check what you are running
In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins and find Easy Digital Downloads. If it says “Easy Digital Downloads” you are on the free plugin. If it says “Easy Digital Downloads (Pro)” a paid pass is active. The version number is on the same line.
What is the fee most people miss?
On the free plugin, payments through the built-in Stripe connection carry an extra 3 percent per transaction. That is separate from Stripe’s own processing fee, which you pay as well.
We checked this in the plugin’s code and not in a forum post. In version 3.7.1.1 the Stripe gateway sets an application fee of 3 percent, and its settings message reads “3% per-transaction fee + Stripe fees”. The code applies the fee when there is no valid licence on the site. The same wording appears for Square, and the PayPal connection has a “pay as you go” message of the same kind.
The pricing page says the same thing from the other direction. “No Platform Fees” is listed on the Extended, Professional and All Access passes. It is not in the feature list of the Personal pass. If you are choosing Personal mainly to remove the fee, ask Easy Digital Downloads to confirm what applies to your payment method before you buy.
What 3 percent means in money
Monthly sales | Platform fee at 3 percent | Over a year |
|---|---|---|
$500 | $15 | $180 |
$1,000 | $30 | $360 |
$2,000 | $60 | $720 |
$5,000 | $150 | $1,800 |
These figures leave out your payment provider’s own fee, which you pay on every route.
The break-even sum
The Extended pass, the lowest one that lists “No Platform Fees”, is normally $399 a year. Divide that by 3 percent and you get about $13,300 of card sales a year, or roughly $1,110 a month. Below that level, the fee costs you less than the pass. Above it, the pass pays for itself on the fee alone, before you count any features. At the introductory price of $199.50 the first-year break-even is about $6,650 of sales, or roughly $555 a month.
How to check your own position: open your sales report, take the last twelve months of card sales, and multiply by 0.03. Compare that number with the price of the pass.
What do the paid passes cost, and what do they add?
Easy Digital Downloads sells four yearly passes. These are the prices on its pricing page on 12 October 2026. The page shows an introductory price for the first year and states that “all renewals are at full price”.
Pass | First year (introductory) | Normal yearly price | Sites | What the page highlights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Personal | $99.50 | $199 | 1 | Subscriptions and free trials, EU VAT compliance, abandoned cart recovery, revenue reporting, standard support |
Extended | $199.50 | $399 | 1 | Everything in Personal plus “No Platform Fees” and more extensions |
Professional | $299.50 | $599 | 2 | Adds software licensing, a multi-vendor marketplace, commissions and payouts, premium support |
All Access | $499.50 | $999 | 3 | The full set of extensions |
The page also states a 14-day money-back guarantee with no questions asked. We have summarised the feature lists, so read the full comparison on the pricing page for the extension you care about. The tier that includes a given extension is the only detail that matters when you buy.
Which features sit behind a pass?
The ones a growing store tends to want:
- Recurring payments. Subscriptions and free trials are listed from the Personal pass.
- Selling in other currencies and regions. EU VAT compliance from Personal, multi-currency on higher passes.
- Other sellers on your store. The multi-vendor marketplace, commissions and payouts are listed on Professional and All Access.
- Software licence keys. Listed on Professional and All Access.
- More payment providers. Authorize.net and 2Checkout are listed from Extended.
What happens at renewal?
The pass renews every year at the normal price, not the introductory one. The pricing page’s own answer is that licence keys are subscription-based and renew automatically each year, and that if you cancel you lose access to support and updates.
So budget on the normal price. A Personal pass is $99.50 this year and $199 next year. An Extended pass is $199.50 and then $399.
What if you let a pass lapse?
- Updates and support stop. That is what the pricing page says. Updates include security fixes, so a lapsed store slowly becomes a riskier store.
- The platform fee can return. The plugin’s code checks for a valid licence. From our reading of version 3.7.1.1 there is a short grace period after expiry, and then the 3 percent fee applies again.
- What to do: put the renewal date in your calendar two weeks early. Decide then whether you are keeping the pass, changing tier or dropping it.
What costs have nothing to do with the plugin?
A free plugin still needs somewhere to run. These apply to every WordPress store, whichever shop plugin you choose.
Cost | When it starts | How to keep it down |
|---|---|---|
Hosting | Day one | A modest plan is enough for a new store. Pay for more when visitors need it |
A domain name | Day one | Register it in your own name, with your own email |
Payment processing | Your first sale | Set by your payment provider. Read its fee page for your country |
A theme | Day one, if you choose a paid one | Free themes work. The pricing page lists an Elementor integration if you build with that |
Email delivery | When receipts start going to spam | A mail service with a free tier is usually enough at first |
Backups and upkeep | Day one | Your host may include backups. Updates cost your time or someone else’s |
Other add-ons | When you need a feature no pass covers | Buy for a problem you have today, not one you might have |
We are not quoting hosting or processing prices here, because they depend on your country and your provider.
What does a store that sells services need to budget for?
Easy Digital Downloads was built to deliver files. A service is different: after payment you need a brief from the buyer, a conversation, files going both ways and a clear moment of delivery. The free plugin has none of that, and neither do the passes, as far as their published lists show.
That gap is what our team’s add-on fills. EDD Sell Services works on top of Easy Digital Downloads. According to its product page, the buyer answers your requirement questions after payment, chat and shared files and a status tracker live on the order, and you attach the final file and mark it delivered, followed by a rating. The page lists plans from $59 a year for one site.
Here is a realistic first-year budget for one person selling services, using only prices from the pages linked in this guide.
Line | Lean start | With a pass |
|---|---|---|
Easy Digital Downloads | $0 (free plugin) | $199.50 first year (Extended) |
Platform fee on card sales | 3 percent of sales | None listed |
Services add-on | $59 | $59 |
Hosting, domain, payment processing | Your provider’s prices | Your provider’s prices |
The lean start is the right one for a new store. You pay the 3 percent only on money you have earned, and you move to a pass when the sum in the break-even section tells you to.
If you have not chosen a shop plugin yet, we compare the two main options for service sellers in Easy Digital Downloads vs WooCommerce for Selling Services. For the full setup, see How to Sell Services With Easy Digital Downloads, Start to Finish.
When does paying for a pass make sense?
When one of these is true.
- Your card sales pass the break-even. Roughly $1,110 a month at the normal Extended price, by the sum above.
- You need recurring billing. A monthly care plan or retainer needs subscriptions, which start at the Personal pass.
- You sell to buyers in the EU and need VAT handled, which the pricing page lists from Personal.
- You want other people to sell on your store. That is the marketplace feature on Professional.
- You need support from the plugin’s own team. Paid support comes with a pass.
When to stay on the free plugin
- You are testing whether anyone will buy.
- Your sales are below the break-even and you need no paid feature.
- You take payment mostly by bank transfer or invoice, where the card fee does not apply.
A mistake to avoid
Buying the top pass on day one “to have everything”. You will use a small part of it in year one, and it renews at the normal price. Start on free or the lowest pass that has the one feature you need, and move up when you hit a real limit.
Questions people ask
Is Easy Digital Downloads free forever?
The free plugin has no time limit and no product or order limit. It is open source and available on WordPress.org. What can change over time is which features are in the free version and what fees apply, so check the listing and the pricing page once a year.
Does Easy Digital Downloads take a percentage of sales?
On the free plugin, yes, for card payments through its built-in connections: 3 percent per transaction, in addition to the payment provider’s fee. The pricing page lists “No Platform Fees” from the Extended pass upward.
Can you avoid the 3 percent without buying a pass?
Not on the built-in card connections, as far as the plugin’s code shows. Payments that do not go through them, such as a manual bank transfer you record yourself, do not have a card fee to add to. For any real volume, the cleaner answer is the pass.
Is the Personal pass enough for a service seller?
It adds subscriptions, which you need for recurring services. It is not listed with “No Platform Fees”, so confirm the fee position before choosing it over Extended.
Do you lose your store if you stop paying?
No. Your products, customers and orders stay on your own site. You lose updates and support, and the paid features that need an active licence. Take a backup before any change of plan.
Is Easy Digital Downloads cheaper than WooCommerce?
It depends on what you add. WooCommerce itself takes no percentage, and many of its extensions are sold one by one. Easy Digital Downloads has the 3 percent on its free tier and sells its extensions in passes. For a service seller the difference is usually smaller than the difference in how each one fits your work.
Can you get a refund on a pass?
The pricing page states a 14-day money-back guarantee. Use those 14 days to set up the one feature you bought the pass for.
If you are setting up a store to sell your time, the EDD Sell Services pricing page lists the plans for the services add-on, and we cover the checkout itself in Customizing the EDD Checkout Page Without Breaking Updates.
