This list shows you WordPress shopping cart plugins that can manage selling downloadable products. However, if your online store sells downloadable products exclusively, I would recommend you create a membership site instead.
The best plugin in this category is Cart66.
You can click on the name of the product below to view its full review.
Shopp
Handling downloadable products isn't Shopp's strong suit. You are able to upload files when you're creating a new product in the plugin, but the upload mechanism is buggy. The alternative is that you upload the product yourself, via FTP, and protect the upload directory using your web-server administration mojo.
Shopp
Handling downloadable products isn’t Shopp‘s strong suit. I couldn’t get it to consistently upload files as the upload mechanism is buggy. The alternative is that you upload the product yourself, via FTP, and protect the upload directory using your web-server administration mojo. However, once you are done with the uploading part, which most people will probably do less frequently, Shopp provides various options to control the download. From the ’Store Preferences’ section you can set how many times the buyer can download the product after purchase, and the expiry time for the download. You can also restrict the buyer to download the product only from the IP from which it was purchased.
Cart66
Cart66 provides excellent support for selling digital products, such as music, ebooks, or software. First, you specify a non-web-accessible folder to store your files, like something higher level than public_html/, www/, htdocs/, or whatever your host calls it. And then go to the products creation screen and upload the file.
You can limit the number of possible downloads but you can't set an expiration time for the download link.
Screenshot: Cart66 adding a product, includes digital product screen
Screenshot: Cart66 settings page, includes digital product settings
GetShopped (WP e-Commerce)
GetShopped allows you to add downloadable products to your site – products such as e-books, software’s, images etc. While creating new products you need to upload the digital files to your upload directory. Users can then download the relevant product immediately after checkout. However there are not many options to control the file download. You can only limit the total number of downloads per product and lock the IP from where it was downloaded, not of much use really.
The files will be uploaded to a special sub-directory in your 'wp-content' directory, and will be protected from unauthorized access.
eShop
eShop handles digital downloads pretty well. First, it provides you with a form to upload files to your wp-content/eshop_downloads directory, which eShop protects from direct access. Then, you simply create a product and link it to the file you just uploaded. When the customer buys the product, they'll be able to login to your site and download the files. You can specify the number of times they can download the files.
MarketPress
It is possible to sell digital products with MarketPress. When you add a new product in MarketPress, you can specify a URL for a file to include. The file is uploaded to your wp-content/uploads directory without any protection. As long as you don't reveal the actual location of the file to the customer, you'll be fine.
When a customer purchases a downloadable product, they'll be given a unique link from which they can download the product for a limited number of times. You set the download limits in MarketPress options.
Tribulant Shopping Cart
It is possible to sell digital goods with Tribulant Shopping Cart. Unlike most other shopping cart plugins where you upload the file while you're creating the product, file upload in Tribulant Shopping Cart happens in its own dedicated screen. You upload the file and assign it to a product you have previously created.
Unfortunately, you cannot set an expiration date or limit the number of downloads for files.
Market Theme
Market Theme, by itself, doesn't have the ability to facilitate the selling of downloadable products. You would have to use a e-junkie along with Market Theme to offer digital goods on your Market Theme-powered site. There's a how-to on Market Theme's forum explaining how to do that.
YAK
While it is possible to sell downloadable products with YAK, the process feels a bit crude. For example, you have to upload your files manually to a non-web accessible directory. Then you give YAK the full path to the file after you have created and published the product.
Uploading and selling a digital product with YAK requires visiting several screens and performing some tweaks that some users may find intimidating.
ShopperPress
It is possible to sell digital product via ShopperPress, but the software doesn't provide enough tools for managing downloadable products. You have to upload your products manually in the designated downloads folder and then specify the name of the uploaded file when you're creating a product. You cannot limit the number of downloads or provide an expiration period for the download. On top of that, there is not enough documentation on how to setup your ShopperPress site to handle downloadable products.
DukaPress
Selling digital products with DukaPress is possible, but it's not really intended to be used for digital products. Securing digital downloads requires adjusting your web server settings and stuff.
wpStoreCart
It is possible to sell downloadable products with wpStoreCart, but the plugin has no means of protecting your uploaded files. And you cannot set an expiration date for the download links or limit the number of downloads per sold product.
Templatic Ecommerce
It is possible to sell digital goods with Templatic Ecommerce, but you have to choose whether you only want to sell digital goods or physical goods. You cannot sell both from the same Templatic Ecommerce store.
Once you've turned on the ability to sell digital goods, you can go to the add product screen to publish your digital product. You will have to provide a path to the downloadable file or upload it from add product screen. Unfortunately, the software doesn't protect the files from direct access.
Jigoshop
Jigoshop allows you to sell digital products, which is ideal for selling ebooks, MP3 files, software products or any other file the customer should be able to download after purchasing your product.
Downloadable products are different from other regular products in that:
a. No shipping charges are required
b. A file you specify is available for immediate download after purchase
c. Can allow unlimited downloads or a specific amount of downloads
d. File can be downloaded through an internal secure URL
e. Allow external and internal URLs for the download path
Zingiri Web Shop
Zingiri Web Shop offers the ability to sell digital/electronic products along with the normal physical ones. This allows you to sell products such as MP3 files, ebooks, PDF documents, training videos, or software packages. The purchase process for the digital product and the physical product is the same. However after payment, the customer will be given access to download the digital product file from the products inventory from the control panel.
TheCartPress
TheCartPress allows you to sell digital products, which is ideal for selling ebooks, MP3 files, software products or any other file the customer should be able to download after purchasing your product. Although it is not as streamlined as other plugins like Jigoshop. You can set how many downloads are allowed per purchase and the days after which the download will expire.
WP Online Store
WP Online Store allows you to sell digital products. You can set maximum downloads per purchase and the days after which the download will expire. By convention, all the downloads are required to be stored in a particular folder of WP Online Store. Once the checkout is successfully completed the user will be presented with a download link for the purchased product.
Creating digital product is a bit involved, however some help is provided by the authors.
I’m putting a webstore together for an artist who wants to sell whole albums (not track by track) — which plug in best supports that feature? Thanks
I have Cart66 setup, but I’m just able to do tracks one by one.. Would creating a zip file work?
Alison
Hi Alison, It doesn’t make a difference whether you wanna sell and entire album or a single track, if the album is bundled in a zip folder. Yes, I think Cart66 is great for this, you just have to put all the files together in a zip folder. Alternatively, you may look at membership plugins where, for each album, you create a protected page that the purchaser can access and download the files. Best membership plugin for this is probably eMember, combined with eStore.
Great! Thanks for your response!
I tried jigoshop since it sounded pretty good, but there were some pretty major glitches that the support team said they would respond to within 1 day… after a week those of us waiting for a response gave up and are looking elsewhere. My advice: give them some time to work out their bugs before recommending them!
Hey, there’s a new plugin out call JigoShop. Planning to add to your site?
Hi Mike, Yes, I definitely plan to add Jigoshop to the list sometime in the future. Are you involved with Jigoshop in any way or what’s your opinion of it?
Not involved at all, just heard about it and wonder if you’d still recommend Cart66 over it.
Just FYI, my company builds, markets, supports and maintains WordPress plugins for companies that distribute to their customers and clients, and currently I’m a moderator over at WordPress Answers.
That’s very interesting. What’s your company and WordPress Answers’ websites so we can read more about them? Thanks!
WordPress Answers: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/
My Company (NewClarity LLC): Cobbler’s children currently go barefoot.
We plan to address soon, as soon as we can get past all the urgent client work we have! In the mean time just click the link on my name.
Nice!!