WooCommerce vs Easy Digital Downloads: Which Is Best? 

Thinking of selling digital products online? You’ll need the right tools.

Two popular options are WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads (EDD). Both work seamlessly with WordPress, making it easy to create your online shop.

But which one is right for you?

In this guide, I’ll explain the differences between WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll know which platform is your perfect match.

In This Guide:

How I Tested WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads

To help you choose the right platform, I took a close look at both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. I compared their prices, checked how easy they were to use, and explored all their features, especially for selling digital products.

Here’s what I focused on:

• Price: Are they free to use? How much do paid plans cost? What extra features do they include?
• Getting Started: How easy are they to set up? Do they offer helpful instructions?
• Digital Products: Can I easily sell downloads, subscriptions, and memberships?
• Payment Methods: Can customers pay through popular options like PayPal and Stripe?
• Making it Your Own: Can I customize my shop’s design? Do they offer themes specifically for digital products?
• Help When You Need It: Do they have good customer support and online resources?

By comparing these features side-by-side, I was able to see the pros and cons of both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.

Ready to see how they stack up? Let’s compare!

Overview of WooCommerce & Easy Digital Downloads

We’ll start by taking a look at each platform individually, starting with WooCommerce.

What Is WooCommerce?

Created by Automattic (the folks behind WordPress.com), WooCommerce is like the superstar of online stores built with WordPress. Millions of websites use it.

While it started as a platform for selling physical products, WooCommerce has expanded to include digital products too. This means it has everything you need to create and manage a successful online business.

Here’s what WooCommerce brings to the table:

• Complete Online Shop: It handles everything – showing your products, managing shopping carts, keeping track of customer accounts, and processing orders.
• Easy Payments: Accept payments from your customers through popular options like PayPal, Stripe, and more.
• Tools for Physical Products: Keep track of your inventory, set up shipping options, and manage orders – perfect if you sell physical items too.
• Endless Customization: Change your store’s look and add new features with tons of themes and plugins available.
• Built-in Marketing: Run sales and discounts, send marketing emails, and promote your store on social media.
• Track Your Success: See how your store is performing with detailed sales data, understand your customers better, and improve your strategy.

However, because WooCommerce is designed to do so much, it can feel a bit overwhelming if you’re only selling digital products. You might find yourself navigating through settings and features that aren’t relevant to your needs.

What Is Easy Digital Downloads?

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is another big name in the WordPress world, but it focuses specifically on – you guessed it – digital products and downloads. It’s made by the same team behind other popular WordPress tools like AIOSEO and OptinMonster.

EDD is a fantastic alternative to WooCommerce because it’s designed to be easy to use, even if you’re not a tech expert.

Here’s what makes EDD a winner:

• Sell All Kinds of Digital Files: Share your ebooks, software, music, videos, graphics, and more!
• Smooth Shopping Cart: EDD’s shopping cart is built especially for digital downloads.
• Manage Orders & Customers: Easily keep track of orders, downloads, and provide excellent customer service.
• Flexible Payment Options: Accept payments through all the usual suspects like PayPal, Stripe, and others.
• Power Up Your Store: Add more features like email marketing and licensing options with dozens of extensions.
• Lookin’ Good: Choose from professional themes made specifically for showcasing your digital products.
• Sell Subscriptions & Memberships: Easily set up recurring subscriptions or create exclusive member areas.
• Boost Sales with Deals: Offer discounts and coupons to attract more customers.
• Recurring Billing Made Easy: Manage recurring payments for subscriptions and payment plans without a hitch.
• Track Your Progress: See your sales numbers, learn about your customers, and track your store’s overall performance.
• Easy Checkout: Let customers create accounts or checkout quickly as guests.

Important Note: While you can sell physical products with EDD using special add-ons, it really shines when you’re focused on digital goods. If you’re planning to sell both physical and digital products, WooCommerce might be the better option.

WooCommerce vs Easy Digital Downloads

Now that we’ve covered the basics of WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, let’s get down to the details.

What WooCommerce vs EDD Is Best For

Both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads can handle selling physical and digital products, but they each have their strengths.

WooCommerce is best for selling physical products. It’s packed with features to manage inventory, track shipments, and handle all the details of fulfilling orders.

While these features are super helpful for physical goods, they’re not really necessary if you’re only selling digital products.

Easy Digital Downloads, is best for selling digital products, just like its name suggests. It’s designed to make selling downloads, subscriptions, and other digital products super smooth and easy. That’s why digital creators and businesses love it.

Here’s an easy way to think about it: WooCommerce is like a one-stop shop for all things eCommerce, while EDD is like your specialist for selling digital products and files.

WooCommerce vs EDD Setup Process

From my experience setting up both platforms, WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are pretty easy to use. You control both platforms right from your WordPress dashboard, which is a familiar sight if you’re already using WordPress.

Here’s the Easy Digital Downloads dashboard:

And here is the dashboard in WooCommerce:

Both platforms make it easy to get started with helpful setup guides that walk you through the first steps.

However, I found Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) to be smoother, especially for creating a digital-only store. Because EDD focuses on digital products, there are fewer settings to worry about compared to WooCommerce, which has a lot more features.

WooCommerce is really powerful, but it can feel a bit overwhelming to set up at first because it has so many features and options.

WooCommerce vs EDD Payment Gateways

Both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads make it simple to accept payments from your customers. They support all the popular payment gateways, including Stripe and PayPal. And the best part? You can connect to these payment options for free.

For instance, this is how the payment gateway setup looks in WooCommerce:

In comparison, this is what you’ll see in Easy Digital Downloads:

If you want to use a payment processor that’s not as common, no worries. WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads offer tons of add-ons, some free and some paid, that let you connect to many other payment gateways.

WooCommerce vs EDD Templates & Themes

Because both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads work seamlessly with WordPress, you have tons of options to make your shop look fantastic.

You’ll find countless WordPress themes (both free and paid) that work perfectly with either platform. You can even find great themes directly from the WordPress theme directory.

Easy Digital Downloads also offers a hand-picked selection of themes included with some of its paid plans. It also recommends other awesome themes that work seamlessly with its platform.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, boasts a dedicated WooCommerce Theme Store. Here, you can browse specifically designed for eCommerce WordPress themes.

Whether you choose WooCommerce or EDD, you can easily customize your store’s look using popular WordPress page builder plugins. One great option is SeedProd – it’s powerful yet easy to use.

Page builders let you design your store just the way you want it. You can drag and drop elements, create your own templates, and add eye-catching features – all without any coding knowledge.

WooCommerce vs EDD Integrations

WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads also play well with other tools. They both offer tons of add-ons through their websites and directly from WordPress.org, so you can connect your store to all kinds of services.

I was super impressed with the WooCommerce Extensions Store. It has a huge library of add-ons (both free and paid), covering everything from shipping and taxes to accounting – you name it. If WooCommerce doesn’t do it automatically, there’s probably an extension that can help.

Easy Digital Downloads takes a different approach. They have a hand-picked selection of add-ons, and depending on your EDD plan, you can get many of them for free.

I was really interested in their add-ons for software licensing and memberships – they’re perfect for anyone creating and selling digital products.

WooCommerce vs EDD Support

Running into problems with your online store can be stressful. That’s why good support is so important.

The good news is that both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads take care of you.

Both platforms are updated frequently, so you can be sure they’ll always work with the latest version of WordPress and stay safe and secure. Plus, if you need help, you can find tons of tutorials and helpful discussions in online forums for both platforms. The huge WordPress community is also a fantastic resource if you get stuck.

The biggest difference I found was in the direct support offered. Easy Digital Downloads lets you reach out to their team directly and get personalized help, which is a big plus.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, relies on its online resources and the helpful WordPress community.

WooCommerce vs EDD Pricing

Let’s talk about pricing. Both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads offer a free version, allowing you to test the waters before committing to a paid plan.

Both platforms also have premium add-ons to unlock more features. However, their pricing structures are where things get interesting.

EDD is great for starting out because it has a free version. As your business grows, you can upgrade to EDD Pro or choose a bundle package that fits your needs.

Their “All Access Pass” is the best deal – you save a lot compared to buying extensions one by one.

What’s great about EDD is that their pricing is super clear. They tell you the yearly cost upfront and offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.

WooCommerce doesn’t have a paid “pro” version. Instead, you’ll probably end up paying for their premium themes and extensions.

Keep an eye on these costs, as prices can vary from a few dollars a month to hundreds of dollars per year.

What’s Best: WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads?

We’ve looked at a lot of details. So, you’re probably wondering which one comes out on top, right?

Honestly, it’s a tie. The best platform for you really depends on what you need for your online store and your goals.

Here’s a simple way to decide:

• WooCommerce: Go with WooCommerce if you’re mostly selling physical products and need a platform that can grow with your business. It has tons of customization options and a huge library of add-ons, making it great for larger, more complex online stores.
• Easy Digital Downloads: If you’re all about selling digital products, downloads, and subscriptions, EDD is your winner. It’s designed specifically for digital creators and makes getting started super easy.

And here’s the best part: no matter which platform you choose, SeedProd has your back.

SeedProd, a super-easy-to-use WordPress page builder, works flawlessly with both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. That means you can easily create beautiful storefronts, customize your product pages, and build high-converting checkout experiences that match your brand.

Here’s an Easy Digital Downloads product page I created with SeedProd.

And here’s one I made using WooCommerce and SeedProd:

Frequently Asked Questions

Build Your eCommerce Site Today

Choosing the right eCommerce platform is a big decision. WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads offer a lot, each with its own strengths. WooCommerce offers robust versatility, while Easy Digital Downloads provides streamlined simplicity for digital products.

You can easily start building your eCommerce store with SeedProd. It’s drag-and-drop builder and powerful design tools make creating a unique online store simple, regardless of whether you choose WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads.

Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to leave a comment with any questions and feedback.

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Stacey Corrin Writer

Stacey has been writing about WordPress and digital marketing for over 10 years and on other topics for much longer. Alongside this, she's fascinated with web design, user experience, and SEO.

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