Easy Digital Downloads vs Envato Market (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Easy Digital Downloads if

• Fits if you already run a WordPress site and want to sell files from it
• Works for plugin and theme makers who need license keys, on Professional at $599 a year

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you don't want to look after a WordPress site and its hosting, which isn't priced here
• Pricey if you budget on the first-year price, as passes renew at double, from $199 a year for Personal
• Tight if you stay on Lite or Personal: platform fees apply until Extended at $399 a year, 3% of Stripe sales on Lite
• Pricey if you want licensing, the API, a marketplace or a second site, which start on Professional at $599 a year
• Watch out: canceling a license ends support and updates, and you lose your locked-in price

Pick Envato Market if

• Fits if you want a ready-made theme or template for a single site
• Works for developers who resell work and need to know exactly which license applies

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: a Regular License allows one end product, and a product users pay for needs the Extended License
• Skip it if you want many downloads for a flat fee, as that is Envato Elements, a separate product
• Watch out: standard licenses do not allow reuse inside stock items or templates you sell on
• Not for you if you are selling and need fee figures first, as author fees and payout terms could not be read

Easy Digital Downloads

• It needs a WordPress site you run yourself, or a WordPress.com business plan, which allows third-party plugins.
• First-year prices are introductory: passes renew at full price, from $199 a year for Personal.
• The free version and the Personal pass do not include no-platform-fees; EDD's blog puts the free version's Stripe fee at 3%.
• Licenses renew yearly; cancelling ends support and updates, and you lose your locked-in price.

Envato Market

• Author fees, commission rates and payout terms could not be read: Envato's author help pages block automated reading, so none are listed here.
• A Regular License allows one end product, and a product that end users pay for needs the more expensive Extended License.
• Standard licenses do not allow an item to be reused inside stock items or templates sold on to others.
• The unlimited-download subscription is a separate product, Envato Elements, and is not part of this marketplace's pricing.

Easy Digital Downloads

Store on your own WordPress site

Unlimited products, a cart and checkout inside WordPress, with full ownership of your store data and Elementor checkout templates.

Payments

Stripe, PayPal and Square in the free plugin, Apple Pay listed on every paid pass, and Authorize.net and 2Checkout from Extended up.

Subscriptions and memberships

Recurring payments with free trials and setup fees on paid passes, plus content restriction for members from Extended up.

Software licensing

Issue license keys and deliver updates for plugins, themes and other software, on Professional and All Access.

Marketplace and commissions

Run a multi-vendor marketplace and pay commissions to sellers, on Professional and All Access.

Marketing tools

Discount codes, abandoned cart recovery, cross-sells and upsells, AI product recommendations and syncing with Mailchimp, ConvertKit and others.

Envato Market

Wide item catalog

Browse themes and templates for WordPress, HTML, Shopify, Webflow, Figma and more, plus code, video, audio, graphics, photos and 3D files.

Per-item pricing

Each item has its own price, shown in US dollars and excluding tax and handling fees. Individual authors set the prices.

Regular and Extended licenses

A Regular License covers one end product that is free to its users; an Extended License is needed when end users must pay to use the product.

Author rankings and collections

Buyers can follow authors, see top authors and top new files, and save items to public collections.

Market API

Envato publishes a Market API for working with the marketplace programmatically.

Affiliate program

The site links to an affiliate program for people who recommend items to others.

Easy Digital Downloads

• Lite$0

  Free plugin from WordPress.org that you run on your own WordPress site. EDD adds a 3% fee to each Stripe transaction in the free version.

• Personal$199

  per year at renewal, after a first year for $99.50

  1 site, subscriptions and free trials, discount codes, EU VAT, AI recommendations and cart recovery. Platform fees are not waived on this pass.

• Extended$399

  per year at renewal, after a first year for $199.50

  1 site, no platform fees, Authorize.net and 2Checkout, multi-currency, content restriction, bundles, reviews and Zapier.

• Professional$599

  per year at renewal, after a first year for $299.50

  2 sites, adds software licensing and API, a multi-vendor marketplace with commissions, shipping, post-purchase funnels and premium support.

• All Access$999

  per year at renewal, after a first year for $499.50

  3 sites, every extension, including loyalty rewards, fraud prevention, advanced reports and bulk discount codes.

Envato Market

Pricing could not be confirmed. See themeforest.net.

Easy Digital Downloads

• Other savings

  Half price in the first year

  EDD's pricing page shows introductory first-year prices of half the regular rate, from $99.50 for Personal; renewals are at full price.

Envato Market

No public discounts listed.