Easy Digital Downloads vs SendOwl
We give Easy Digital Downloads a 2.2 GPA and SendOwl a 2.4, out of 4.0. Easy Digital Downloads grades higher on the free plan. SendOwl grades higher on features and ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Easy Digital Downloads
WordPress plugin for selling digital downloads from your own site
SendOwl
Checkout and delivery for downloads, licenses and subscriptions
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAEasy Digital DownloadsFair | 2.4GPASendOwlFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CThe free Lite plugin adds a 3% fee to Stripe sales: $30 on $1,000, plus the cost of hosting WordPress, which isn't on record. Extended at $399 a year drops the fee. Software that's free only if you host it yourself counts as a C here. | CLaunch stops at $10k of sales a year, less than a year of $1,000 a month, so it's Grow at $72.50 a month billed yearly, with no cut: $72.50. That's close to this category's dearest tenth. Stripe or PayPal fees come on top and aren't counted. |
| Free plan and trial | BLite is free on WordPress.org with unlimited products and transactions, so you can run a real store on it. Not an A: it needs a WordPress site on a paid host, and subscriptions and discount codes need a pass. | CNo free plan. There's a free trial with every feature but a limit on orders until support lifts it; the listing gives no length and doesn't say it needs a card. |
| Features | CStore, cart and checkout, then subscriptions, content restriction, license keys, a multi-vendor marketplace and cart recovery on paid passes. A broad kit, but it needs a WordPress site to be useful, and much of it sits on Professional at $599 a year. | BDownloads, subscriptions, drip courses, license keys, streaming, PDF stamping and locking, upsells, cart recovery, affiliates and tax calculation, all on every plan. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the job. |
| Ease of use | DNo rating on record. You host it yourself: a WordPress site you run, or a WordPress.com business plan, plus yearly licence renewals to keep support and updates. | CNo App Store rating on record. It's built to plug into your own site or Shopify, so there are carts, checkout templates and payment accounts to wire up first. |
| Platforms and integrations | BRuns in the browser inside WordPress, with Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, Zapier, Mailchimp and Elementor, and an API on Professional. No phone or desktop app is listed. | BWeb, with Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, Square, Zapier, Mailchimp, Kit and WordPress, plus webhooks and an API. No phone or desktop app is listed. |
| Best for | selling files from your own WordPress site | adding digital delivery to a site you already run |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Easy Digital Downloads and SendOwl. How we grade
Price against what you get
Easy Digital Downloads starts at $16.58 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. SendOwl starts at $0.83 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.7.
SendOwl scores higher and starts $15.75 a month lower. Of the other tools for selling digital products on the chart, 7 score higher than Easy Digital Downloads for less, and 2 score higher than SendOwl for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Easy Digital Downloads starts at $199 per year at renewal, after a first year for $99.50. SendOwl starts at $32.50 per month for up to $10k sales a year, billed annually ($39 monthly).
- Easy Digital Downloads has a free plan. SendOwl does not, though it has a free trial.
- SendOwl also covers affiliate tracking.
At a glance
| Easy Digital Downloads | SendOwl | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $199 per year at renewal, after a first year for $99.50 | $32.50 per month for up to $10k sales a year, billed annually ($39 monthly) |
| Free plan | The Lite plugin is free on WordPress.org with unlimited products and transactions and Stripe and PayPal checkout; Stripe sales carry an extra 3% fee in the free version. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | Free trial with all features but limits on orders until support lifts them; length not stated |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Sandhills Development, LLC | SendOwl |
| Price read from | easydigitaldownloads.com | sendowl.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Easy Digital Downloads
- WordPress site owners who want to sell files from their own site
- Plugin and theme makers who need license keys and updates
- Sellers who want no platform fee once on a paid pass
SendOwl
- Sellers adding digital delivery to a site or Shopify store
- Software sellers who need license keys issued at checkout
- Creators who want every feature without a cut of each sale
Worth knowing
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.
SendOwl
- No free plan; plans are capped by orders and sales over the trailing 12 months, and going over moves you up a tier.
- Downloads past the monthly bandwidth allowance cost $1 per GB; the pricing page gives two different allowances for Launch and Grow.
- Stripe or PayPal processing fees come on top, and SendOwl acts as a technology provider rather than the merchant of record.
- Business plans, from $299 a month, are needed once yearly sales pass $100,000.
Key features
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.
SendOwl
- Checkout anywhere
- Payment links, an embeddable cart, a modal checkout, three checkout templates and custom fields, with custom CSS and JavaScript.
- Many digital product types
- Downloads, subscriptions, bundles, courses with drip content, software with license keys, streaming audio and video, pre-orders and tip jars.
- File protection
- PDF stamping with the buyer's details, PDF and Office document locking, download and time limits, and fraud filters.
- Sales tools on every plan
- Upsells and cross-sells, cart abandonment emails, an affiliate program, coupons, pay-what-you-want pricing and gifting.
- Integrations and API
- Stripe and PayPal, with Apple Pay and Klarna through Stripe; Shopify, WordPress, Notion and Linktree; Zapier, webhooks and an API.
- Tax and reporting
- Automatic sales tax and EU VAT calculation, tax reports by country, and reports on income, subscriptions, upsells and affiliates.
Plans
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.
SendOwl
Launch$32.50
per month for up to $10k sales a year, billed annually ($39 monthly)
Up to 5,000 orders a year, unlimited products and storage, and every feature. 10 GB of download bandwidth a month on the plan card (20 GB in the FAQ).
Grow$72.50
per month for up to $36k sales a year, billed annually ($87 monthly)
Up to 25,000 orders a year, with every feature. 20 GB of bandwidth a month on the plan card (30 GB in the FAQ).
Scale$132.50
per month for up to $100k sales a year, billed annually ($159 monthly)
Up to 50,000 orders a year and 50 GB of download bandwidth a month, with every feature.
Business$299
per month and up, for up to $200k in sales a year
Business plans for higher volumes, up to $5M+ in yearly revenue, with priority support.
Ways to pay less
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.
SendOwl
- Annual discount
Two months free with yearly billing
SendOwl's pricing page gives two months free on yearly billing: Launch $32.50 a month instead of $39, Grow $72.50 instead of $87, Scale $132.50 instead of $159.
