The Free Downloads feature lets you offer digital products for free in exchange for a visitor’s email address (and optionally their name). It’s a popular way to build your email list using lead magnets — free resources like ebooks, sample files, or trial versions that you exchange for contact information. Instead of a standard checkout, visitors see a lightweight popup form. When they submit it, the file downloads automatically and their email is saved to your EDD Customers list.
If you sell plugins or themes and use the Software Licensing feature, Free Downloads extends that further. You can offer a free version of your software, deliver updates to it, and give users a built-in path to upgrade to a paid license when they’re ready.
How It Works for Your Visitors
Here’s what a visitor experiences from start to finish:
- They click the Download Now button on your product page.
- A popup appears asking for their email address (and name, if you’ve enabled that option).
- They fill in the form and click Download Now.
- The file downloads directly, or they’re redirected to a confirmation page, depending on your settings.
- Their email address is saved in your EDD Customers list (Downloads » Customers) with $0.00 Total Spent, so you can see and manage your free download leads.
Installation and Location
After activating the feature, a new Free Downloads section appears under Downloads » Settings » Marketing. No mandatory configuration is needed, though several customization options are available.
General Settings
Button Label and Modal Button Label control the text on the download buttons throughout the process. Both default to “Download Now.”
Additional options:
- Bypass If Logged In: Lets customers who are already logged in to your store skip the popup and download immediately.
- Display Close Button: Displays an X button in the top-right corner of the popup so visitors can dismiss it.
- Agree to Privacy Policy: Adds a checkbox to the popup that visitors must check before downloading.
Fields Settings
By default, only an email address is collected. You can expand the form with these options:
- Collect Name/Require Name: Adds first and last name fields and determines if these fields are required. These pre-fill automatically for logged-in users.
- Show Notes Field: Lets you add a custom title and message inside the popup, useful for disclaimers or download instructions.
- User Registration: Creates a new WordPress user account when someone submits the form.
Note on User Registration: If you have the automatic registration feature active and the Bypass if logged in option is enabled, the user registration form may appear inside the popup under certain conditions. This is expected behavior.
If enabled, the Show Notes field adds two more settings fields which allow you to define a title and message to be displayed to the user in the Free Downloads modal. These can be used to add free-form text of your choosing, such as a disclaimer or personal message to your users.
Processing Settings
Email Verification
The first section under Processing Settings is Require Email Verification.
When enabled, visitors receive a verification email before the download is delivered.
Enabling verification is a good practice if you’re using Free Downloads as a lead generation tool. It filters out bogus and disposable email addresses, reduces spam downloads, and keeps your customer list clean and reliable.
You can customize the verification message text under Downloads » Emails » Free Downloads Verification.
Verification links expire after 24 hours. If a customer contacts you saying their link no longer works, ask them to submit the form again to receive a new one.
Redirect After Download
Below the email verification settings are handler settings. Three options control what happens after a visitor submits the form:
- Purchase Confirmation page: Redirects to your order confirmation page (the thank-you page EDD shows customers after a successful purchase).
- Custom page redirect: Sends the visitor to a specific page you choose.
- Auto-download with page retention: Downloads the file while keeping the visitor on the current page.
Mobile and Apple device behavior can be configured separately. Apple devices do not allow automatic file downloads, so you may want to set a different redirect option for those visitors.
Email Controls
You can disable the standard EDD purchase confirmation email and/or the admin notification email for free downloads, since these transactions don’t involve payment.
Direct Download Link
Enables a direct download link inside the popup so visitors can download without submitting the form. Use this if you want the file to be accessible without requiring an email address.
Cache Settings
When a product has multiple files, the plugin automatically bundles them into a single ZIP archive and stores it temporarily so it doesn’t have to be rebuilt on every download.
The Cache Settings control how that cache works.
Most stores can leave these at their defaults.
- Disable Cache: Turn file caching on or off. If you turn it off, the ZIP archive purge options are also removed.
- Cache Timeout: How long the ZIP file is stored before being rebuilt. Defaults to 1 hour.
Per-Product Settings
Each product in your store has its own Free Downloads settings panel in the product editor. These let you override the global settings for a specific product.
Available per-product options:
- Disable Modal: Skips the popup for this product and delivers the download directly.
- Custom Notes: Adds a note visible to the customer on this product’s download.
- Custom ZIP URL: Lets you specify a custom ZIP file URL instead of having the plugin generate one automatically.
- Purge Cache: Manually clears the cached ZIP for this product. Use this if you’ve updated the product files and want customers to get the latest version immediately.
Bundle Product Support
Free Downloads supports EDD bundle products. Bundle support is opt-in and is enabled per product in the product editor.
When a visitor downloads a bundle, the included files are compressed into a single ZIP archive for delivery.
Honeypot Spam Protection
The popup form includes built-in honeypot spam protection. This runs automatically in the background with no configuration needed. It helps prevent bots from submitting the form and polluting your Customers list.
Integrate Free Downloads with Email Services
Free Downloads can integrate with several email services, and you can see more on that in the video below.
For step-by-step instructions, feel free to check out how-to guide on offering free downloads as lead magnets.
FAQs About EDD Free Downloads
Where do the email addresses collected through Free Downloads go?
Every visitor who submits the form is added to your EDD Customers list under Downloads » Customers. They appear with $0.00 Total Spent so you can easily identify your free download leads and follow up with them.
A customer says their download link isn’t working. What should I do?
If you have Email Verification enabled, verification links expire after 24 hours. Ask the customer to go back to the product page and submit the form again. They’ll receive a fresh verification email with a new download link.
Will free downloads show up as orders in my EDD store?
Yes. Each free download creates a record in EDD with a $0.00 order value. This lets you track who downloaded what and when, without it affecting your revenue reports.
Can I offer a free download without requiring an email address?
Yes. Enable the Direct Download option in Processing Settings. This adds a direct download link to the popup so visitors can download the file immediately without filling in the form. Keep in mind this means no email is collected for those visitors.
The download isn’t working automatically on mobile. Is something wrong?
No; this is expected behavior. Apple devices don’t allow automatic file downloads, and some mobile browsers handle them differently. In Processing Settings, you can set a separate Mobile On-Complete Handler and Apple On-Complete Handler to redirect those visitors to a confirmation page or custom URL instead.
Does Free Downloads work with EDD bundle products?
Yes, with bundle support enabled per product in the product editor. When a visitor downloads a bundle, all included files are automatically compressed into a single ZIP archive for delivery.
Can I use Free Downloads alongside Software Licensing to offer a free version of my plugin or theme?
Yes. Free Downloads is compatible with the Software Licensing feature. You can offer a free version of your software, deliver updates to it automatically, and give users a clear path to upgrade to a paid license when they’re ready.
