When it comes to WordPress ecommerce, both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are worth the hype, thanks to the facilities they offer to the users. But which to choose? Well, I’d suggest using a calculated approach to decide which platform will complement your store perception.
To assist you here, I’ll conduct a thorough comparison of WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: An Overview
Before I begin the in-depth comparison of WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads (EDD), here’s a brief overview of both platforms and how they operate.
| WooCommerce | Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) | |
| Market Share | 29% of top million sites in the world use WooCommerce | 0.15% of top million sites in the world use EDD |
| Main Features | 49 out of 50 WordPress ecommerce plugin features | 39 out of 50 WordPress ecommerce plugin features |
| User-friendliness | Easy to use, but added functionality might require some technical expertise | Easy to use |
| Pricing | Individual extensions are cheaper | Cost-friendly bundle packages |
| Themes and Design | Large collection of pre-built themes | Smaller collection of pre-built themes |
| Payment Gateways |
|
|
| Security | Highly secure and stable | Highly secure and stable |
| Customer Support | Extended customer support due to the large size of the community | Limited customer support due to the smaller community size |
| Extensions and Plugins | Useful extensions to make the store more functional | Good extensions available |
| Security | Numerous security options due to its reliance on WordPress | Limited security options |
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the undisputed leader of WordPress Ecommerce. It is a free WordPress plugin that converts your WordPress site into a fully functional ecommerce website.
Right after the launch of the plugin in 2011, it became the go-to solution for individuals seeking to set up their online stores. In 2015, Auttomatic bought it for $30 million. Since then, it has maintained its status quo in the ecommerce marketplace.
Easy Digital Downloads
Just like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is also a free WordPress ecommerce plugin, this one created by Pippin Williamson. However, it focuses primarily on digital products.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: Market Share
A platform’s market share determines its popularity. And the more customers a platform has, the more revenue it generates – which means the more it can invest in updates and fixes to improve user experience.
WooCommerce is by far the most popular e-commerce platform, powering 8.5 percent of all ecommerce websites. In fact, if we analyze the top 1 million sites in the world, 29 percent of them use WooCommerce. The numbers show that most shop owners trust WooCommerce to create their online stores.
Of course, Easy Digital Downloads does not even stand close to WooCommerce when it comes to market share. It powers only 0.15 percent of Builtwith’s top million sites.
Verdict
WooCommerce is the clear winner.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: Main Features
The core features of WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are similar. Both platforms have every necessary plugin to integrate a shopping cart into your WordPress website.
These images confirm that WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads have all the necessary shopping cart functionality, from product catalogs to order placement and payment.
For the sake of comparison, I selected 50 WordPress ecommerce plugin features and tested these against WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
The results showed that in WooCommerce, 49 out of 50 features are present, while in Easy Digital Downloads, only 39 out of 50 features are available.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of their features.
Shopping Features
| WooCommerce | Easy Digital Downloads | |
| Coupons and Discounts | Yes | Yes |
| Product Reviews | Yes | Yes |
| Subscriptions / Recurring Payments | Yes | Yes |
| Simple Shipping | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced / Table Rate Shipping | Yes | No |
| Shipment Tracking | Yes | No |
| License Keys / Software Sale | Yes | Yes |
| Manual Purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Cross-sell and Upsell | Yes | Yes |
| PDF Invoices | Yes | Yes |
| Suggestions / Related Products | Yes | Yes |
| Product Comparisons | Yes | No |
Payment Processors
| WooCommerce | Easy Digital Downloads | |
| Paypal Standard | Yes | Yes |
| Paypal Express / Pro | Yes | Yes |
| Stripe | Yes | Yes |
| Authorize.net | Yes | Yes |
| 2Checkout | Yes | Yes |
| WorldPay | Yes | Yes |
| Braintree | Yes | Yes |
| FirstData | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Payments | Yes | No |
| Skrill / Moneybookers | Yes | Yes |
| Google Checkout | Yes | No |
| SagePay | Yes | Yes |
| Mijireh | Yes | Yes |
Email Integrations
| WooCommerce | Easy Digital Downloads | |
| MailChimp | Yes | Yes |
| Constant Contact | Yes | Yes |
| Mad Mimi | Yes | Yes |
| Aweber | Yes | Yes |
| Campaign Monitor | Yes | Yes |
| GetResponse | Yes | Yes |
Invoicing, Shipping, and Misc Integrations
| WooCommerce | Easy Digital Downloads | |
| FedEx Shipping Costs | Yes | No |
| UPS Shipping Costs | Yes | No |
| USPS | Yes | No |
| Freshdesk | Yes | Yes |
| FreshBooks | Yes | Yes |
| FastBill | Yes | Yes |
| QuickBooks | Yes | Yes |
| Zapier | Yes | No |
| Amazon S3 | Yes | Yes |
Niche and Other Features
| WooCommerce | Easy Digital Downloads | |
| Bookings / Time and Date-based Orders | Yes | No |
| 3rd-party Vendors / Product Submission | Yes | Yes |
| Wish Lists | Yes | Yes |
| Address Validation | Yes | No |
| Product CSV Import | Yes | No |
| EU Vat ID Collection | Yes | No |
| Social Discounts (for Sharing or Reviewing) | Yes | Yes |
| Image Watermarks | Yes | Yes |
| Points / Rewards System | Yes | Yes |
Verdict
WooCommerce has more features than Easy Digital Downloads, which implies that in terms of feature versatility, WooCommerce is the winner. That said, while having loads of features might be great, it’s the functionality and relevance that matters.
And both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads have all the necessary features to set up an appealing and functional store. Easy Digital Downloads is primarily suited for digital products, while WooCommerce supports both digital and physical products.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: User-friendliness
Since WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are both WordPress plugins, they are pretty similar to use. Both have user-friendly interfaces and one-click functionality.
I’ll discuss a few usability features in this section to show you how easy they are to operate.
Plugin Installation
It is a straightforward process for both.
To install the WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads plugin, you must have a WordPress website.
For WooCommerce installation, go to the WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search for WooCommerce Plugin > Install Now > Activate
The process of installing Easy Digital Downloads is the same.
Go to the WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search for Easy Digital Downloads Plugin > Install Now > Activate
Adding Products
Adding products to the catalog is the same for both the plugins.
To add the products in WooCommerce, go to the WordPress Dashboard > WooCommerce > Products > Add New
Then you’ll be redirected to the product page, where you can fill in the details for your new product.
Similarly, to add the product in Easy Digital Downloads, go to the WordPress Dashboard > Downloads > Add New
You’ll be redirected to the download page, where you can fill in the details of your digital product.
Checking Analytics
You can check the analytics of both platforms with a single click.
For WooCommerce, go to the WordPress Dashboard > WooCommerce > Reports
For Easy Digital Downloads, go to the WordPress Dashboard > Downloads > Reports
Verdict
Both platforms have similar, easy-to-use interfaces. If you are familiar with one platform, you can easily access the other. So this one is a tie!
But I’ll add that WooCommerce is a much larger plugin with extended functionality. It might be harder for some users to understand and play around with every aspect of these additional WooCommerce features.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: Pricing
Although both plugins are free, most stores would need to pay for extensions to add functionality.
Individual extensions for WooCommerce are generally cheaper than for Easy Digital Downloads. Some extension costs are mentioned in the table below
| WooCommerce | Easy Digital Downloads | |
| Payment Gateways | ~$79 | ~$89 |
| License Cost | ~$129 | ~$199 |
| Recurring Payments | ~$199 | $199 |
However, Easy Digital Downloads also sells budget-friendly packages, which will save you a lot of money. Previously, the bundle was priced at $899, but it’s since been revised to $499.
Verdict
Easy Digital Downloads is a winner because of the pocket-friendly bundle packages it offers. That said, WooCommerce also gives bundle packages; these may not match the value offered by Easy Digital Downloads, but could be suited to your purposes.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: Themes and Design
A visually appealing store will always stand to gain more customers, which means that theme and design directly impact the overall success of your brand or business.
WooCommerce has a large collection of pre-built themes for various store categories and brand ideas. This versatility lets you play with your creative side to develop a customized store.
Easy Digital Downloads has a comparatively smaller number of themes. But, this does not mean that you can’t create a decent store. Many EDD themes are visually appealing.
If you can afford a developer, you can get any theme or design that you want on any platform. If not, WooCommerce might be the way to go.
Verdict
WooCommerce wins.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: Payment Gateways
Both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads support major brands for payment gateways such as:
- PayPal
- Stripe
- net
- 2Checkout
WooCommerce gives free Stripe and PayPal gateways to its users. Easy Digital Downloads gives access to Stripe gateways for $89.
Since WooCommerce is popular enough, it has a broader collection of plugins to support a local payment gateway of your choice. You can therefore choose what payment gateway you want.
Easy Digital Downloads also offers third-party payment method options to its users. However, these are not well-maintained.
Verdict
Without an ounce of doubt, WooCommerce is a winner in this category. Not only does it give access to numerous payment gateways, but it also maintains them regularly to ensure seamless transactions.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: Security
Since both the plugins are WordPress-based, they have similar security options.
The transaction element of both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads is secured through SSL encryption and compliant payment gateways.
You can also take extra precautions by using two-factor authentication and other data encryption methods.
Verdict
It’s a tie. Both plugins are highly secure and stable. The only downside is that the security plugins are costly and they need to be maintained timely. Additionally, as WooCommerce has a larger community, it also has access to more security plugins. Just make sure none of the plugins you install conflict with the site’s theme, other plugins, or the core.
WooCommerce vs. Easy Digital Downloads: Customer Support
Both Woocommerce and Easy Digital Downloads have support documentation to answer common questions. Moreover, users can look up to the highly responsive WooCommerce and EDD communities for any kind of support.
Verdict
WooCommerce wins this parameter for obvious reasons – its larger community of users available to help.
This doesn’t mean that the community and forums are silent on Easy Digital Downloads queries. It’s just that the size of the community for EDD is much smaller than WooCommerce, which gives the latter an edge.
How to Choose Between the Two?
Now that you’ve seen a comparison of both the platforms, which to choose?
The purpose of this comparison wasn’t to tell you which platform is better, but to help you weigh the requirements of your store against the features of each platform. Your decision will come down to the platform that better serves your needs.
I’ll suggest you make your platform choice based on the following factors.
What type of products do you wish to sell?
Will your store sell digital products or physical products? Easy Digital Downloads works only for digital products, while WooCommerce is great for both physical and digital products.
So if your store has physical products, you can only select WooCommerce between the two. If it sells digital products, you might have to consider more factors to make a selection.
What’s the size of your store?
WooCommerce might be the best bet for a well-established brand, thanks to its numerous features which can easily support large stores.
Easy Digital Downloads, on the other hand, is better suited to smaller stores.
What’s your level of technical knowledge?
Maintaining a store can be harder than you think. Some days, you’ll need to get your hands dirty by digging deeper into the code. On other days, you won’t be able to fix the bugs even after multiple trials.
So, if you’re not tech-savvy, WooCommerce might be the best choice for you. WooCommerce has a huge ecosystem, which means if you’re stuck in a problem, there is always someone to help you out with it.
However, with Easy Digital Downloads, this might not be the case, considering the smaller size of its community.
Final Thoughts
The choice of your platform directly impacts the growth and prosperity of the business. So take your time when selecting the platform.
Having said that, there is no objective answer to which platform is the best.
Each store is unique and so is the perception behind it. Carefully evaluate the factors listed above and choose what’s best for you.
Customer Review at 
“Great performance for the price, and plenty of control”
Sean P [SMB Owner]
Liza Rajput
Liza Rajput is a Technical Content Producer at Cloudways. Being a software engineer, she loves to play with data and its processes and wishes to grow and excel in Data Science and Big Data Engineering. She has also been an avid reader and exceptional writer, with sufficient experience in technical, research-based, and creative writing.
