Starting an online store? Trying to choose between Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce?
We get it, it’s a BIG decision!
It can be overwhelming, and picking the wrong plugin could complicate things later.
But fear not! This Easy Digital Downloads vs WooCommerce comparison will help you make an informed decision.
We’ve used both EDD and WooCommerce on lots of websites, so we know them well.
We’ll share exactly what you need to know about ease of use, design options, features, and cost.
To make things more interesting, we’ll introduce another contender – SureCart.
Quick Comparison: WooCommerce vs Easy Digital Downloads
Before we get into the details, let’s have a quick rundown of Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) and WooCommerce.
| EDD | WooCommerce | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plugin type | Self-hosted | Self-hosted | Headless |
| Ease of use | Easy and traditional layout | Overwhelming interface | Modern, simple and self explanatory |
| Customization | Limited options | Customizable with extra plugins | Fully customizable |
| Features | Requires addons and pro plans for all features | Requires addons for advanced features | Most advanced features built in, on every plan |
| Cost effective | Depends on your needs | Depends on your needs | Free (2.9% fee) or Pro from $199/yr |
| Support | Quality in-house support | Forums and community for experienced users | 24/7 email support on every plan |
Easy Digital Downloads vs WooCommerce: In-depth Comparison
Now you know a bit about the contenders in our EDD vs WooCommerce comparison, let’s dive deeper into the review.
If you love watching comparison videos, we’ve made one for you to explain WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
1. EDD vs. WooCommerce: How They Work
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) and WooCommerce (Woo) are full-service eCommerce solutions.
By “full-service,” we mean they handle almost every aspect of eCommerce, including:
- Creating and managing products
- Shopping cart functionality
- Payments
- Product fulfillment (EDD)
- Coupons/discounts
- Reports/analytics
However, they differ in how they work, which can have a lasting impact on performance.
Understanding these differences now can save you a lot of time and hassle in the future.
Let’s start with the basics.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce plugin available for free in the WordPress repository.
It’s a self-hosted solution that turns your WordPress website into a fully functional online store.
This means you are fully responsible for hosting and managing your eCommerce store.
Once installed, it adds basic eCommerce functionality so you can sell physical and digital products.
For advanced features, there are lots of free and premium addons in the WooCommerce official store. You can also find more addons from different marketplaces.
What makes WooCommerce so popular is its ability to manage a store of any size and type.
From a personal store with a few products to a marketplace with hundreds of products, WooCommerce has the power to make it happen.
The plugin was initially developed by WooThemes in 2011 mainly for selling physical products.
It was later acquired by Automattic (the company behind WordPress) in 2015.
Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads, commonly known as EDD, is a self-hosted eCommerce plugin.
It was primarily developed to sell digital products such as eBooks, software, appointment bookings, and online courses.
However, if you need to sell physical products online, you can do so using an addon.
Like WooCommerce, you can install EDD’s basic version for free on your website and start selling.
For more advanced features, such as receiving donations and managing subscriptions, you will need addons.
EDD maintains an official store where you can pick the required addon, though most of them are part of EDD’s premium plan.
Alternatively, you can also buy addons from third-party developers.
EDD was developed in 2012 by Sandhills Development LLC, founded by Pippin Williamson.
Pippin is a well-known name in the WordPress community with several products to his credit. His company also creates products like AffiliateWP and Restrict Content Pro.
SureCart
SureCart is a headless eCommerce solution that addresses several user pain points.
A headless solution hosts the back end of your store on a secure server and the storefront on your website.
Because checkout, payments and store data run on SureCart’s managed platform, your WordPress site carries less of the load as your store grows.
Unlike WooCommerce and EDD, SureCart offers many “most wanted” features out of the box.
For example, you don’t need extra plugins for:
- Subscriptions
- Coupons or order bumps
- Automatic sales tax and VAT calculation
- Multiple payment processors
- Store branding
- Affiliate programs
- Licensing
What’s more, you can comfortably sell both digital and physical products without a plugin. It’s built to handle all types of products.
SureCart launched in 2022 and is built by Brainstorm Force, the team behind Astra, CartFlows and OttoKit.
It was designed to bring checkout, subscriptions and revenue tools into one plugin, without the add-on stack most WordPress stores rely on.
Verdict: It’s a tie. Both Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce are based on the traditional self-hosted mechanism, so they work almost similarly.
But if you want a more advanced option, SureCart’s headless approach is way ahead.
2. Which Is Easier To Manage?
All three eCommerce plugins simplify day-to-day tasks like adding products and showing them on product pages.
However, there are a few differences.
After you’ve installed WooCommerce with the help of a setup wizard, you’ll find a traditional layout where the user interface may look a little overwhelming.
If you’re a beginner, you’ll need to learn a little about how everything works before tweaking things in the setting area.
For instance, if you want to tweak products related settings, you might need to deal with at least 5 sub pages before you get to what you want.
But the trend seems to be changing in 2024.
WooCommerce seemingly has started to walk away from its overwhelming product page to a modern looking product form, just like SureCart.
This fresh look is in the beta stage which you can change to go back to the old layout if it doesn’t work for you.
Easy Digital Downloads also features a quick setup wizard. Since the plugin is focused on a niche, you only need to deal with 4 steps.
You can skip the whole thing and go straight to the settings area to configure things later if you prefer though.
Since the primary focus is to sell digital products, there are fewer pages to deal with.
As a result, the settings area is less cluttered and easier to manage unless you’ve added additional features.
SureCart is a modern approach that is simple for all skill levels. The installation and setup of the plugin is pretty straightforward.
If you have installed a WordPress plugin before, you can install SureCart.
The short setup wizard quickly walks you through a few meaningful steps that include connecting the SureCart server to your store.
Even though it offers a lot of features out of the box, the dashboard stays clean and organized, so you can find what you need without digging through settings pages.
For example, the product page is a single form where you add all product information such as pricing, images, taxes, product type, and more.
You can control almost everything a product needs from this single interface.
It’s a well-thought-out form where everything is refreshingly easy to use.
Verdict: EDD wins! Easy Digital Downloads keeps things nice and tidy. Finding options and adding products is easier – no need to mess with lots of options.
Did you notice SureCart takes things a step further with a sleek, modern interface? Everything is easy to find and use, making it effortless to manage your store.
3. Which Offers Better Design and Customization?
WooCommerce, being the most popular eCommerce platform, offers plenty of ways to achieve a unique design.
You get thousands of free themes to get a design you want. But if you’re looking for a more professional look, use an official theme or compatible theme such as Astra.
Astra theme is deeply integrated with WooCommerce since the 3.9 update.
Both ways give you a complete makeover of your store in just a few minutes.
What’s great about Astra is you get a huge number of Starter Templates. They cover lots of different use cases and work seamlessly with WooCommerce.
If you want to stick to your existing theme and modify the checkout process only, here are some of the ways to take control:
- WooCommerce built in blocks (very limited customization options)
- External plugins such as Cartflows (full control)
- Page builders like Elementor and Spectra have dedicated blocks for WooCommerce
- Manual code (require coding skill)
Note: WooCommerce cart and checkout blocks are incompatible with some WooCommerce extensions. For instance, if you are using After Pay or Google Analytics Pro extensions, the blocks may not work for you.
Easy Digital Downloads mainly relies on themes for customization.
Even though you can tweak EDD blocks in the page editor, a third-party theme is better.
Unlike WooCommerce, EDD has a very few dedicated themes on WordPress.org but you can find plenty of them directly from developers.
Astra has EDD-compatible Starter Templates too. They create a powerful duo!
Astra works seamlessly with Easy Digital Downloads and helps you achieve some impressive layouts.
For instance, its eBooks store Starter Template works perfectly for EDD. You can personalize areas such as product archive, product page or checkout page.
When it comes to SureCart, customization is a no-code experience.
SureCart comes with a number of built-in options to customize different aspects of your store.
You don’t need an extra plugin to tweak your design either, although it’s compatible with page builders and third-party themes.
For instance, if you want to customize your default checkout page, you can alter the size, fonts, colors of almost every element.
With SureCart, it’s much easier to implement best practices for creating high profit checkout forms.
What’s more interesting is that you can use pre-made checkout form templates to replace your default form.
You can even set different checkout forms for different product types!
For instance, your physical products can have a single-column form, while your digital products can use a form with a different design.
Similarly, if you want to control the overall branding of your store, that’s also doable from the settings area.
SureCart has a dedicated Design & Branding page which allows you to add a logo, set a color scheme or make your cart more engaging.
Above all, SureCart is a product from the team that also makes Astra.
With this theme making experience, it’s no wonder SureCart is super compatible with nearly every popular theme out there!
Verdict: WooCommerce is the winner here. It lets you personalize your store with the help of plugins. This might require some work or a bit of coding knowledge with EDD.
SureCart also shines here with all the customization built in.
4. Which Offers More Features?
When you are choosing between WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, core features are nothing to worry about.
If a feature isn’t a part of the core plugin, you can add it through an addon or extension.
Both plugins have a long list of free and paid extensions built by in-house teams.
There’s also a huge range of addons on marketplaces or 3rd party developer websites.
Since WooCommerce is owned by Automattic, the plugin can work with JetPack to add marketing and security features.
Thanks to its popularity, WooCommerce definitely has more addons and 3rd party plugins than EDD.
Here’s the catch:
- A large number of available plugins doesn’t mean you need all of them on your website
- More plugins on your site mean you need extra resources to maintain website performance
- The more plugins you use, the more care you need to take to keep everything secure
This brings us a list of standard features that most eCommerce stores might need.
We will also highlight where a plugin needs an addon for a feature.
Product Types
| WooCommerce | EDD | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital products | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Physical products | Yes | Addon | Yes |
| Services | Yes | Addon | Yes |
| Donations | Addon | Addon | Yes |
Shopping Features
| WooCommerce | EDD | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product listing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Product variations | Yes | Not available | Yes |
| Manual purchase | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Installments | Addon | Addon | Yes |
| Subscriptions/recurring payments | Addon | Yes | Yes |
| Pay what you want | Addon | Addon | Yes |
| License keys | Addon | Addon | Yes |
| Advanced shipping | Yes | Not available | Yes |
| Coupons and discounts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cross sell/upsell | Yes | Addon | Yes |
| Refund | Addon | Yes | Yes |
| Reviews | Yes | Addon | Yes |
Payment Processors
| WooCommerce | EDD | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Addon | Yes | Yes |
| PayPal | Addon | Yes | Yes |
Sales/Marketing
| WooCommerce | EDD | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliate program | Addon | Addon | Yes |
| Abandoned cart management | Addon | Addon | Yes |
| Email management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Search engine listing | Addon | Addon | Yes |
Verdict: It’s a win for WooCommerce! You can add desired features to both EDD and WooCommerce stores, but the number of addons available for WooCommerce far exceeds that of EDD.
The question is: Do you want all those features and potentially deal with managing a lot of plugins, or prefer a solution like SureCart that offers everything built-in?
5. Which Plugin Is More Cost Effective?
There is no easy answer to which eCommerce plugin is more cost-effective.
WooCommerce is free to use. Easy Digital Downloads has both free and pro versions.
Both also have competitively priced addons available for almost similar features. But they differ in some places.
For instance, if you want to set up recurring payments on Easy Digital Downloads, you need at least the “Extended Plan” that costs $399/year ($199 in the first year).
For the same feature, the WooCommerce Subscriptions addon costs $279/year.
In this case, EDD looks more cost effective because of several other features it bundles with the plan, but this is just one case.
Similarly, the Abandoned Cart Recovery addon for WooCommerce costs $79/year whereas Easy Digital Downloads uses the Recapture addon that starts from $29/mo.
Sound complex?
Now here comes our alternative – SureCart!
The plugin follows a very straightforward pricing strategy. Every plan, including the free Launch plan, includes the same features, such as:
- Subscriptions and installments
- Failed payment retries
- Order bumps and upsells
- And more
The free Launch plan charges a 2.9% SureCart transaction fee on each sale. Pro plans remove that fee and start at $199/year for one store.
If you’d rather pay once, Pro lifetime access starts at $699 for one store, with an 11-month split pay option.
Now, let’s get back to the cost effectiveness of all three. Remember, we earlier mentioned some standard features for an eCommerce store?
Let’s now put the price on relevant features.
Note: We’ll put a $0 price tag for the features that are included in the free version. In case it’s a part of an annual plan, we’ll mention the plan name.
Product Types
| WooCommerce | EDD | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital products | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Physical products | $0 | Professional pass | $0 |
| Services | $0 | All access pass | $0 |
| Donations | $99/yr | $69/yr | $0 |
Shopping Features
| WooCommerce | EDD | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product listing | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Product variations | $0 | Not available | $0 |
| Manual purchase | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Installments | $99/yr | Extended pass | $0 |
| Subscriptions/recurring payments | $49/yr | $0 | $0 |
| Pay what you want | $59/yr | Extended Pass | $0 |
| License keys | $129.99/yr | Professional pass | $0 |
| Advanced shipping | $0 | Not available | $0 |
| Coupons and discounts | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Cross sell/upsell | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Refund | $69/yr | $0 | Grow |
| Reviews | $0 | Addon | Not available |
SureCart features are included on every plan. The free plan charges a 2.9% transaction fee; Pro ($199/yr) removes it.
Payment Processors
| WooCommerce | EDD | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Free addon | $0 | $0 |
| PayPal | Free addon | $0 | $0 |
Sales/Marketing
| WooCommerce | EDD | SureCart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliate program | $49/yr | $149/yr | $0 |
| Abandoned cart management | $79/yr | $29/mo ($348/yr) | $0 |
| Email management | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Verdict: WooCommerce looks a lot cheaper when compared to EDD. But SureCart clearly wins!
Here’s the math:
- With WooCommerce, adding up the price of each addon can take your initial investment to $632.99 per year
- Easy Digital Downloads needs at least a Professional Pass ($299/yr) + a few 3rd party addons ($566/yr). The total investment can hover around $865 per year
SureCart includes every feature on every plan, with no usage limits. On the free Launch plan you pay a 2.9% fee per sale. On Pro, you pay $199 per year for one store and no SureCart transaction fee.
6. Which Plugin Provides Better Support?
When it comes to support, WooCommerce operates differently from other eCommerce plugins.
Its popularity has fostered a vast WooCommerce community over the years.
This community offers assistance to users through platforms like Facebook groups, Slack channels, and local meetups.
Additionally, there’s an extensive knowledge base available for resolving eCommerce issues.
If you are going to install premium addons, you can get dedicated support from them from their respective developer.
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) offers standard and premium support based on your subscription tier.
You can connect with them via tickets during regular business hours from Monday to Friday.
EDD also offers extensive documentation which is also a quick way to get your issue resolved.
SureCart isn’t short of options when it comes to customer services.
What’s impressive is that every plan, including the free one, comes with 24/7 email support.
If you want to fix things on your own, the SureCart team maintains a blog, knowledge base, and active Facebook groups for anything related to SureCart.
Verdict: Proprietary support is usually responsive and on time which gives the win to EDD over WooCommerce.
However, if you have to choose a winner, SureCart leads with 24/7 support and more channels for users to connect with.
Which Is the Right eCommerce Plugin for You?
Let’s be clear, both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are both very competent eCommerce plugins.
However, they both have different strengths and weaknesses and different ideal use cases.
When is WooCommerce a good choice?
WooCommerce was built to sell physical products and later added digital products as an afterthought.
It works ideally when you mainly sell physical items and digital products are a smaller percentage of your mix.
When is Easy Digital Downloads a good choice?
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is focused on digital products. Physical items aren’t their primary area of expertise.
By using an addon called Simple Shipping, you can be up and running with physical product sales in no time.
EDD excels at managing licenses for digital products – a feature that WooCommerce doesn’t handle well.
This is why we use Easy Digital Downloads for some of our own digital products, like Astra, Ultimate Addon Bundle (UABB) and Schema Pro.
Want to know more about Easy Digital Downloads? Here is our in-depth review.
When is SureCart a good choice?
SureCart works well if you sell physical and digital products side by side.
Subscriptions, licensing, upsells, tax and affiliates are all part of the core plugin, so you don’t need separate add-ons for them.
You can start on the free Launch plan and move to Pro when the transaction fee outweighs the $199/year plan cost.
Ready to launch your dream store in minutes?
We would love to hear about your experience in the comments below.
Abhijeet Kaldate is the co-founder and CRO of Brainstorm Force. With a keen eye for detail and a knack for getting things done, Abhijeet oversees the company's operations, managing key areas such as HR, marketing, design and finance.
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