Easy Digital Downloads vs Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart
Updated 11 Oct 2026. 23 features compared side by side.
WordPress plugin built for selling digital products such as ebooks, software and music, with paid passes adding subscriptions, licensing and more.
Free WordPress connector for Ecwid by Lightspeed, a hosted store you embed in WordPress. Paid plans start at $5/month with no sales fees.
Choose Easy Digital Downloads if…
- You need software licensing and store data in WordPress
- You want the more complete feature set (98/100 vs 89/100)
- You want to start with a free version
- You prefer the more widely used option
Choose Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart if…
- Small merchants who want a managed store embedded in WordPress, especially if they also sell on social, marketplaces or in person
Easy Digital Downloads includes 2 features that Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart lacks, including Software licensing and Store data in WordPress. Both include 19 of the 23 features we track. 2 features are not yet verified for one or both plugins.
At a glance
Feature comparison
Click a screenshot to see both plugins side by side.
Easy Digital Downloads Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping CartProducts6/65/6
Physical product shipping is included from the Professional pass; core targets digital goods.
Physical products on all plans, within each plan's product cap (10 on Starter).
Core sells downloadable files through protected download links.
Downloadable e-goods up to 25GB per file, delivered after payment.
Variable price options per product; stock per option needs the paid Purchase Limit add-on.
Product options and variations with their own SKU, price and stock; the pricing page does not map this to plans.
Subscriptions with free trials included from the Personal pass.
Recurring subscriptions; needs Lightspeed Payments or Stripe.
No stock tracking in core; the paid Purchase Limit extension caps sales per product or option.
Stock tracking, including per variation, with low-stock alerts and sync across channels.
Software Licensing & API included from the Professional pass.
No built-in licence-key generation in the feature list.
Checkout & payments7/75/7
Stripe, PayPal and Square are free, but Stripe adds a 3% platform fee below Extended.
PayPal, Stripe and 70+ other payment providers with no paid add-ons.
Apple Pay and Google Pay available through the free Stripe integration.
One-tap Apple Pay and Google Pay checkout via Lightspeed Payments or Stripe.
Checkout is built from blocks; extra checkout fields need a paid extension.
Custom checkout with extra checkout fields; the hosted checkout layout itself is fixed.
Discount codes with expiry dates and product restrictions in the free plugin.
Discount coupons on Venture; scheduled promotions such as BOGO and bulk pricing on Business.
Post-purchase funnels included from the Professional pass; cross-sell/upsell extension also available.
No checkout order bump or post-purchase upsell is listed on the pricing or features pages.
Abandoned cart recovery included from the Personal pass.
Automated abandoned-cart recovery emails.
Core uses one store currency; Multi-Currency Support starts at the Extended pass.
Neither the features nor the pricing page describes selling in several currencies.
Tax, shipping & orders5/55/5
Tax rates and tax reports in core; EU VAT compliance from the Personal pass.
Automated tax rates for the US, Canada and EU VAT, plus a TaxJar integration.
Physical product shipping (Simple Shipping) included from the Professional pass.
Live rates from USPS, UPS, FedEx, Canada Post and Australia Post; shipping labels too.
Order list, details, refunds and customer management in the admin.
Manage, edit and create orders in the Ecwid control panel, which is embedded in WP admin.
Customer purchase history, downloads and login/registration blocks.
Customers sign in to view their orders; optional single sign-on with WordPress users.
Revenue reports with date comparisons and breakdowns by gateway, country and category.
Built-in reports on Venture; advanced reports and analytics on Business and up.
Platform5/54/5
3% Stripe platform fee applies on free and Personal; removed from the Extended pass.
Ecwid charges 0% per sale on every plan; only provider fees apply.
Products, orders and customers are stored in your WordPress database.
Hosted SaaS: products, orders and customers are stored on Ecwid's servers.
100+ official extensions and integrations, many bundled in passes.
App Market for marketing, shipping, accounting and other apps; access starts on Venture.
16 blocks including cart, checkout, buy button and customer downloads.
About ten Gutenberg blocks: store, category, product cards, buy button, search, cart and checkout.
REST API with API keys plus hooks and filters; vendor cites webhook support.
Public REST API and webhooks for orders, products and stock sync.
Statuses: Yes Pro Add-on Partial 3rd-party No ?
Pricing compared
Easy Digital Downloads Freemium
| Free | $0 |
|---|---|
| Lite (free) | Free per year, Unlimited |
| Personal | $199 per year, 1 site |
| Extended | $399 per year, 1 site |
| Professional | $599 per year, 2 sites |
| All Access | $999 per year, 3 sites |
Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart Premium
| Starter | $5 per month, Unlimited |
|---|---|
| Venture | $35 per month, Unlimited |
| Business | $65 per month, Unlimited |
| Unlimited | $149 per month, Unlimited |
Downloads trend
Easy Digital Downloads
21,133 downloads last week
Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart
2,012 downloads last week
Verdict
Easy Digital Downloads scores higher on our feature checklist (98/100 against 89/100) and includes software licensing and store data in WordPress that Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart does not. Only Easy Digital Downloads has a free version. Check the features you rely on in the table below before deciding.
Biggest differences
Easy Digital Downloads: paid version (Professional). Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart: not included. Software Licensing & API included from the Professional pass.
Easy Digital Downloads: included. Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart: not included. Products, orders and customers are stored in your WordPress database.
Written from the feature, pricing and install data on this page, not from hands-on testing. How we compare.
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FAQ
Which is better, Easy Digital Downloads or Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart?
Easy Digital Downloads scores higher on our feature checklist (98/100 against 89/100) and includes software licensing and store data in WordPress that Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart does not. Only Easy Digital Downloads has a free version. Check the features you rely on in the table below before deciding.
Which has more features?
Easy Digital Downloads includes 23 of the 23 features we track, against 19 for Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart. Feature count is only part of the picture; check which of the differences matter to you.
Is Easy Digital Downloads free?
Easy Digital Downloads has a free version on WordPress.org. Paid plans start at $199/yr.
Is Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart free?
Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart is premium only. Paid plans start at $5/mo.
Feature data last changed 11 Oct 2026. Spotted something wrong? Suggest an edit to Easy Digital Downloads or Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart. Some links are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no cost to you; it never affects our data or rankings.