The Best Shopify Digital Downloads Apps [Reviewed for 2020]
Shopify is an excellent ecommerce platform for selling physical goods, but it can also be used for digital products like ebooks, digital art, photos, and music.
A Shopify app to assist you with the day-to-day tasks of selling digital products can make things a lot easier and quicker, so to ensure you find the best one, I’ve looked at a variety of plugins.
What Are Digital Products?
Digital products are intangible assets or goods that lack physical form. They exist solely in digital shape, typically as MP3 files, PDFs, videos, templates, and plugins. These types of goods can be sold over and over again without needing to restock them.
Can You Use Shopify to Sell Digital Products?
While Shopify is commonly used to sell physical goods, you can also use it to sell digital products and products. Shopify digital products are a lot easier than you might think and comes with the added benefits of no shipping costs and no need to replenish your inventory.
What Are Examples of Digital Products That Can Be Sold on Shopify?
The sky’s basically the limit with what digital products you can sell on Shopify, but popular options are ebooks, courses, licenses (like software licenses), music, digital art, digital photos, templates and tools, memberships, and packaged services (like coaching calls).
Can You Combine Digital and Physical Goods on Shopify?
You can combine digital and physical goods on Shopify, so you don’t need to limit yourself to just one variant. Giving customers the option to purchase something either digitally or physically (if possible) could be a great way to boost your sales.
For example, books and digital photographs could be sold in both digital and physical form.
What to Look for in A Digital Download Shopify App
When you’re looking for a Shopify app to sell digital products, there are factors you need to keep in mind. Let’s take a look at some things you should consider before you install a digital products Shopify plugin.
Is The Interface and Installation Easy?
No one wants to spend countless hours trying to install or figure out how to work an app, so it’s important to check the interface and setup process of a plugin to make sure it’s straightforward.
What Features Do You Get?
A lot of features that come with Shopify apps for selling digital products can seem a little confusing or complicated. However, there are many that are crucial for making your business run smoother.
Aspects like integrations with popular platforms or payment systems, being able to add both physical and digital products, and the ability to display downloads links on the purchase confirmation page are some things you might want in an app.
Additionally, having extensive analytics and reporting features, the option to set an expiring downloads link, and the option to email the downloads link to buyers manually can also come in handy.
The Importance of Uptime and Downtime…
Uptime refers to the app’s reliability and when it is actively working and available. Downtime is when the plugin is unoperational. Obviously, you want a digital products app that has a relatively short downtime so you spend less time waiting for it to come back online.
It’s a good idea to check the average uptime and downtime of the plugin you’re thinking of using for your online store to make sure your productivity or business isn’t affected.
Pricing Structures…
Most Shopify apps for selling digital products on Shopify have different price plans, with each one granting you additional services or features. Higher priced packages tend to come with the most features, such as bigger file storage, higher bandwidth, and the ability to list more products.
If you own a large online store, then more advanced plans might suit your business’s needs better. In contrast, if you only want to sell a few products every now and again, then you might get away with a basic or free version.
Thoroughly evaluate the app’s price plans to see if they fit your budget and whether the features offered are integral to your Shopify store.
How Is The Customer Service?
Poor customer service can be frustrating, especially when you have an urgent issue or query that needs addressing. As all Shopify apps can develop bugs or go wrong during setup, you’ll probably need to get in touch with an advisor at some point.
To ensure your experience is as stress-free as possible, you should make sure the app you use values good customer service and has advisors that reply quickly and thoroughly.
Check recent feedback on the Shopify app to see if other users have run into any issues with customer support, such as long waiting times or no response altogether. This will save you a lot of headache in the future.
What Integrations Do They Offer?
Depending on what digital products you want to sell on your online store, you might want to use an app that supports other platforms. For example, if you want to sell music related digital products, then an app that integrates with Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, etc., might be helpful.
Regardless of the type of digital products you’re selling on Shopify, plugins that support popular payment systems like PayPal and Apple Pay are particularly beneficial.
On to the Shopify digital downloads app reviews…
Digital Downloads
Digital Downloads is a completely free app developed by Shopify that makes selling digital products quick and simple. It allows you to attach files or links to your products so your customers only need to click on them to retrieve their goods once they’ve checked out.
Whenever there’s an update to your online store like new offers or versions to existing products, Digital Downloads automatically notifies your customers to save you some time.
The app has a variety of customization options that let you personalize your checkout parameters and email templates. You can sell files or downloads less than 5GB in size, which is plenty for most items. To put it into perspective, the file size of the average book is between 1MB and 3MB!
The app is easy to use and is quick to set up, so you don’t need to worry about losing countless hours trying to figure out its interface. It has a user-friendly dashboard that makes selling and managing digital product a breeze. There’s also an option to manually complete orders and send files if you prefer to be in control.
You can use it to sell both physical and digital products, such as ebooks and physical books, too.
Unfortunately, the Shopify Digital Downloads plugin can suffer from a few technical issues, particularly involving its functionality. For example, the Shopify app can be a little unreliable and fail to send out download links or files to customers.
Specs
- Price: $0
- Free Plan Included: Yes
- Developer: Shopify
Pros
- Developed by Shopify
- Supports both physical and digital goods
- Easy to navigate
- Free
Cons
- Can fail to send out download links or files
SendOwl
SendOwl is another solid choice due to its simple installation and interface. All you need to do to start selling digital products is to upload the files to the app’s server and select a product to associate it with. SendOwl will then take care of the rest!
You can use the Shopify app to sell things practically anywhere, so you don’t need to limit yourself to Shopify. Blogs or a page on a social media website are just two examples of where you can use the app.
SendOwl supports a wide range of languages, which is handy as you can sell to customers who don’t share your mother tongue. The app lets you schedule the release of digital items and deliver a digital downloads directly to customer accounts. Alternatively, you can send links via email or the order completion page.
The Shopify app offers built-in pre-checkout and post-payment upsells and discount codes, as well as integrations with payment systems such as Apple Pay, PayPal, and Bitcoin. It also provides you with extensive reports and analytics.
The plugin has a few different price plans, including a 30-day free trial. The Basic package is $9 per month and allows you to list 10 products, comes with customization and 1GB of storage. The standard version is priced at $15 each month and offers 30 products, customization, 3GB of storage, and PDF stamping.
The most expensive plans are the Premium and Business plans. The former costs $24 per month and provides you with 5GB of storage, 100 products, video streaming, and all features included in previous packages.
The latter costs $39 per month and gives you 250 products, 15GB of storage, multiple users with permissions, and all the features included in the previous plans.
Unfortunately, SendOwl’s customer support advisors are not very responsive, so it can take some time to get a reply to a query or issue.
Specs
- Price: $9-$39
- Developer: SendOwl
- Free Plan Included: No
Pros
- Integrations with payment systems like PayPal and Apple Pay
- Supports a wide range of languages
- User-friendly
- Provides extensive reports and analytics
Cons
- Customer support can be a bit unresponsive
Single Music
Single Music is a helpful Shopify app for selling digital items that is developed by Single, LLC. It’s particularly useful for music or audio digital downloads and offers an engaging interface that shows album templates and audio previews to attract more customers.
The app is very straightforward to install and navigate as it provides you with tools like multi-store management, developer mode, and open-source templates. It has in-depth reporting and analytics, too.
Single Music automatically fulfills orders on their release date and integrates with a huge range of platforms, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Amazon Music, Twitch, Instagram, and Tik Tok.
The plugin has a few different price plans, including a free version. The Physical Reporting package is priced at $10 per month and grants you access to a variety of reporting and analytics features.
The Boost Links plan costs $15 per month and provides you with features like Social Promotion and Conversion Analytics.
However, Single Music can experience a few bugs, which can affect the functionality of the Shopify app. Additionally, the plugin’s customer support team can take some time to reply to concerns and enquiries.
Specs
- Price: $0-$15
- Developer: Single, LLC
- Free Plan Included: Yes
Pros
- Ideal for selling audio digital downloads on Shopify
- Straightforward setup
- Integrates with platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Twitch
- Offers a free plan
Cons
- Can have a few bugs
- Support team can be unresponsive
FetchApp
Next up is FetchApp, a useful tool for selling digital products on Shopify. It enables you to have full management of your online store like altering the amount of time before a download expires.
The app’s interface is a breeze to use for both you and your customers. The plugin is reliable and automatically sends downloads to customers once everything is paid for.
FetchApp can work with products that require more than one file, which is convenient if you’re selling bundles. In addition to this, you can split big files into smaller ones and sell one item in more than one part.
I really like the email builder of this Shopify app for digital products as it makes configuring email a smooth and swift process. The app also integrates with payment platforms like Paypal, Google Checkout, and FoxyCart.
Regarding price, FetchApp is very accommodating as it offers paid plans and a free version. All the plans are affordable and offer a variety of different features, from extra storage space to unlimited orders and bandwidth.
The paid packages start from $5 to $20 per month, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding one that fits your budget.
However, the app’s downtime can be a bit unpredictable, which isn’t ideal when you’re trying to run a successful Shopify store to sell digital downloads.
Specs
- Price: $0-$20
- Developer: FetchApp
- Free Plan Included: Yes
Pros
- Offers a lot of effective features for selling digital products on Shopify
- Integrates with a variety of payment platforms
- Straightforward interface
- Offers a free plan
Cons
- Can suffer from long downtimes
Sky Pilot
The last Shopify app I recommend for selling digital products on Shopify is Sky Pillot, a plugin that’s designed especially for the sale of downloadable items. It’s quick and simple to install, so you should have it set up in no time.
When a customer pays for a digital product on your Shopify store, they’re diverted to a page that allows them to view and download their items in just one click. This level of security is impressive and notifies you of access abuse alerts, among other things.
You can personalize the delivery page thanks to the app’s vast amount of customization options. Your Shopify store’s customers can see all their digital products on their account pages, too.
Sky Pilot integrates into your customer’s digital downloads order page, which grants them instant access to their goods without needing to wait for them in their email inboxes. The Shopify app also integrates with platforms like Charge Rabbit and Vimeo.
This plugin for selling digital downloads on Shopify has four price plans: Free, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The free version comes with 2MB of file storage, while the Bronze package comes with 1GB of file storage, 20GB of monthly bandwidth, and integration with Vimeo. It costs $15 per month.
The Silver plan is $30 per month and has features like 5GB of file storage, 100GB of monthly bandwidth, and HTML emails. Lastly, the Gold plan is priced at $75 per month and includes 25GB of file storage and 250GB of monthly bandwidth.
It’s important to note that you’ll be charged an additional $0.25 per GB of bandwidth over your monthly allowance.
Specs
- Price: $0-$75
- Developer: Corknine Development
- Free Plan Included: Yes
Pros
- Excellent security features
- Fully customizable delivery page
- Easy to set up
- Includes a free plan
Cons
- Extra charges for going over your monthly allowance of bandwidth
To Sum Up…
After looking at a range of Shopify digital downloads apps, I think the best one to use to sell digital products is SendOwl. It has a swift and easy installation process, as well as a straightforward interface.
The app supports a variety of different languages, which broadens your customer base. It offers built-in pre-checkout and post-payment upsells and discount codes, alongside integrations with Paypal, Apple Pay, Bitcoin, and more. It also gives you in depth analytics and reports.
The Shopify digital products plugin has a few affordable price plans, including a free trial. This lets you choose a package that fits your budget.
The only downside of the Shopify app is its customer support, which can be a bit unresponsive.
If SendOwl doesn’t seem like the right fit for your online store, then I also recommend FetchApp and Digital Downloads. The former is extremely useful for selling digital products on Shopify as it has a wide range of management tools. It also has relatively inexpensive price plans.
Digital Downloads, which is developed by Shopify themselves, is a decent choice if you’re looking for a free plugin for selling digital products. However, it lacks a hefty amount of features that paid Shopify apps have.
