Replace your EDD stack with one managed platform
Easy Digital Downloads alternative that handles payments, licensing, and tax for you
Freemius is an Easy Digital Downloads alternative for software businesses that want to move payments, subscriptions, licensing, tax compliance, and revenue recovery out of their WordPress stack.
With EDD, you build and maintain your own WordPress store, connect the services you need, and remain responsible for the infrastructure and legal obligations behind each sale.
Freemius acts as your merchant of record and manages those responsibilities through one software-focused platform
Easy Digital Downloads vs Freemius: At a glance
Easy Digital Downloads and Freemius can both help you sell software and subscriptions, but they use fundamentally different models.
EDD gives you the tools to build and operate your own WordPress store. Freemius is a managed merchant-of-record platform that becomes the legal seller and handles more of the commercial operation for you.
Merchant of record | Self-hosted WordPress platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Accept payments | Yes | Through connected payment gateways |
| Subscriptions & recurring billing | Included | Included in paid plans; processed through your gateway |
| Software licensing & updates | Included | Available on Professional and All Access plans |
| Global sales tax, VAT, and GST calculation | Included | EU/UK VAT tools included; other tax requirements configured by you |
| Tax registration | Handled by Freemius | Your responsibility |
| Tax filing and remittance | Handled by Freemius | Your responsibility |
| Fraud monitoring & risk management | Handled by Freemius | Fraud tools on All Access; risk remains yours |
| Dispute handling | Handled by Freemius | Your responsibility |
| Charegback liability | Handled by Freemius | Your responsibility |
| Hosting commerce infrastructure | Managed by Freemius | Self-hosted on your WordPress website |
| Checkout & gateway maintenance | Managed by Freemius | Managed by you and your providers |
| Customer billing support | Handled through Freemius | Your responsibility |
| Affiliate management | Included | Additional plugin required |
| Built-in security & privacy compliancePCI, GDPR, CCPA, PECR | Included | Responsibility shared across you and your providers |
| Software-specific analytics | Included | Primarily store and sales reporting |
| Sell from any website | Supported | Requires a WordPress store |
What makes Freemius the strongest Easy Digital Downloads alternative
EDD gives software makers more control over their own store. Freemius takes a different approach: it manages more of the infrastructure, compliance, billing, and customer lifecycle so your team has less to maintain itself.
Software makers typically choose Freemius for three main reasons:
- A fully managed platform built specifically for selling software
- Technical and strategic support across the commercial setup
- Built-in tools and a maker ecosystem focused on software growth
Platform: Purpose-built for selling software
Freemius connects payments, subscriptions, licensing, customer access, and revenue recovery in the same system.
- Pre-purchase: Exit-intent coupons and cart-abandonment recovery to capture lost sales
- Post-puchase: Smart renewal reminders, failed-payment recovery, and card-update automation
- Pre-cancellation: Retention flows and targeted surveys that uncover why users leave
- Post-cancellation: Automated win-back campaigns with tailored discounts to re-engage churned users
Instead of keeping a WordPress store, payment gateways, licensing extensions, tax services, and recovery tools synchronized yourself, Freemius manages more of that lifecycle from one platform.
Team: Support beyond individual plugins and providers
With a self-hosted EDD stack, support can be spread across your host, payment gateway, extensions, tax provider, and custom code.
Freemius gives software makers one team for the commercial platform, with support covering:
- Integration and setup
- Payment and billing
- Licensing
- Pricing and packaging
- Product launches
- Retention and churn
- Scalling
“We’ve worked with Freemius since 2018 and it’s been a great, positive experience. Their support is amazing, and they’re always improving things.”
DeoThemes
“The team at Freemius helped us get our unique code sorted and live. We now have both the Free and Premium versions available.”
ProFeedWP
Community: Grow alongside other software makers
Freemius also connects makers with resources and people beyond the platform itself.
- Maker community: 3,000+ software makers learning and sharing through Slack and in-person meetups.
- Affiliate network: Built-in affiliate management plus connections with relevant creators and marketers.
- Business connections: Introductions to relevant investors or acquirers when businesses reach that stage.
What does it actually cost to run an EDD store?
EDD’s fixed annual license can appear cheaper than Freemius’ revenue-based pricing. But the EDD license is only one part of the cost of operating a self-hosted software store.
Depending on your setup, you may also pay for:
- Payment processing
- International card fees
- Currency conversion
- WordPress hosting
- Tax calculation, registration, and filing
- Fraud and dispute tools
- Additional EDD extensions
- Development and maintenance time
The more useful comparison is therefore the total cost of operating the selling stack, not simply the EDD license versus the Freemius platform fee.
Example: A WordPress product generating $10,000/month
The following example estimates what an EDD-based stack could cost for a WordPress product selling internationally.
Product sales: $10,000
Transactions: Approximately 500 at $19.99
Sales distribution: 30% US, 30% Europe, and 40% elsewhere
Taxed transactions: Approximately 25% at an average 10% rate
Dispute rate: 0.7%, or approximately three to four disputes
| Description | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Product sales volume | $10,000 500 transactions |
| VAT/GST/Sales Tax | $250 25% avg taxed transactions 10% avg tax rate (ranging from 4%–27%) |
| Total volume | $10,250 |
| EDD Professional | $49.92 $599 annual renewal ÷ 12 |
| Base transaction fee (2.9% + 30¢) | $447.25 $10,250 × 2.9% + 500 × $0.3 |
| International card (+1.5%) | $107.6370% cross-border × 1.5% |
| Currency conversion | $0–$71.75Up to 70% of volume × 1% |
| Managed WordPress hosting | $50.00Example monthly budget |
| Dispute fees ($30) $15 fee + $15 countering fee | $105 3.5 disputes (0.7% avg dispute rate) |
| Cost before outsourced tax compliance | $707.30–$831.55 |
| Tax registration and filing serviceStripe Tax Complete: up to 1,000 transactions, 4 registrations, and 12 filings per year | $430/month + possible international fees |
| Total monthly cost before payout | $1,137.30–$1,261.55 |
| Effective rate | 11.37%–12.62% |
| Your net | $8,738.45–$8,862.70 |
Under these assumptions, operating the EDD stack costs approximately $1,137–$1,262 per month before payout.
The actual amount can vary significantly depending on your customer locations, payment provider, hosting, tax obligations, transaction size, extensions, and internal resources.
Takeaway: Comparing the EDD license price with the Freemius platform fee alone doesn’t show the full picture. The relevant comparison is the total cost of the stack, together with the legal and operational responsibilities your business still carries.
What does Freemius cost for WordPress products?
With Freemius, you pay one transparent fee for the platform and the operational responsibility behind every sale:
- Global tax calculation, registration, filing, and remittance
- Fraud protection, chargebacks, and dispute management
- Payments, subscriptions, and invoicing
- Software licensing and automatic updates
- Checkout, customer management, and revenue recovery
- Hosted commercial infrastructure and ongoing maintenance
Instead of paying multiple providers while still carrying the work and legal liability, you get one platform that handles both. No separate tax service, disconnected extensions, or compliance burden left on your plate.
4.7%
+ 2.3% for the full WordPress solution
+ gateway fees
- Immediate account approval
- Average 24-hour support ticket turnaround
- Free¹ payouts² wherever you are
- Automated sales tax compliance
- Built specifically for WordPress product businesses
- Hands-on migration assistance
¹ Wire payouts may incur intermediate bank fees.
² Supported payouts through Wire, Wise, Payoneer, and PayPal.
- 0% fee on the tax component
- No extra % for cart recovery
- No extra % for failed renewals recovery
- No setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees
Processing large payment volumes?
What’s included?
Merchant of record
- Global payment processing
- Credit cards & PayPal
- Automated sales tax and VAT
- Fraud protection & risk management
- Localized checkout & multi-currency
- Simplified reporting & reconciliation
- Chargeback & dispute management
- PCI compliance out of the box
Subscriptions & recurring billing
- Automated renewal reminders
- Multi-seat and multi-license support
- Smart card updates
- Failed renewals recovery
- Trials
Selling WordPress products
- Webhooks
- REST API
- Software licensing
- Multi-site licenses
- Automatic updates
- Release management
- Beta versions
- Staged rollouts
- WordPress single sign-on
- Sell from the WordPress admin dashboard
- Sell add-ons and bundles
- Opt-in and usage tracking
- Audience analytics
- Deactivation feedback
- WordPress.org-compliant GPL SDK
- WordPress.org review automation
Marketing
- Affiliate Platform
- Cart abandonment recovery
- Coupons and discounts
- Subscription recovery campaigns
- Verified reviews collection
Self-served customer portal
- Plan changes and upgrades
- Payment method updates
- Retention flow
The operational trade-offs of a self-hosted EDD store
Running your own store gives you more control. It also means your team is responsible for keeping every part of the setup working together.
More infrastructure to maintain
Your WordPress installation, hosting, EDD extensions, gateways, webhooks, and custom code must remain compatible.
More providers to coordinate
When something breaks, the issue could be with EDD, your host, payment processor, another plugin, or your own code.
More global compliance work
Selling internationally means identifying tax obligations, registering, filing returns, and keeping up with regulatory changes.
More billing edge cases to manage
Failed renewals, refunds, upgrades, disputes, and subscription changes must sync with the customer’s license and product access.
More responsibility for customer billing support
Payment failures, invoices, refunds, subscription questions, and disputes remain part of your support workload.
Less connected product data
Store reports show purchases and revenue. Understanding installations, usage, deactivations, licenses, and customer behavior often requires additional systems.
Lars Koudal
Owner, WP Security Ninja
Lars Koudal
Owner, WP Security Ninja
“Keeping my online shop up and running was taking more and more time away from building my business. Replacing EDD with Freemius as the sales platform solved a lot of problems and saved me a lot of time. Everything just works, license handling, payments, EU VAT, cart abandonment – I make more profit with less effort and it feels like I have my own great support team that takes care of the shop for me.”
Easy Digital Downloads or Freemius: Which should you choose?
The right choice depends on how much control you want and how much operational responsibility your team is prepared to carry.
Stick with EDD if:
- You want to own and customize every part of a self-hosted WordPress store.
- You already have the technical, tax, accounting, and support resources to operate it.
- You prefer paying separate providers and managing the integrations between them.
- Maintaining your commerce infrastructure is an acceptable use of your team’s time.
Go with Freemius if:
- You want to sell globally without registering and filing taxes in every market yourself.
- You want payments, subscriptions, licensing, and customer data to stay connected.
- You prefer one team to support the entire commercial system.
- You want built-in tools for recovering carts, renewals, cancellations, and reviews.
- You would rather invest development time in your product than your selling stack.
5 minutes from signup to your first sale!
Getting started with Freemius is dead simple:
Add your product
Set up a plan and price
Grab your no-code checkout link → start accepting real payments
That’s it. No lengthy approval process. No waiting around. You can start selling in minutes.
Andre Gagnon
Owner, ProjectHuddle
Andre Gagnon
Owner, ProjectHuddle
“The Freemius team crafted a thorough migration plan according to my product & business structure and was actively involved throughout the entire migration process. Migration was not without its hiccups, but that was expected as we already had many active bundle subscriptions. However, I feel much better about the reliability of licensing with Freemius since I don’t have to self-host it!”
Switching from Easy Digital Downloads to Freemius
You’re not on your own
A dedicated migration lead guides you through the process. They offer hands-on implementation support when needed.
No overnight cutover
Your existing subscriptions can continue renewing through Stripe or PayPal while Freemius keeps the migrated licenses in sync.
No disruption for customers
Migrated EDD licenses activate automatically. Customers don’t need to re-enter keys after updating to the Freemius-powered version.
A clear plan before you move
A migration lead typically follows up within 72 hours. They deliver a detailed, step-by-step plan usually delivered within three business days.
You’re not on your own
A dedicated migration lead guides you through the process. They offer hands-on implementation support when needed.
No overnight cutover
Your existing subscriptions can continue renewing through Stripe or PayPal while Freemius keeps the migrated licenses in sync.
No disruption for customers
Migrated EDD licenses activate automatically. Customers don’t need to re-enter keys after updating to the Freemius-powered version.
A clear plan before you move
A migration lead typically follows up within 72 hours. They deliver a detailed, step-by-step plan usually delivered within three business days.
Our simple two-step process
Data import
Ongoing renewals sync
Our simple two-step process
Getting started with Freemius is dead simple:
Data import
Ongoing renewals sync
Schedule a call with a migration specialist. We’ll build you a free, custom step-by-step migration plan tailored to your setup. No risk, no strings attached — you decide if and when to move forward.
Anand Upadhyay
WP Vibes
Anand Upadhyay
WP Vibes
“I was skeptical about moving my EDD store to Freemius, but it ended up being a seamless process. I discussed with their Migration Success Manager and explained to him the structure of my EDD website. He then provided me with a two-phase plan for migration. In Phase 1, we moved new sales over while leaving existing customers on the old platform until everything had been tested out. In Phase 2, they migrated existing customer accounts and licenses. Integration with the SDK was also smooth with the incredible support from Freemius.”
Easy Digital Downloads alternative FAQ
Is Freemius more expensive than Easy Digital Downloads?
EDD usually costs less in direct platform fees because it charges a fixed annual license, whereas Freemius charges a revenue share of 4.7% + 2.3% for WordPress products, plus gateway fees.
These fees cover different scopes of service. Freemius operates as the merchant of record, managing payments, global tax compliance, fraud protection, disputes, licensing, subscriptions, and revenue recovery. With EDD, you pay less for the platform but remain responsible for these tasks yourself or through third-party providers.
What services does Freemius provide that EDD does not?
Freemius acts as the legal seller for all transactions processed through the platform. It handles tax calculation, registration, filing, and remittance, alongside fraud monitoring, chargebacks, disputes, billing, and payment compliance.
Does EDD manage sales tax and VAT?
Paid EDD plans include VAT calculation for the EU and UK, automatic rate updates, VAT number validation, and reporting. You can also configure tax rates for other countries and regions.
However, EDD does not register your business, file tax returns, remit funds, or assume liability for these taxes. These responsibilities remain yours.
Does Freemius support software licensing and automatic updates?
Yes, Freemius offers license keys, activation limits, multi-site licenses, automatic updates, release management, beta versions, and staged rollouts for WordPress products.
Freemius integrates licensing with billing. Access rights are automatically updated when a customer purchases, renews, upgrades, cancels, or is refunded.
Can Freemius migrate existing EDD customers and licenses?
Yes, Freemius can import relevant customer, product, purchase, and license data from EDD.
Freemius can also activate migrated licenses automatically from the WordPress database. Customers don’t need to re-enter their license keys after updating to the Freemius-powered version.
Can active EDD subscriptions be migrated?
Yes, though the process varies depending on the payment processor. Existing renewals can continue through Stripe or PayPal and sync with Freemius via webhooks. This keeps license expiration dates remain current.
Stripe subscriptions can later be fully transferred to Freemius. PayPal, however, does not support transferring subscriptions between accounts. Those renewals must continue through the original PayPal account. Until a subscription is fully transferred, you remain responsible for its associated taxes, invoices, refunds, and disputes.