How do I sell digital downloads on Shopify?
Selling a PDF, an ebook, a preset pack, a piece of music, or a software licence on Shopify sounds like it should be a solved problem, and for the very simplest case it is. Shopify has a free, first-party app called Digital Products that will upload your file and email a download link. If that’s genuinely all you need, use it and stop reading. But most people who search this hit a wall the moment they want more: stop buyers sharing the file, stream a video instead of forcing a download, hand out unique licence keys, block fraudulent orders, or send the delivery email from their own brand. That’s where a dedicated app earns its keep. This guide covers the honest line between “the free app is fine” and “you need more,” and looks closely at Digital Downloads by Alva (5.0 stars across 8 reviews, Built for Shopify), one of the better modern options.
We build Shopify apps ourselves (variant images and combined listings), so we read this category the way a maker should: what does the free app actually lack, what do you really pay for, and where’s the catch in the pricing? Let’s start with the question everyone should ask first.
In this guide
- Isn’t Shopify’s free app enough?
- What does Digital Downloads by Alva add?
- How much does it cost?
- What do merchants say?
- Where it shines
- Where it falls short
- What are the alternatives?
- What about courses and protected PDFs?
- FAQ
Isn’t Shopify’s free Digital Products app enough?
Sometimes, yes. Shopify’s own free Digital Products app does exactly three things: it hosts your file, it emails a download link, and it lets you set a download limit. For a single ebook or a one-off PDF, that’s completely fine, and you shouldn’t pay for an app you don’t need. But look at what it doesn’t do, because the gaps are the whole reason paid apps exist. No streaming (buyers must download). No licence keys. No PDF watermarking. No IP restrictions or expiring links. No fraud screening. No branded delivery from your own email domain. No bulk upload. The free app is a doormat delivery slot, not a storefront for a real digital business. The moment your catalogue, your revenue, or your piracy risk grows, you feel every one of those missing pieces.
What does Digital Downloads by Alva add?
Digital Downloads by Alva is built by Alva Apps Ltd, an independent London studio whose three digital-product apps all charge zero commission, just a flat monthly fee. It sells any digital file, PDFs, ebooks, audio, video, software, licence keys, digital art, even made-to-order files uploaded after purchase, and delivers them instantly through email, the thank-you page, customer accounts, the order status page, and Shopify POS. On top of delivery, it layers the things the free app lacks: AI fraud detection that holds risky orders, download and IP restrictions with expiring links, PDF watermarking, licence keys, and video streaming. Two touches stand out. Delivery emails are branded on your own sending domain, so the customer never sees an app’s name. And “unlimited bandwidth” is offered on every plan, including the free one, served from a global CDN, so a file going viral doesn’t hand you a surprise bandwidth bill.
How much does Digital Downloads by Alva cost?
Four plans, flat monthly, no commission. And here’s the thing to understand: past the free tier, the only difference between the paid plans is storage. The features are identical.
| Plan | Price | Storage | Products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1.5 GB | Up to 5 |
| Basic | $8.99/mo | 35 GB | Unlimited |
| Pro | $18.99/mo | 350 GB | Unlimited |
| Enterprise | $28.99/mo | 1.5 TB | Unlimited |
So the pricing logic is simple, almost refreshingly so: pick the tier that fits how many gigabytes you’re storing. Selling a handful of PDFs? The $8.99 Basic plan’s 35GB is plenty, and Pro or Enterprise buy you nothing extra except headroom. Selling a library of 4K video? You’ll climb the tiers for storage alone. The one sharp edge is the free plan’s 5-product ceiling: list a sixth product and you jump to $8.99, even if your files are tiny. That’s fair enough, just know it’s a product cap, not a storage one, that pushes you off free. Since a digital product is close to pure profit once it’s made, the fee is trivial to justify, run it through our profit margin calculator and the only real cost you’ll see is the payment processor’s cut, which our breakdown of Shopify transaction fees lays out.
What do merchants say about it?
All 8 reviews are five stars, and nearly every one is really a review of one person: Tom, who runs support and, going by the reviews, personally tweaks the app’s backend for people. For a small app, that’s the differentiator.
“Tom was AMAZING to work with. He made a few adjustments to the back end of the app so that my Synced Etsy listings were automatically mapping the correct PNG file for each listing. He just saved me hours of work! If your on the fence, this app is worth every penny. Work Smarter. Not harder!”
TheSocialDownload, United States, April 2026 — Digital Downloads by Alva on the Shopify App Store
“Thank you very much! Provide basic functionality for a very reasonable price. Very friendly, immediately added a requested function to their portfolio, and to our website!”
Stiftung F.C. Gundlach, Germany, November 2025 — Digital Downloads by Alva on the Shopify App Store
The honest caveat: eight reviews is a tiny sample, and most reviewers had used the app for days or weeks, not years. A 5.0 here means “the people who tried it were delighted, and the founder fixed their problems fast,” not “proven at scale across thousands of stores.” That’s a genuinely good signal for a young app, but it’s a different signal from a rival with hundreds of reviews. Weigh it as what it is.
Where it shines
- Unlimited bandwidth on every plan, including free. A viral file won’t generate an overage bill. That’s rarer than it sounds.
- The protection stack the free app lacks: AI fraud holds, IP-locked expiring links, PDF watermarking, licence keys, and streaming.
- Branded delivery. Emails go out from your own domain, so the buyer sees your brand, not an app’s.
- 0% commission, flat fee, and a usable free tier for your first few products.
- Hands-on founder support. Reviewer after reviewer names Tom for fixing things personally.
Where it falls short
- Only 8 reviews. Delightful ones, but a small, young track record next to rivals with hundreds.
- Paid tiers are storage-only. You can’t buy “just the features” cheaply, if you need more than 35GB, you’re paying $18.99 or $28.99 for storage you may not fully use.
- The free plan caps at 5 products. A product limit, not a storage one, so a sixth small PDF forces the jump to paid.
What are the alternatives?
Name the field honestly. The baseline is Shopify’s own free Digital Products app, the right starting point if you only need to email a file. The most mature paid rival is Sky Pilot (4.8 stars across more than 400 reviews, also Built for Shopify, from $9/mo), the safe like-for-like pick if review depth reassures you, though its free plan caps monthly bandwidth where Alva’s caps storage and products instead. EDP (Easy Digital Products) (5.0 across 190 reviews, from $14.99/mo) is another strong, well-reviewed option. And a cautionary note: SendOwl is the veteran name, but at 3.0 stars and a $39/mo entry it’s both the lowest-rated and priciest here, proof that an old brand isn’t automatically a safe one. So the honest read: Alva is a genuinely good modern app with standout support and unlimited bandwidth, but it’s young; if you want the biggest track record, Sky Pilot is the safer bet, and the free native app is where the smallest sellers should simply start.
What about selling courses and protected PDFs?
Digital downloads is the broad category, but two slices of it deserve their own tools. If what you’re really selling is a structured online course (video lessons, student progress, certificates), a general download app is the wrong shape, you want a native course app, which we cover in how to sell online courses on Shopify. And if your product is a PDF you’re worried about people sharing, per-buyer watermarking and anti-piracy delivery matter more than raw file hosting, which is the focus of selling and protecting PDFs on Shopify. Conveniently, the same studio behind Digital Downloads makes dedicated apps for both, so you can stay with the same maker if you outgrow plain downloads.
You can see the full studio and its other tools at alvaapps.com, or the product site at alvadigitaldownloads.com.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sell digital downloads on Shopify for free?
Yes, two ways. Shopify’s own free Digital Products app will host a file and email a download link, which is enough for a single simple product. Or Digital Downloads by Alva has a free plan (up to 5 products, 1.5GB) that adds delivery on the thank-you and customer-account pages plus unlimited bandwidth. Beyond a handful of products, or if you need fraud protection, watermarking, or licence keys, you’ll move to a paid plan.
What does Shopify’s native digital downloads app lack?
Shopify’s free Digital Products app only hosts files, emails a link, and sets download limits. It has no streaming, no licence keys, no PDF watermarking, no IP restrictions or expiring links, no fraud screening, no branded email delivery, and no bulk upload. Those gaps are exactly what dedicated apps like Digital Downloads by Alva, Sky Pilot, and EDP exist to fill.
How do I stop people sharing my downloaded files?
No delivery method makes a file un-shareable once downloaded, but you can raise the barrier a lot. Download and IP restrictions plus expiring links limit how often and from where a file can be fetched, and PDF watermarking stamps each copy with the buyer’s details so a leaked file traces back to them. Digital Downloads by Alva includes all of these; for PDF-heavy catalogues, a PDF-specialised app leans harder into per-buyer watermarking.
What file types can I sell as digital downloads?
Just about anything: PDFs and ebooks, audio and music, video, software and licence keys, digital art and stock photos, templates and printables, and made-to-order files you upload after the sale. Digital Downloads by Alva can also sell access to private links (a Google Drive folder, a Notion page, a Zoom room), which is handy for services and memberships delivered outside a single file.
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Umid
Co-Founder at Craftshift