WooCommerce Subscription Downloads

What a subscriber pays for is staying in

A shop that sells a subscription and also has files to download tends to end up with two catalogs that do not talk to each other: what it charges each month on one side and the PDFs, templates or packs on the other. Granting access to those files by hand, customer by customer, stops being viable as soon as there are more than a few.

WooCommerce Subscription Downloads joins the two. You link a downloadable product to a subscription product and whoever is subscribed sees the download links. This changes what you are selling: each file you link is a reason not to cancel, because access exists while the subscription stays alive.

The part worth keeping in mind is the other side. Access is cut when the subscription ends, but a file the customer already downloaded stays on their computer. What keeps a subscriber, then, is what is still to come, not what they already downloaded.

What changes for the customer and the shop

• Link between products: a simple or variable product marked as downloadable is associated with a subscription product.
• Download links: whoever subscribes sees the links to the files of the related downloadable products.
• New and existing customers: the link applies both to those who already bought the subscription and to those who buy it later.
• Access tied to status: downloads remain available only while the subscription is active.
• Automatic cutoff: if the subscription is canceled, suspended or expired, the customer loses access to those files.

Check first whether your shop already includes it

This is the decision to make before installing anything. Recent versions of WooCommerce Subscriptions link downloadable products to subscriptions with no separate extension.

To find out, open WooCommerce, Settings, Subscriptions and look for the downloadable content section, with an option for sharing downloadable products. If it is there, use that feature and do not add this extension. If your version does not have it, Subscription Downloads is the piece that fills that gap.

What stays outside the extension

Subscription Downloads charges nothing and manages no renewals: all of that stays in WooCommerce Subscriptions, which must be installed.

Also review the download expiry on each product. On downloadable subscription products, a fixed expiry can leave days when the customer has an active subscription and still cannot download the file, so it is best to leave it blank on linked products too.

How to link the first file

You need WooCommerce and WooCommerce Subscriptions, with at least one subscription product created. Then:

1. Activate the extension.
2. Create a product in WooCommerce, of simple or variable type, and tick the downloadable box.
3. Upload the file and leave the download expiry blank.
4. In the General tab, search for your subscription in the Subscriptions field and select it.
5. Publish the product and log in with a subscribed test account to check that it sees the link.
6. Cancel that test subscription from the admin and confirm that it can no longer download the file.

The billing base, and drip release with Memberships

WooCommerce Subscriptions is the essential base of this extension: it turns products into weekly, monthly or yearly recurring charges.

If you want to open content according to how long each member has been in, WooCommerce Memberships restricts posts, pages, products and downloadable files, and allows releasing them on a drip. It fits better when access covers much more than a few downloads.

Answers about Subscription Downloads

Does it work without WooCommerce Subscriptions?

No. It links downloadables to subscription products, and those products come from WooCommerce Subscriptions.

Do my existing subscribers receive the file?

Yes. The link applies to those who already bought the subscription and to those who buy it later.

Can they keep what they already downloaded?

Yes. The cutoff affects the shop links, not the copies the customer saved on their computer.

Do I need it if my WooCommerce Subscriptions is up to date?

Probably not. Check the Subscriptions settings for the downloadable content section.