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Free Plugin by Andrew Munro / AffiliateWP v1.0.5

Easy Digital Downloads Featured Downloads

Easily feature your downloads

Easy Digital Downloads Featured Downloads

The facts

Rating
5★ from 1
Active installs
1k+
Price
Free
Last updated
18 Aug 2025
Added
Apr 2013
Requires WP
5.4
Tested up to
WP 6.2.11
Downloads
81,280

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Easy Digital Downloads Featured Downloads is a WordPress plugin designed for users of Easy Digital Downloads (EDD). It allows you to showcase a list of featured downloads on your website, which can be useful for highlighting specific products or services.

The plugin provides a shortcode and a template tag for easy integration into your theme. It also includes an interface for managing featured downloads directly from the WordPress admin area, enabling you to quickly identify which downloads are featured.

Best for: This plugin suits developers or clients using Easy Digital Downloads who want to highlight specific downloads.

What it does well

  • ✓Integrates with Easy Digital Downloads
  • ✓Offers a shortcode for easy listing of featured downloads
  • ✓Includes a template tag for custom placement in themes
  • ✓Provides an admin interface for managing featured downloads

Where it falls short

  • •Requires Easy Digital Downloads to function
  • •No longer necessary as a standalone addon since EDD 3.5.1

Verdict

While this plugin provides useful features for managing featured downloads, its functionality is now integrated into the core EDD, making it less essential for new users.

From the developer

Andrew Munro / AffiliateWP's own description of Easy Digital Downloads Featured Downloads, lightly tidied.

Featured Downloads is now part of EDD Core

As of Easy Digital Downloads 3.5.1, the Featured Downloads addon is included in Easy Digital Downloads. You no longer need this addon to use the Featured Downloads feature.

About this Addon

This plugin requires Easy Digital Downloads. It’s aimed at developers/clients who need to show a list of featured downloads.

  1. Provides a template tag so finely-tuned placement of featured downloads in your theme is possible.
  2. Provides a shortcode which will simply list all the featured downloads, without the need to enter any IDs.
  3. Provides a simple interface for managing featured downloads in the WordPress admin. A “feature download” checkbox will be added to each download edit/publish screen as well as the quick edit boxes. At a glance you’ll also be able to see which downloads have been featured on your website from the main download listing.

Shortcode Usage

Add the “featured” attribute to the existing [downloads] shortcode provided by Easy Digital Downloads:

[downloads featured="yes"]

Template Tag Usage

The following code can be used to show the featured downloads anywhere in your theme:

echo do_shortcode( '[downloads featured="yes"]' );

You can include any other attributes supported by the [downloads] shortcode.

Building your own Query

To build your own query using WP_Query you can use the meta_key parameter with a value of edd_feature_download. The following example builds a simple unordered list with all the featured downloads.

<?php

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'download',
    'meta_key'  => 'edd_feature_download',
);

$featured_downloads = new WP_Query( $args );

if( $featured_downloads->have_posts() ) : ?>

    <ul>
        <?php while( $featured_downloads->have_posts() ) : $featured_downloads->the_post(); ?>
        <li>
           <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
                <?php the_title(); ?>
           </a>
        </li>
        <?php endwhile; ?>
    </ul>

<?php endif; wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

Read the full description on the official page →

Tagged as

industry Digital Downloads
purpose Digital Downloads & Licensing
platform Easy Digital Downloads
feature Shortcodes
topic Download Downloads Featured Query Addons Title Addon

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