Open-source Ko-fi alternatives

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is a WordPress plugin for selling digital downloads. Its authors argue that the large WordPress e-commerce plugins have never handled digital goods well, so EDD concentrates on the features sellers actually need rather than every possible option, and aims to make selling downloads easy and complete.

Installed into an existing WordPress site, it adds a store for digital products with payment support, with Stripe among the topics listed by the repository. The codebase has build scripts that prepare installable packages, translations can be contributed in other languages, and the repository serves as a developer portal while customer support is handled through the vendor's support page.

EDD is written in PHP and released under the GPL-2.0 license. Because it runs inside WordPress, you host it with your own WordPress hosting. Documentation, extensions and support are provided on easydigitaldownloads.com, and contributors can raise issues or send pull requests on GitHub.

Paid Memberships Pro is a membership plugin for WordPress that lets a site owner define membership levels, charge for them and control who can see which content. It is aimed at premium content sites, clubs and associations, subscription products and newsletters.

Visitors choose a level, complete checkout and become members straight away. Members can log in, look at their payment history, update billing details or cancel from the site itself. Recurring subscriptions are processed through gateways such as Stripe and PayPal, and the site owner decides what each level unlocks.

The project is fully open source under the GPL and runs inside your own WordPress installation, so you keep control of your data and hosting. Its documentation also links to guides comparing WordPress plugins with hosted SaaS membership platforms such as Kajabi and Podia, which is the decision many site owners weigh before adopting it.