Shopify Digital Downloads App: Free vs Paid Apps Compared

The best Shopify digital downloads app for most stores is Shopify's own free app, now called Digital Products, which delivers files up to 5 GB with no bandwidth limit. Switch to a paid app such as Filemonk, Sky Pilot, FetchApp or SendOwl only when you need a feature Shopify's app does not list: PDF stamping, license keys, video streaming or a branded download page.

Plans, limits and prices below come from each app's official Shopify App Store listing (Shopify Digital Products, Filemonk, Sky Pilot, FetchApp, SendOwl) and Shopify's Digital Products help page, checked October 2026. App developers change plans often; confirm on the listing before you install.

Every app-comparison page for this query is either an App Store listing or a review written by one of the apps. What none of them do is add up the bill. This page puts the listed plans side by side and models the total monthly app cost at three order volumes, so you can see where the free option stops being enough. If you are still deciding whether Shopify is the right home for digital products at all, start with our guide to where to sell digital products in 2026, which compares Shopify with Etsy, Gumroad, Payhip and the creator storefronts.

The verdict in one table

Here is how the five apps line up on the things that drive cost: the plan price, what caps you (orders, bandwidth or storage) and what protection features each listing names.

Source: each app's Shopify App Store pricing section, checked October 2026. Prices in USD. Sky Pilot and SendOwl also list yearly billing or custom plans; see the listings for those.

Is the Shopify digital downloads app free?

Yes. The Shopify Digital Products listing shows the price as Free, and it is built by Shopify itself (checked October 2026). The listing still lives at the old "digital-downloads" address, which is why most people still search for the Shopify digital downloads app.

According to Shopify's help page, the app can deliver two kinds of assets: uploaded files (video, audio, ebooks, graphics) and links from supported providers. Customers get a link by email after purchase, and you can also show downloads on the order confirmation page. The help page lists these limits, checked October 2026:

• 5 GB maximum file size. You can attach several files per variant, or zip them. Folders cannot be uploaded.
• No bandwidth limit. Shopify says the bandwidth figure in the app is for information only.
• Download limits are optional. By default products fulfil automatically with unlimited downloads; you can cap downloads per customer for each variant.
• Links only from a fixed list of providers: Notion, Calendly, Acuity, Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Google Drive and Docs, Dropbox, Canva, YouTube, Vimeo and Figma. Links from other sites are not accepted.
• Editing a file breaks old links. If you edit or delete a file, customers who bought earlier lose access through their download link.

What the help page does not list is just as useful: no license keys, no PDF stamping, no video streaming and no customer login area. If your product does not need those, the free app is the answer and the rest of this page is optional reading.

What is the best app to sell digital products on Shopify?

"Best" depends on which limit you will hit first. Each third-party app below caps something different, which is why their prices do not compare directly. All details are from the official App Store listings, checked October 2026.

Filemonk: caps orders on free, then unlimited

Filemonk's listing shows a Free plan with 50 orders a month and uploads up to 250 MB, a $10 a month Lite plan with unlimited orders, uploads up to 10 GB, download limits, PDF watermarking, and refund and fraud checks, and a $25 a month plan with unlimited storage and priority support. Paid plans list a 14-day free trial. The listing also carries the license key tag. Of the paid apps here, it is the one whose cost does not rise with orders once you are on Lite.

Sky Pilot: caps bandwidth, not orders

Sky Pilot's listing includes unlimited orders on every plan and charges by storage and monthly bandwidth instead. Free gives 100 MB of storage and 1 GB of bandwidth. The $9 plan gives 10 GB of storage and 15 GB of bandwidth, then $2 per GB over. The $24.99 plan gives 20 GB and 50 GB, then $1.50 per GB over. The $54.99 plan gives unlimited storage, 200 GB of bandwidth, license keys, and $1 per GB over. The listing also names video streaming, PDF and video stamping, timed access and login gates. Sky Pilot is built for video and large files; the bandwidth meter is the number to watch.

FetchApp: caps storage

FetchApp's listing shows a Free plan with 5 MB of storage and a limit of 25 orders a day, then $5 (50 MB), $10 (2 GB plus the option to use your own storage) and $20 (5 GB), all with unlimited orders and bandwidth. It lets you upload license keys to deliver with downloads. The free plan's 5 MB fits a short PDF but not much else, so most sellers land on a paid tier based on file size alone.

SendOwl: caps orders per year

SendOwl's listing starts at $39 a month for up to 5,000 orders a year, then $87 for up to 25,000 and $159 for up to 50,000, each with unlimited storage and products and a 7-day trial. It lists PDF stamping, password locking, expiring links and download controls. SendOwl also sells outside Shopify, which matters if you run more than one storefront. Several recent reviews on the listing complain about price rises after a plan change, so read the current pricing page before committing.

Shopify digital downloads app cost at three order volumes

This is the table the App Store does not give you. It models the app bill at 30, 300 and 1,500 orders a month using only the listed prices above.

Approximate monthly app cost in USD from App Store list prices, checked October 2026. Excludes your Shopify plan, card processing and taxes. Sky Pilot at 300 orders: the $9 plan would add 15 GB of overage at $2 per GB, about $39 in total, so the $24.99 plan is cheaper. At 1,500 orders the $24.99 plan would add 100 GB at $1.50 per GB, about $174.99, so the $54.99 plan is cheaper.

Three patterns stand out. First, the free Shopify app never costs more, at any volume, for plain files. Second, apps that charge by orders (Filemonk's free tier, SendOwl's yearly caps) get more expensive as you sell more, while apps that charge by bandwidth (Sky Pilot) get more expensive as your files get bigger or buyers download repeatedly. Third, a 100 MB file outgrows FetchApp's free and $5 tiers on storage before orders matter at all.

Add the Shopify plan to get the real monthly cost

A delivery app is a line item on top of Shopify itself. Shopify's pricing page lists the Basic plan at $39 a month paid monthly or $29 a month paid yearly in the US, checked October 2026, and its billing overview explains card rates and third-party transaction fees, which depend on your country, plan and payment provider. So a store on Basic with the free app pays the plan plus processing; the same store on SendOwl at 300 orders a month pays the plan, plus processing, plus $39.

That stack is the honest comparison with all-in-one creator platforms that take a percentage instead of a subscription. Our Sellfy vs Gumroad comparison shows how a flat fee and a per-sale fee cross over, and Gumroad vs Lemon Squeezy covers the merchant-of-record side, where the platform handles sales tax for you. Shopify does not act as merchant of record, so tax setup stays your job.

Which Shopify file delivery app fits your product?

Match the app to the product rather than the price list. A simple mapping, based only on what each listing says the app does:

Templates, planners, presets and printables almost always land in the first box. If you also list printables on a marketplace, our Payhip vs Etsy comparison covers how marketplace fees stack against a storefront. And if you are still at the stage of deciding what to sell, our Digital Products program covers product ideas, creation, pricing and launches before you spend anything on apps.

How to set up the free app in five steps

One note from Shopify's help page: if you turn on manual fulfilment, the download link does not show on the order status page even after fulfilment. Leave automatic fulfilment on unless you review orders by hand.

Mistakes that make the app bill bigger than it needs to be

• Paying for storage you do not need. Compress PDFs and images before upload; a smaller file can keep you on a lower FetchApp or Sky Pilot tier.
• Unlimited re-downloads on a bandwidth-priced app. Set a download limit so one buyer cannot pull a large file dozens of times.
• Choosing by star rating alone. Ratings say nothing about which limit you will hit. Read the pricing section first.
• Ignoring yearly caps. SendOwl counts orders per year, so a launch month can use a large share of the allowance.
• Forgetting the exit cost. Moving apps later means re-attaching every file and checking old customer links still work.

Shopify digital downloads apps: FAQ