Plugin Pulse
← Pulse
P

Paid Downloads

by Ivan Churakov · Payments

Also makes 6 other plugins · 300+ installs across the portfolio →

The plugin allows to sell digital content and accept payments via PayPal, Payza or InterKassa. It delivers download link after completed payment.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews
How scoring works →
40 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 60/100
Support 70/100

40 health vs 65 average across 1,090 Payments plugins

High removal-risk signals

63/100

Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.

  • Long abandoned. No update in 14+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.3.2, well behind 6.8.

Directory ranking optimization

How it's scored →

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

37 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 0/100
WP compatibility 1/100
Rating quality 58/100
Listing tuning 100/100

To rank higher: Last updated 5125 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.

Get the full rank-higher report →

Daily downloads

Since 2022-10-05 · 1,427 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+25% vs prior 30d
5Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

74

now · peak 102

7430d downloads · Sep 26

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

Paid Downloads · #16963 you WP Express Checkout · #5268 Payment forms, Buy n · #3209 Payment Button for P · #3543

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

2.8Stars · Sep 26

Update activity

How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.

925per 1k installs · Sep 26

Release cadence

No release in a year
from wp.org release tags

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

0

releases in the last 12 months

14.0y ago

latest release · v3.15

16

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

3.15 · 14.0y ago3.14 · 14.5y ago3.13 · 14.5y ago3.12 · 14.5y ago3.11 · 14.5y ago3.10 · 14.6y ago3.04 · 14.7y ago3.03 · 14.7y ago3.02 · 14.7y ago3.01 · 14.7y ago3.0 · 14.8y ago2.22 · 14.9y ago2.21 · 14.9y ago2.01 · 15.3y ago

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v3.15 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “80+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

modeled estimate
80–90 ≈87

Modeled within the band wp.org reports; tightens as we track daily.

Install history · since 2016-10-11 · 1,390 observations

80Installs · Sep 26

Estimated value

What this plugin might earn a year, and what it might sell for. Modeled from public signals; we don't see anyone's books.

Est. annual revenue

N/A

Est. acquisition value

N/A

No paid tier is visible, so we don't put a figure on revenue or sale value: that would be guessing. The install base is a real asset to an acquirer, just not one public data lets us price. A small install base leaves thin data to model from.

Details

Version
3.15
Last updated
14.0y ago
Added
2011-05-30 · 15 yrs old
Requires WP
3.0
Tested up to
3.3.2
Requires PHP

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. TheSolverItaly
    9.5y ago

    This plugin does not creates links and title.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. passegua
    12.2y ago

    You should be aware that this plugin is NOT working on last wp release 3.9.1

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. Sudhanshu Dubey
    12.8y ago

    This what I was really looking from a long time! Thanks…

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. indecrotable
    12.8y ago

    Tries to solves an important problem but brings two minor ones: Impossible to use more than one custom image button and impossible to customize CSS buttons. The best solution may be to use a [paiddownloadlink] or [paiddownloadonclick] command. I just hacked with JS. Doesn’t send manual links and doesn’t check if paid links have reached their recipients.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. marrie125
    13.0y ago

    This plugin is grate. and easy to use. How ever i notice anything more then 30 mb will fail and a 500 internal server error will be on my site. Also if a user buys a dl of more then 30 mb the dl will be 0 bytes and the dl link will fail. This is not acceptable in my book. This needs to be fixed. Thanks.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  6. Ahmad
    13.0y ago

    Working like a charm on my site…Thanks for this plugin..:)

    Read on wp.org ↗
  7. sylvioros
    13.6y ago

    And no explanation either.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  8. eJus
    13.8y ago

    The download link looks good. The downloaded file has the size it should. But it isn’t ientical to the source file and doesn’t work. For example: $ ll sample.epub [= downloaded file] -rw-r–r– 1 gp gp 498797 19. Nov 23:29 sample.epub $ ll tmp/sample.epub [= source file] -rw-r–r– 1 gp gp 498797 18. Nov 22:12 tmp/sample.epub $ diff sample.epub tmp/sample.epub Binary files sample.epub and tmp/sample.epub are different. $ [files have same size and name but are different, download file does not work.]

    Read on wp.org ↗

Known vulnerabilities

via Wordfence Intelligence

1 disclosed vulnerability on record for this plugin, 1 still affects the current version.

  1. 2026-01-21 CVE-2025-68857 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') Affects <= 3.15 No patch available

Vulnerability records provided by Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. License and terms.

CVE records: Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE terms of use.

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3

Low memory footprint
Low page-speed impact
Runs on latest PHP + WP
No PHP errors
No JS errors
Activates cleanly
No resource errors
No external HTTP errors
Optimized database use
Frequently updated

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

  1. 2026-09-01 100+ → 80+ down after 25 days in tier
  2. 2026-08-07 90+ → 100+ up after 89 days in tier
  3. 2026-05-10 100+ → 90+ down after 8 days in tier
  4. 2026-05-02 90+ → 100+ up after 3 days in tier
  5. 2026-04-29 100+ → 90+ down after 49 days in tier
  6. 2026-03-11 90+ → 100+ up after 1 days in tier
  7. 2026-03-10 100+ → 90+ down after 8 days in tier
  8. 2026-03-02 90+ → 100+ up after 19 days in tier

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

Compare head to head →

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Paid Downloads into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/paid-downloads" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Paid Downloads — Plugin Pulse"></iframe>
Preview card ↗

Paid Downloads: 80+ active installs, 2.8★ (9 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-09-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/paid-downloads