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WP-DownloadCounter icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 2.7.3 #37 in Counter

WP-DownloadCounter

Since WordPress does offer attaching downloads to pages, but doesn't keep track of the amount of downloads, this plugin was written.

Active installs100+100+ tier
Downloads · 30d242▲ +25.4% vs prev. 30d
Rating2.5/52 reviews
Health score25/100At risk
All-time downloads22.7KSince Dec 2008
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 2.0.2PHP any
Downloads · 7d65▼ -24.4% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

WP-DownloadCounter shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 100+ sites, is rated 2.5/5 and was last updated 17 years ago, and scores 25/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (100+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in 17 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 2.7 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

51117Jun 29Aug 12Sep 26
Yesterday6
Daily average (1y)5
Peak day23Sep 20, 2026
Last 12 months1.7K

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where WP-DownloadCounter stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
Counter >100 2,712 Best Counter plugins →
download >100 10,000 Best download plugins →
download counter >100 1,077 Best download counter plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.01100.0%

Rating breakdown

★★★★★★★★★★ 2.5 from 2 reviews

  • 5★0.00%
  • 4★0.00%
  • 3★50.0%
  • 2★50.0%
  • 1★0.00%

About WP-DownloadCounter

From the official readme · v1.01

Description

Since WordPress does offer attaching downloads to pages, but doesn’t keep track of statistical information about these downloads, I wrote this plugin.
I should mention statistical information is a big word for just another download counter, since that is main purpose of this plugin.

Features:

  • Keeps track of the amount of downloads of a certain file.
  • Keeps track of the last download time
  • Allows you to reset the counter
  • Allows you to add counters to both internal and external urls
  • Can use fancy urls (like /downloads/file.zip)
  • Can print the amount of downloads, the filesize and the last modified date in a post.

Arbitrary section

Using tags in your posts

When writing a post or a page, you may want to add the URL or the amount of downloads in your post. Using [ download(downloadname) ] (without the spaces) will be replaced with the download url, [ downloadcounter(downloadname) ] will be replaced with the amount of downloads, [ downloadsize(downloadname) ] will print the size of the download (in GB, MB, kB or B), [ downloadupdated(downloadname) ] will print the last modified date, using the WordPress setting you’ve specified for the date format. When creating a link, you could, for instance, use Download (of course, again, without the spaces within the [] brackets).

Finally, when using downloadsize of downloadupdated, you can specify one extra argument. With downloadsize, you can add ,false to prevent the usage of the GB, MB, kB or B postfixes. So, for example, using [ downloadsize(file.zip, false) ] will just display the size in bytes. With downloadupdated, you can enter a PHP date format string as extra argument. For example, [ downloadupdated(file.zip, d-m-Y) ] will display a date like 27-11-2008.

Retrieving download information from PHP

Since version 0.6 is it possible to get information about the downloads using PHP, so you can use this information directly in your templates or in you own plugins. Only one function is important at the moment:

download_information($download_name, $return_information = DOWNLOAD_URL | DOWNLOAD_AMOUNT)

This function will return an array with the requested information. You can specify what information to return by the argument $return_information. The file downloadcounter-options.php contains the correct define statements which can be used. Currently only URL, Amount, Size and Last Modified Date are available.

Using the code

$info = download_information(wp-downloadcounter.zip, DOWNLOAD_URL | DOWNLOAD_AMOUNT | DOWNLOAD_SIZE | DOWNLOAD_LASTMODIFIED);
var_dump($info);

returns:

array(4) { ["url"]=> string(73) "http://projects.bovendeur.org/downloads/wp-downloadcounter.zip" ["amount"]=> string(4) "1878" ["size"]=> int(11006) ["lastmodified"]=> int(1228157426) }

Installation

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

  1. Upload the content of the zip-file to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. Navigate to the Permalink Settings and press Save Changes or disable Pretty Links in the DownloadCounter Options (under Manage->Downloads)
  4. Add you downloads to the Downloads page under the Manage menu
  5. Alter you posts to use the tags as shown in the Using tags in your posts section

Screenshots

Shows the download counter in action.
Shows the download counter in action.
The source code of the post shown at screenshot-1. The used post tags are clearly visible in this screen.
The source code of the post shown at screenshot-1. The used post tags are clearly visible…
Displays the configuration and a list of available downloads.
Displays the configuration and a list of available downloads.
Displays a complete list of the downloads, including referrer, ip address, download date and the logged in user (if any).
Displays a complete list of the downloads, including referrer, ip address, download date…

For developers

Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.

Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.

Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

Best WP-DownloadCounter alternatives

All Counter plugins →
Alternatives
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1 Post Views Counter Post Views Counter Post Views Counter allows you to collect and display how many times a post, page, or other… by dFactory 100K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 (1.2K) 1 month ago 77
2 WP-PostViews WP-PostViews Enables you to display how many times a post/page had been viewed. by Lester Chan 100K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 (65) 1 month ago 85
3 Simple Download Monitor Simple Download Monitor Easily manage downloadable files and monitor downloads of your digital files from your… by mra13 / Team Tips and Tricks… 20K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 (156) 2 weeks ago 88
4 Counter Number Showcase, Fun Facts – WordPress Animated Counter Plugin Counter Number Showcase, Fun Facts Counter Number WordPress Plugin brings you all the powerful Stats Counter features to your… by wpshopmart 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 (190) 2 years ago 48
5 SRS Simple Hits Counter SRS Simple Hits Counter Display unique visitor or page-view counts anywhere on your site using widgets or… by SandyRig 8K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 (6) 4 months ago 66
6 Counter live visitors for WooCommerce Counter live visitors for WooCommerce Show user count on product by DanielRiera 4K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (5) 7 months ago 56
7 Post View Count Post View Count Add a "Post View Count" plugin to get the count of views for your posts. by Naresh Parmar 4K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 (18) 2 weeks ago 71
8 Wp Post Views – WordPress Post views counter Wp Post Views – WordPress Post views counter WP Post Views is a lightweight and efficient plugin to track and display post views in… by Ronak J Vanpariya 4K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 (7) 1 week ago 82
9 Counters Block – Animated Number Counters, Stats & Dynamic KPIs Counters Block Animated number counters for Gutenberg. Show stats, milestones, KPIs, and live WooCommerce… by bPlugins 3K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (8) 6 days ago 83
10 Light Views Counter – Fast, Scalable View Counter for High-Traffic Sites Light Views Counter Lightweight and fast post view counter with smart tracking, built for high-traffic sites… by ThemeRuby 3K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 4 months ago 60

FAQ

WP-DownloadCounter: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 27, 2026

Is WP-DownloadCounter free?

Yes. WP-DownloadCounter is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is WP-DownloadCounter safe to use in 2026?

WP-DownloadCounter shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 100+ sites, is rated 2.5/5 and was last updated 17 years ago, and scores 25/100 on our health check.

How many websites use WP-DownloadCounter?

WP-DownloadCounter is active on 100+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 22,722 times since it launched in December 2008. It was downloaded 242 times in the last 30 days.

Does WP-DownloadCounter work with WordPress 7.1?

WP-DownloadCounter is officially tested up to WordPress 2.7.3, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was WP-DownloadCounter last updated?

The latest version, 1.01, was released on April 22, 2009 (17 years ago).

Who makes WP-DownloadCounter?

WP-DownloadCounter is developed and maintained by r-win.

What are the best alternatives to WP-DownloadCounter?

The most popular alternatives to WP-DownloadCounter are Post Views Counter (100K+ installs), WP-PostViews (100K+ installs) and Simple Download Monitor (20K+ installs).

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