WP-DownloadCounter
Since WordPress does offer attaching downloads to pages, but doesn't keep track of the amount of downloads, this plugin was written.
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 & supportDaily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where WP-DownloadCounter stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| Counter | >100 |
| download | >100 |
| download counter | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 2.5 from 2 reviews
About WP-DownloadCounter
From the official readme · v1.01Description
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.
- Upload the content of the zip-file to the
/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Navigate to the Permalink Settings and press Save Changes or disable Pretty Links in the DownloadCounter Options (under Manage->Downloads)
- Add you downloads to the Downloads page under the Manage menu
- Alter you posts to use the tags as shown in the Using tags in your posts section
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.
Best WP-DownloadCounter alternatives
All Counter plugins →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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