Easy Digital Downloads Content Restriction

Easy Digital Downloads Content Restriction is an official extension designed for those who sell digital products on WordPress and need to precisely control what content their customers can see. It is especially intended for creators of online courses, light memberships, premium resources, private documentation, and any site that sells digital downloads and wants to offer exclusive access to those who have actually purchased.

The extension adds a Content Restriction section to the editing screen for posts, pages, custom content types, and even bbPress forums and topics. From there, you can select which products a user must have purchased to access the content. It offers two ways to restrict: limit an entire page or post via the editor settings, or restrict specific content fragments using the [edd_restrict] shortcode, which accepts parameters such as the product ID, specific price ID, or the word any to allow access to any purchaser.

The restriction logic works with OR conditions: if you select multiple products, the content will be accessible to those who have purchased any of them. You can also restrict content to verified customers of any product in your store, or even to specific variations of a particular product. Additionally, it includes the [edd_cr_no_access] shortcode to show preview content to those who have not yet purchased, which is ideal for generating interest and conversion.

Among its most notable features is integration with Recurring Payments, which allows requiring an active subscription to access restricted content, and with Software Licensing, which restricts access only to active licenses. It also allows automatically hiding navigation menu items that the user does not have access to, considering products included in bundles as purchased, and customizing the messages that visitors without access see, both for single-product restrictions, multiple products, or any purchase.

After a purchase, customers automatically see a list of restricted pages they now have access to on the confirmation page, and you can include that list in receipt emails using the {page_list} tag or display accessible pages with the [edd_restricted_pages] shortcode. Everything is configured from Downloads → Settings → Extensions → Content Restriction, with clear and simple global options.

In short, Content Restriction is the official and robust solution for monetizing exclusive content in Easy Digital Downloads stores, combining flexibility, native integrations, and a careful user experience for both the administrator and the buyer.