Our comparison pages make factual claims about other people’s products. This page is the protocol behind those claims — what we install, what we check, and what the latest run found — so you can judge the evidence instead of taking a vendor’s word.
Latest run: 24 July 2026 · WordPress 7.0.2.
The protocol
- Spin up a fresh WordPress sandbox (currently WordPress 7.0.2 via wp-now / WordPress Playground) — no other plugins, no leftover data.
- Install the current free version from wordpress.org and note the exact version.
- Seed sample documents, then work the four jobs we judge every plugin on: find (search, filters), organise (categories/folders, sorting), restrict (access enforced on the file, not just the page), download UX.
- Check price honesty: what the free tier actually includes, the real entry price, and renewal behaviour — against the vendor’s own site, on the run date.
- Where a product has no free version to install, we rely on the vendor’s public documentation and mark it as such.
There are no affiliate links anywhere on this site, so no ranking is shaped by a commission.
Latest run — 24 July 2026
| Plugin | Version | Basis | What we verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| FileBird | 6.5.5 | Fresh install | Created 15 folders in the free version without hitting a limit — the old 10-folder cap is gone (the upgrade-prompt string still exists in the plugin’s translation files, but nothing triggers it). The core free plugin organises the Media Library; it is not a front-end document library on its own. |
| Filr | 1.2.14 | Fresh install | Free is a lightweight upload + shortcode library with downloads. Encryption, expiry by date or download count, and role/email restriction are premium — the free build’s own edit screen says so. |
| Document Library Lite | 1.2.0 | Fresh install | Free renders a searchable, sortable document table from its own Documents post type. Grid layout, folders and filter dropdowns are not part of the free layer. |
| Download Monitor | 5.2.5 | Importer development | Building FileDeck’s one-click importer meant installing it, populating real libraries and mapping how it stores every download, category and count. |
| WordPress Download Manager | 3.3.66 | Importer development | Same basis — see the importer notes. |
| Shared Files | 1.7.67 | Importer development | Same basis — see the importer notes. |
| WP File Download | paid only | Vendor documentation | No free version to install; features and pricing from the vendor’s public documentation. |
| Document Library Pro (paid tiers) | — | Vendor documentation | The free tier (Document Library Lite) is tested above; paid-tier features come from the vendor’s public documentation. |
Corrections
When a test contradicts something we’ve published, we fix the page and record it here.
- 24 July 2026: our plugins roundup implied Filr’s link-expiry features were part of its free version. The fresh install showed they’re premium; the roundup was corrected the same day.
And FileDeck itself?
Same standard, in public: the live demo is the actual plugin with 66 documents and no signup, and every tier claim on this site is checked against the same feature registry that gates the shipped code. If you find a claim the product doesn’t back, tell us and we’ll fix it — on this page.
Start with the full comparison of the best WordPress document library plugins.
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