Free vs Pro: what's included Free & Pro

FileDeck Free, available on wordpress.org, includes everything you need to publish a searchable document library: unlimited documents, all four layouts, search, filters, and the block and shortcode. FileDeck Pro adds access control, real file protection, import/export, versioning, reporting, and more, starting at $59/yr.

What’s in FileDeck Free

• Documents post type with its own admin menu, drag-and-drop upload or Media Library selection, auto-captured file size, type, and filename, featured images, hierarchical categories, and tags.
• Four layouts — table, grid, gallery (thumbnail-forward tiles), and folders (collapsible categories) — server-rendered with progressive enhancement.
• Instant search-as-you-type, multi-column sorting, multi-select category and tag filters with live counts and an active-filter bar, and page numbers, load more or infinite scroll (with an optional fixed library height).
• Sixteen available columns (id, image, title, excerpt, content, categories, tags, date, modified, author, size, type, filename, downloads, preview, link) and four download link styles — button, button with icon, icon only, and text link — with an open-in-new-tab option.
• The Document Library Gutenberg block with live preview, the [filedeck] shortcode, and a FileDeck Library Elementor widget — all with the same layout, filter and column options.
• Native Document Library and Document Embed elements in five more page builders — Bricks, Divi, WPBakery (Visual Composer), Avada (Fusion Builder) and Beaver Builder. See page builders.
• Theme template overrides — copy a template into your theme’s filedeck/ directory to replace library markup without forking the plugin. See template overrides.
• Auto-created library page, three-step setup wizard, and accent color controls.
• Lifetime download counting per document, shown in admin.
• Instant client-side search, sort and filter — libraries up to ~500 documents get an inlined search index for zero-round-trip search-as-you-type, and larger libraries switch to server mode automatically so search keeps working at any size.
• Site-wide ⌘K / Ctrl-K quick search overlay to jump to any document from any page.
• Bulk drag-and-drop upload under Documents → Import & Export → Upload files — each file becomes a published document titled from its filename.
• Category-click filtering — clicking a category name in the table filters the library by it.
• Hover preview cards showing a thumbnail, title, category, type, size, and date.
• External file links — point a document at Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint, Amazon S3, or any URL instead of uploading it. Pasted Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive links embed and preview as live documents.
• Inline document embed — show a PDF, image or Google document as an always-visible viewer inside any page, via the [filedeck_embed] shortcode, the Document Embed block or the Elementor widget, with width/height controls, an optional download link and a full-screen button. (Pro extends the embeddable types to Office, audio and video.)
• Sidebar widgets — Recent Documents and Top Downloads for any sidebar or block area, access-aware so a restricted document never shows to someone who cannot open it.
• Standalone shortcodes — [filedeck_search], [filedeck_login], [filedeck_download] and [filedeck_qr] for placing library search, sign-in, single-file links and QR codes anywhere.
• An optional date-added filter (Any time / Past week / month / 3 months / year), and a period attribute to pre-filter a library to recent documents.
• AI-agent ready: three read-only abilities registered with WordPress 6.9’s Abilities API, so agents can search the library over MCP. Access-filtered, and agents get page links rather than download URLs.

What Pro adds

Pro feature	What it does
Access control	Restrict categories by WordPress role or protect them with a password
Groups	Name a set of people once, then give that group a client area or a single document; change the membership and every grant follows
Client areas by email domain	Admit everyone with an address at a domain, so someone who joins it later gets in without the category being edited
IP rules	Limit downloads to chosen addresses or CIDR ranges, or block specific ones; applies to signed share links too; site administrators keep access
Single-use download links	A link that works for exactly one download and then stops; expires after 7 days if unused
Hotlink protection	Refuse downloads requested from another site’s pages; requests with no referrer and signed share links are unaffected
Custom access-denied page	Send a refused visitor to a page of your own; documents whose existence is private keep the not-found page
Search synonyms	Groups of equivalent terms, so "PO" finds "purchase order"; each word you type is still required
Spelling tolerance	A search returning no results retries against the closest spelling in your titles and categories, and says which word it used
Personal download history	[filedeck_my_downloads] shows a signed-in visitor what they already took; anything they lost access to drops out
New & downloaded markers	Mark rows new since a signed-in visitor last looked, and dim what they have downloaded
True file protection	Protected files move out of public uploads; downloads use signed URLs that expire after 15 minutes
CSV import and export	Bulk create or update documents; export your library
Bulk convert	Turn existing Media Library files into documents
Cloud storage	Browse and attach files from Amazon S3 (and S3-compatible services), Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint and Box, with a scheduled one-way pull that imports new files automatically
Version history	The old file is archived automatically on every replacement; download URLs never change
Auto-expiry dates	Remove a document from the library after a set date
Folder Download all	One button per folder that zips everything in it, through the same gates as any other download
Bulk access changes	Make a whole selection public or logged-in-only from the Documents list in one action
Multi-select zip download	Visitors tick checkboxes and download a single zip
Office & media previews	Preview and embed Word, Excel, PowerPoint, audio and video — on top of the free PDF and image preview and embed
Automatic PDF thumbnails	Grid and image views show a real first-page preview of each PDF, rendered on your own server
Download log and reports	Who, what, when — with optional IP anonymization and CSV export; also powers the views library column
Analytics dashboard	Downloads, views and searches at a glance — a downloads-over-time chart, top documents and top searches, over 30 days to all time, with CSV export
Google Analytics 4	Send document downloads, searches and previews to your own GA4 as standard events (file_download, search, select_content); off by default, no data goes to FileDeck
Lead capture	Require name/email before download; export leads or send to a webhook
Require a form before download	Gate downloads behind Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WPForms, Contact Form 7 or any other form plugin — paste its shortcode; one submission unlocks downloads for an hour
Terms before download	Require readers to accept licence conditions or a disclaimer first, with every acceptance recorded in the activity log
Attach documents to a post	Tick documents in the post or page editor and they list automatically after the content, using your normal layout
Content search + Search Index	Search inside PDFs, Office and OpenDocument files, and text files; rebuild the index under Documents → Settings → Search Index
Scanned-PDF OCR	Extracts text from scanned PDFs that have no text layer; requires a Pro OCR key
AI semantic search + Ask AI (AI plan)	Find documents by meaning, and offer an "Ask this library" chat widget with cited answers; a Documents → Insights → Activity log → AI Questions view shows what visitors ask and turns unanswered questions into new-document drafts. Requires your own AI provider API key — a managed option is not yet available
Accessibility screening (AI plan)	Screens every PDF in the library for machine-detectable accessibility problems — untagged for screen readers, no document language, no title, or a scan with no text — and names the WCAG criterion each relates to. A screening tool, not a compliance check: it finds documents that certainly need work, it cannot certify the rest. Runs locally; no AI provider is called
Review cycles	Put documents or categories on a review schedule and mark them reviewed from one screen
Subscriptions and digests	Visitors subscribe to daily or weekly email digests of new and updated documents
Approval gate	Adds a submit-for-review, approve-and-publish workflow to the document editor
Library health scans	Weekly automatic scan for missing files, dead external links, and documents never downloaded in 90+ days
Activity log + content gaps	Logs views, searches, and downloads — with country, referrer and user agent where the host provides them — plus a report of searches that found nothing
File integrity	SHA-256 checksum recorded for every file, with optional verification on download
One-click plugin import	Move a library across from Download Monitor, WordPress Download Manager, Document Library Lite/Pro or Shared Files in one click — no CSV export step
Custom fields	Add your own document fields (text, number, date, dropdown, multi-select, URL, user, yes/no) and use them as sortable columns and faceted filters
Front-end submission	Let visitors or staff upload documents from the front end, landing as pending for moderation
Assign to specific people	Give a document to named users; it stays invisible to everyone else, not even a locked row
Client areas	Assign named users to a category and give each of them a private portal of just their documents
Membership-plan gating	Restrict a category or a document to holders of a MemberPress, Paid Memberships Pro, WooCommerce Memberships, Restrict Content Pro or s2Member plan — access follows the membership, so it goes when the membership lapses
Favourites	Signed-in readers star a document to keep it, and read their favourites back on any page with [filedeck_my_favourites]; access is re-checked when the list is read
Download notifications	Email and/or webhook on every download
Download quotas	Daily per-role download limits, including a bucket for logged-out visitors
Bot protection	A CAPTCHA check — Cloudflare Turnstile or Google reCAPTCHA v2 — before the first download of a visit, so a script cannot walk every link on the page. Logged-in users are not challenged
Acknowledgment tracking (AI plan)	Ask named roles to read and confirm a document, with an append-only evidence trail and reminder emails
PDF watermarking (AI plan)	Stamp each served PDF with who downloaded it, when and from where
View-only documents (AI plan)	Let a document be read in the browser but not downloaded

Pricing

Pro — everything in the table above except the AI features:

• $59/yr — 1 site
• $99/yr — 5 sites
• $179/yr — Agency plan (50 sites)

AI — everything in Pro, plus semantic search, "Ask this library", the AI Questions view, PDF accessibility screening, and AI summary/tag suggestions:

• $119/yr — 1 site
• $199/yr — 5 sites
• $399/yr — Agency plan (50 sites)

AI features are opt-in and use your own AI provider API key (bring your own key). Renewal prices never increase: the price you buy at is the price you renew at. Every plan includes priority email support and updates while the license is active. Checkout and licensing are handled by Freemius, and every purchase has a 30-day money-back guarantee — see Billing, refunds, and getting support.

Ready to switch? See Upgrade from Free to Pro — your documents and settings carry over automatically.

FAQ

Is the free version limited in how many documents I can add?

No. Free has no document limits. Pro adds features, not capacity.

Do all Pro plans include the same features?

Yes. The three plans differ only in how many sites you can activate the license on.

What happens to Pro features if I don’t renew?

The plugin keeps working, but updates and support stop. See License keys, activation, and updates.