A third of the price, and it flags the document that went out of date.
An honest comparison. Document Library Pro by Barn2 is a mature, well-supported plugin — if it were bad, undercutting it wouldn’t matter. Here’s where the two differ, verified against both products in August 2026.
- $59
- FileDeck Pro
- One site for a year. It renews at $59 — the price you join at is the price you renew at.
- $149–199
- Document Library Pro
- Essentials is $149; Advanced at $199 is the tier that carries access control and version history.
- $270–420
- Difference over 3 years
- $177 against $447–597 for a single site, at the list prices we checked in August 2026.
01Price
What each one costs, including the renewal.
The row that usually decides it is the third one. A renewal that climbs after year one is the normal shape of this market; ours does not.
| Licence | Document Library Pro | FileDeck Pro |
|---|---|---|
| 1 site / year | $149 Essentials / $199 Advanced | $59 |
| 5 sites / year | $249 / $349 | $99 |
| 3-year cost, one site | $447–597 | $177 |
| Free version | Yes (Lite) — limited | All layouts, no document limit |
02Feature by feature
Where the two products actually diverge.
Both do the core job well. The differences are in what sits behind the paywall, and in one row neither product used to have.
| Capability | Document Library Pro | FileDeck |
|---|---|---|
| Table, grid and folder layouts | Paid | Free — grid and folders included |
| Instant search and multi-select filters, with counts | Search free in Lite; filter dropdowns paid | Free |
| Multi-column sorting, infinite scroll, shareable filtered URLs | Paid tiers | Free |
| Native Gutenberg block with live preview | Paid add-on | Free |
| Role, password and per-person access control | Advanced, $199 | Pro |
| Signed, expiring protected-file URLs | Not advertised | Pro — 15 minutes |
| Version history with restore | Advanced | Pro |
| Document expiry | Advanced | Pro |
| Review dates: a document flagged before it goes stale | — | Pro |
| Lead capture before download | Advanced | Pro |
| Multi-select zip download | Included | Pro |
| CSV import and bulk add | Included | Pro |
| One-click import from other document plugins | — | Pro — eleven plugins |
| AI semantic search and “Ask this library” | — | AI tier |
| Front-end document submission | Included | Pro |
| Hosted, non-WordPress version | Included | FileDeck Embed |
03The other side
Where Document Library Pro is the better buy.
Credit where it is due. If any of these three matter more to you than price or architecture, they are a reasonable choice and we would rather you bought the right thing.
Track record
Since early 2021Barn2 has run this product for years longer than we have, with a dedicated support team behind it.
Documentation
A large knowledge baseBuilt up over the life of the product, and it shows.
Off-WordPress
A mature hosted versionEmbeddable in Squarespace, Wix or Webflow. Ours — FileDeck Embed — is much newer.
04Moving across
Your existing library comes over in one click.
FileDeck Pro reads a Document Library Lite or Pro library straight from your own database — titles, descriptions, nested categories, tags and files. There is no CSV export step.
- 04.1Run the importerDocuments → Import & Export → Migrate. It runs in the background, and re-running it does not create duplicates.
- 04.2Run both until you are sureYour old plugin keeps serving its own URLs while you check the new library. Nothing is deleted at the other end.
- 04.3Switch the page overDrop the Document Library block on your page when you are satisfied. See the full walkthrough.
05Before you go
Neither of us is the point until a document goes stale.
On 3 September 2026 we installed the five most-installed plugins in this category on clean WordPress and searched every one for a review date on a document — a next-review field, a Due badge, an Overdue badge. We found none.
FileDeck Pro puts a review date on any document, turns it amber three weeks out and red the day after it passes, and emails whoever owns the library each morning with what is due.
06Questions
The three we are asked most.
Is FileDeck a fork of Document Library Pro?
No. FileDeck is an independent, clean-room implementation. No code is shared between the two products.
Why is FileDeck cheaper?
Smaller team, no legacy codebase, and a deliberate decision to compete on price honesty. The renewal is the same figure as the first year, and that is set in the payment gateway rather than promised in marketing copy.
Can I try it before buying?
Yes. The live demo runs the real plugin against a full sample library, and the free version on WordPress.org has no document limit.
Document Library Pro and Barn2 are trademarks of Barn2 Media Ltd. FileDeck is not affiliated with Barn2. This is an independent comparison; prices and features were verified in August 2026 from public sources — tell us if anything here is out of date.