FileDeck – Document Library & Download Manager

Description

FileDeck is a WordPress document library plugin that turns file collections into a fast, searchable document library with table, grid, gallery and folder layouts. List policies, guides, minutes, forms, resources, or any downloadable files — a PDF library, an Office-document archive, a mixed media collection — with instant search that filters as you type, and have a professional document library on your site in minutes.

See it in action: try the live demo — a real 66-document library, no signup — or read the documentation.

A free version that’s actually usable. Every layout, every filter, and the Gutenberg block are free, and you can list as many documents as you like. Nothing essential is locked away just to force an upgrade.

What you won’t find elsewhere

• Full-text document search – Pro searches inside your PDFs, Office and text files (with optional OCR for scanned documents) — on your own server, so documents never leave your site
• One-click migration – switching from Download Monitor, Simple Download Monitor, WordPress Download Manager, Document Library Lite/Pro, Shared Files, Simple File List, Advanced File Manager, BSK PDF Manager, Download Attachments, WP Customer Area or FileBird? FileDeck imports your whole library straight from your own database — no export files, no column mapping
• Large file uploads – drawings, scans and video upload in resumable chunks, so your host’s upload limit is no longer the ceiling and a dropped connection resumes instead of restarting
• Library event webhooks – a signed JSON POST when a document is published, updated, retired or deleted; point Zapier, Make or your own system at it
• Client areas – give each client a private document portal with uploads and email notifications

Free features

• Four layouts – searchable table, responsive card grid, a thumbnail-forward document gallery, or collapsible folders by category
• Instant search – filters as you type, no page reloads
• Filter dropdowns – categories and tags, plus click-a-category filtering
• Sortable columns – title, date, size, type, downloads, and more
• Unlimited documents – no cap; search scales automatically as your library grows
• Download tracking – per-document download counts
• Force download or open in browser – choose per document whether the button saves the file or displays it in the browser, instead of leaving it to each visitor’s browser defaults
• Gutenberg block + shortcode + Elementor, Bricks & Divi – native block with live preview, a [filedeck] shortcode, and native Document Library elements for Elementor, Bricks and Divi — all with the same layout, filter and column options
• Translation-ready – documents and categories translate with WPML, Polylang and compatible plugins; a bundled wpml-config.xml declares exactly how document data behaves (one file, many languages)
• ⌘K command palette – site-wide quick-search overlay that jumps straight to any document
• Sidebar widgets – Recent Documents and Top Downloads widgets for any sidebar; access-aware, so restricted documents never show to someone who cannot open them
• QR codes – generate a printable QR for any document (offline, nothing leaves your site) for noticeboards and posters
• Shareable filtered views – search/filter state lives in the URL with a one-click “copy link”; hover previews show a thumbnail and file details
• External links – list documents hosted on Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint, or any URL
• Custom fields & taxonomies – add any post meta (cf:field) or taxonomy (tax:slug) as a column
• Document previews – lightbox preview for PDFs and images, and featured images open in a lightbox from the image column
• Single document pages – a clean page with file details and a download button
• Standalone search & links – [filedeck_search], [filedeck_login], and [filedeck_download] shortcodes
• Styles to match any theme – a full design-token system: a “Match my theme” preset that inherits your theme’s colours, Minimal/Bordered/Compact presets, a built-in light/dark/auto colour scheme, accent + surface + text colours, plus link styles, custom download-button text, empty messages and pagination — no CSS required, and every element is a --fdk-* variable when you want to go further
• Any file type – PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, audio, video, and more
• Lightweight – no jQuery on the frontend; assets load only where a library appears
• Accessible – keyboard-sortable columns, ARIA labels, screen-reader friendly

Switching from another plugin?

If you’re looking for a Download Monitor alternative, a WordPress Download Manager alternative, or a Document Library Pro alternative, FileDeck Pro imports your existing library in one click — documents, nested categories, tags, files, and (where the source records them) download counts and access rules — read straight from your own database. Shared Files libraries import the same way. No export files, no column mapping, safe to re-run, and we’ll help you move free if you’d like a hand.

FileDeck Pro

Upgrade for the features organizations need — from $59/year, and your renewal never increases:

• Full-text search inside files – search the text inside PDFs, Office documents and text files (optional OCR makes scanned PDFs searchable too); extraction runs on your own server, and results tell you which page of a PDF the match is on so you can jump straight to it
• Access control & protected files – role and password restrictions (on categories or any single document) with a deny-all vault and signed, expiring download links — direct file URLs stop working
• Client areas – per-client private portals with front-end submission, moderation and new-document emails
• One-click migration – from Download Monitor, Simple Download Monitor, WordPress Download Manager, Document Library Lite/Pro, Shared Files, Simple File List, Advanced File Manager, BSK PDF Manager, Download Attachments, WP Customer Area and FileBird (see above)
• Automatic PDF thumbnails – plus Office, audio and video previews on top of the free PDF/image lightbox
• Document lifecycle – version history, supersede with evergreen links, review cycles, approval workflow and auto-expiry
• Downloads toolkit – email/webhook download notifications, daily quotas, per-document download limits (expire after N downloads), optional Cloudflare Turnstile bot friction, lead capture with Mailchimp/Brevo sync, and multi-select zip downloads
• Require a form before download – gate downloads behind Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WPForms, Contact Form 7 or any other form plugin you already use
• Attach documents to a post – tick documents in the post editor and they list automatically at the end of the page
• Terms before download – require readers to accept licence conditions or a disclaimer first, with every acceptance recorded in the activity log
• Analytics & audit – activity log with per-document history (now including country, referrer and user agent), analytics dashboard, optional GA4 events, CSV export
• Cloud storage – browse and attach files from Amazon S3 or any S3-compatible service (Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces), plus Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint document libraries and Box
• Publish & embed – put your whole library on any other website (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow, Framer, or a custom front end) with one line of code; embeds show public documents only

Plus custom fields with faceted filtering, CSV import/export, bulk add from the Media Library, change subscriptions, a library health monitor, a GDPR toolkit and more — see every feature. An optional AI tier adds records governance — retention schedules, access certification, transmittals, acknowledgment tracking and PDF accessibility screening — plus semantic search, smart collections and “Ask this library”. Full pricing: https://www.getfiledeck.com/pricing/

Download Monitor, Simple Download Monitor, WordPress Download Manager, Document Library Pro, Document Library Lite, Shared Files, Simple File List, Advanced File Manager, BSK PDF Manager, Download Attachments, WP Customer Area, FileBird, and FileBird Document Library are trademarks of their respective owners; FileDeck is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

Quick start

1. Install and activate. FileDeck creates a “Document Library” page automatically.
2. Go to Documents → Add New, add a title, and attach a file (or paste an external URL).
3. Done — the document appears in your library instantly.

Use the Document Library block or the [filedeck] shortcode to place libraries anywhere:

[filedeck layout="grid" category="policies" columns="title,excerpt,size,link" per_page="20"]

Shortcode options

• layout – table, grid, gallery, or folders
• columns – comma-separated: id, image, title, excerpt, content, categories, tags, date, modified, author, size, type, filename, downloads, preview, link
• category – limit to category slugs (comma-separated)
• per_page – documents per page
• sort_by – title, date, modified, menu_order
• sort_order – asc or desc
• link_style – button, button_icon, button_icon_only, icon, icon_text, text
• dl_text – custom text for the download button/link (default “Download”)
• image_lightbox – set to 0 to stop featured images opening in a lightbox
• wrap – set to 0 to keep every document on a single truncated row
• scroll_offset – pixel offset for pagination jumps, for themes with a sticky header

External services

This plugin can connect to these external services, all only with your opt-in:

Freemius — FileDeck uses Freemius to deliver plugin updates, and (for Pro customers) to activate licenses. On activation you are asked to opt in; if you decline, no data is sent and only anonymous update checks are made. If you opt in, Freemius receives basic environment data (site URL, WordPress/PHP versions, active theme/plugins) to power update delivery and diagnostics. This happens when you activate the plugin, opt in, activate a license, or check for updates.
Freemius terms: https://freemius.com/terms/ — privacy policy: https://freemius.com/privacy/

FileDeck usage ping — only if you opted in to usage tracking above (and never otherwise), FileDeck sends a small anonymous ping to https://in.getfiledeck.com/telemetry once a week to guide the product roadmap. It contains only the plugin/PHP/WordPress versions, the plan tier, a bucketed document count (e.g. “11–50”), and a handful of on/off feature flags (search index, OCR, AI mode, subscriptions). It never includes document contents, file names, URLs, emails, IP-based profiles, or any personal data. Declining or opting out of Freemius tracking disables it completely, and developers can switch it off with the filedeck_telemetry_enabled filter.
FileDeck privacy policy: https://www.getfiledeck.com/privacy/

Cloud storage (Pro, optional) — if you connect a cloud provider under Documents → Cloud storage, FileDeck contacts that provider’s API using credentials you supply, only to list folders and fetch files you choose. Amazon S3 (*.amazonaws.com, or the S3-compatible endpoint you configure), Dropbox (api.dropboxapi.com, OAuth via dropbox.com), Google Drive (googleapis.com, OAuth via accounts.google.com), and Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint Online (graph.microsoft.com, OAuth via login.microsoftonline.com), and Box (api.box.com, OAuth via account.box.com; terms: https://www.box.com/legal/termsofservice). Nothing is sent to these services unless you set up a connection.
Amazon S3 terms: https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/ — Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/terms — Google: https://policies.google.com/terms — Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/servicesagreement

Bot protection & mailing lists (Pro, optional) — if you add Cloudflare Turnstile keys, the token from a completed check is verified against challenges.cloudflare.com (Turnstile terms: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/). If you connect a mailing-list provider, captured lead names and emails are sent to the provider you chose — Mailchimp (api.mailchimp.com, https://mailchimp.com/legal/) or Brevo (api.brevo.com, https://www.brevo.com/legal/termsofuse/). Both are off until you configure them.

The optional Pro AI features (semantic search and Ask this library) are not part of this free plugin. If you upgrade and enable them with your own API key, the document text you choose to index is sent to the AI provider you pick (OpenAI, Anthropic, or Voyage) to create embeddings and answers. They are off by default and never active in the free version.