Grant Kimball

Easily add a newsletter subscription form to your site and start collecting email addresses to use with MailChimp, Constant contact or other third-party bulk-mailer program! Complete with email management admin panel. Web development is affordable @ <a href="http://www.yourlocalwebmaster.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Your Local Webmaster.com</a>
<h3>Usage Notes</h3>
Shortcodes 
You may use these shortcodes in your pages, posts and HTML widgets!
[simple_newsletter] 
This will display a basic email subscribe form.
Available Options
[simple_newsletter name=”true”] 
Set to true to create a “Name” field if you wish to capture the subscribers name as well as email address.
[simple_newsletter title=”My Form Title”] 
Gives your form a title. Default displays no title.
[simple_newsletter button=”Go!”] 
Changes the text on the button. Default displays “Subscribe”
[simple_newsletter terms=”http://www.someURL.com/terms.html”] 
Do you want the subscriber to agree to terms and conditions first? Then enter the URL.
[simple_newsletter terms_text=”I agree to terms & conditions”] 
Enter the link text for the terms and conditions link.
[simple_newsletter thanks=”Thank you for subscribing!”] 
This is the thank you text that displays after successful submit.
Example of use:
[simple_newsletter name=”true” terms_text=”I agree to the terms and conditions” terms=”http://www.google.com” button=”GoYo!” thanks=”Thank you very much for joining our mailing list!”]
Hardcoded into a Theme
Paste this into your theme where you want the form displayed.
<pre><code><?php
$snsf_args = array(
"name"=>1,
"title"=>"My New Title",
"button"=>"My New Button",
"terms" => "http://www.google.com",
"terms_text" => "this is my terms text",
"thanks" => "Thank you sooo much!"
);
echo do_newsletter($snsf_args);
?>
</code></pre>

Simple Newsletter Signup

Easily add a newsletter signup form to your site and start collecting email addresses to use with MailChimp, Constant contact or other third-party bul …

Core Essentials

<a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?plugin=coreessentials-email-gated-downloads" rel="nofollow ugc">Try Live Demo →</a>
Email Gated Downloads helps you create email gated downloads (also called gated downloads or gated content) on your WordPress site. Visitors enter an email address (and optional name), accept your consent message, and then receive a secure download link for your PDF or ZIP file.
If you’re offering a lead magnet, content upgrade, checklist, guide, template, or resource library download, this plugin gives you a simple “download after email submission” flow without bloated form builders.
<h3>What you can do with Email Gated Downloads</h3>
<ul>
<li>Gate a PDF download behind an email form (great for guides, ebooks, brochures, spec sheets)</li>
<li>Gate a ZIP download (templates, assets, bundles)</li>
<li>Create a clean lead generation offer: “Enter your email to download”</li>
<li>Prevent casual scraping with secure links and rate limiting</li>
<li>Keep a lightweight audit trail of who downloaded what (CSV export)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Why site owners choose this plugin</h3>
<ul>
<li>Email capture for lead magnets – Exchange a valuable download for an email address and build your list.</li>
<li>Secure gated download links – Generate one time, time limited tokens so your file URL is not publicly exposed.</li>
<li>GDPR friendly consent – Built-in consent checkbox and customizable message.</li>
<li>Download logging + CSV export – Record email, optional name, file, IP, and timestamp. Export to CSV for your CRM or email tool.</li>
<li>Lightweight & theme friendly – Minimal footprint, optional stylesheet (or disable and style it yourself).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Quick setup (3 steps)</h3>
<ol>
<li>Upload your file: Go to Settings > Email Gated Downloads and upload your PDF or ZIP.</li>
<li>Configure your form: Enable optional name field, add your GDPR consent checkbox text, and customize messages.</li>
<li>Place the form: Add shortcode <code>[spdfed_download_form]</code> to any page/post (use a Shortcode block in the block editor).</li>
</ol>
Visitors will see your download form, submit their email, and receive a secure download link.
<h4>FREE FEATURES</h4>
<ul>
<li>Email gated download form – Require an email address (optional name) before download.</li>
<li>Secure file storage – Files stored in a protected directory; links use one time, expiring tokens.</li>
<li>Download logging & CSV export – Track downloads with email, name, file name, IP address and timestamp.</li>
<li>GDPR consent checkbox – Built-in consent checkbox with customizable text.</li>
<li>Rate limiting – Reduce repeated downloads and basic bot abuse.</li>
<li>Customizable styling – Use CSS variables, or disable the plugin stylesheet and add your own.</li>
<li>Fast & lightweight – Minimal code and clean database usage.</li>
</ul>
<h4>PREMIUM FEATURES</h4>
Upgrade to Premium to manage multiple lead magnets and deeper reporting:
<ul>
<li>Unlimited gated files – Create multiple download offers with a “Gated Files” Custom Post Type.</li>
<li>Per file customization – Override global settings (name requirement, consent text, confirmation message) per file.</li>
<li>Analytics dashboard – View total downloads, top files and trends with charts.</li>
<li>Individual shortcodes – Use <code>[spdfed_download_form id="123"]</code> to embed a specific gated download anywhere.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://coreessentials.online/plugins-for-wordpress/email-gated-downloads/" rel="nofollow ugc">Upgrade to Premium →</a>
<h4>Ideal use cases</h4>
<ul>
<li>Lead magnets (ebooks, checklists, templates, worksheets)</li>
<li>Content upgrades for blog posts and newsletters</li>
<li>Resource libraries (downloads behind email capture)</li>
<li>Digital product samples (share a preview while protecting the main asset)</li>
<li>Course companion files (PDF handouts, ZIP resources)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Third-Party Libraries & Source Code</h3>
This plugin includes human readable source code and uses the following third-party library:
<h4>Chart.js</h4>
<ul>
<li>File: <code>assets/js/chart.js</code></li>
<li>Version: 4.5.1</li>
<li>Purpose: Powers the analytics charts in the premium version</li>
<li>License: MIT License</li>
<li>Source Code: https://github.com/chartjs/Chart.js</li>
<li>CDN Reference: https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js@4.5.1/dist/chart.umd.js</li>
</ul>
All other JavaScript and CSS files in this plugin are written by the plugin author and are provided in uncompressed, human readable format.

Email Gated Downloads

Email gated downloads for WordPress: collect emails with a GDPR friendly download form before visitors can download your PDF or ZIP lead magnet.

Simple Newsletter Signup vs Email Gated Downloads