Quick Download Button

Quick Download Button lets you add professional download buttons anywhere on your WordPress site with minimal effort. Whether you are sharing PDFs, music, software, videos, or archives, every aspect of the button — style, colour, icon, countdown, and access rules — is controlled from a clean settings panel or a single shortcode.

Seven button styles

• Large — full-width panel with prominent icon area
• Mid — compact horizontal layout
• Small — minimal inline style
• Basic — clean, no-frills button
• Pill — modern rounded pill shape
• Card — elevated card with a panel background
• Ghost — outlined transparent style

Countdown timer and popup modal

Set a wait time in seconds before the download starts. During the countdown an animated spinner and optional message keep the visitor informed.

Add a popup modal to display any content while the countdown runs — AdSense, banner ads, custom HTML, shortcodes, or any other embed code. You control whether the visitor can dismiss the popup early or whether it stays until the download fires automatically.

Full feature list

• Works with both the Gutenberg block editor and the Classic Editor via shortcode
• Button Row block and [quick_download_button_group] shortcode — place multiple buttons side by side with gap, alignment, and stack-on-mobile controls
• Countdown timer — configurable wait time in seconds with a custom message
• Popup modal during countdown — show ads or custom HTML/shortcodes while the timer runs; optionally prevent dismissal until the download starts
• File size display — auto-calculated from the WordPress uploads folder, or enter any text manually (works with external URLs too)
• File type icon — automatically detected for common extensions
• Custom download icons — choose from 10 built-in icons or supply your own SVG
• Custom file size icons — same built-in set or custom SVG
• Icon position — left or right of the button label
• Access control — restrict downloads to logged-in users or specific roles
• External URL support — link to files hosted anywhere
• Hidden download links — the real file URL is never exposed in the page source
• Force download — bypasses the browser’s open-in-tab behaviour for supported file types
• Open in new tab or same window
• Custom button colour, font colour, border, border-radius, padding, and alignment
• Panel colour for Card, Pill, and Ghost styles
• Multisite compatible
• Optimised loading — CSS and JS only enqueue on pages that contain a download button

Supported file types for automatic icon display:

Developer-friendly

The plugin exposes several action and filter hooks so add-on plugins can extend it without editing core files:

• qdb_editor_localize_data — add data to the Gutenberg editor script
• qdb_localize_script_data — add data to the frontend script
• qdb_shortcode_atts — modify parsed shortcode attributes
• qdb_user_can_access — override or extend the access check
• qdb_button_data_atts — inject extra data-* attributes onto the button element
• qdb_shortcode_output — filter the final button HTML before output

Basic Usage

Gutenberg Block

1. Open the post or page editor and click the Add Block (+) icon.
2. Search for Download Button (listed under the Media category).
3. Click the block to set the button title, then click the upload icon to select or upload your file.
4. Configure colours, countdown, file size, access control, and popup in the block settings sidebar.

Shortcode — minimal

Shortcode — external file in a new tab

Shortcode — countdown with wait message

Shortcode — popup modal during countdown

The popup content goes between the opening and closing shortcode tags. It can include HTML, shortcodes, or ad embed code.

To prevent the visitor from closing the popup before the download starts:

Shortcode — button group (multiple buttons in a row)

Auto-calculate file size (file must be in your WordPress uploads folder)

Manual file size (works with any URL, including external)

Hide the file extension icon

Show file extension icon and text label

Change button style

Available values: large, mid, small, basic, pill, card, ghost

Custom colours

Custom border

Change icon colour (dark/light)

Place icon on the right

Restrict to logged-in users

Restrict to a specific role

Countdown with file size and message

Button alignment

Stacked button group, mobile-friendly

[quick_download_button]

Attribute Description Default Example value

title Button label text "Download" "Download Now"

url URL of a file in your WordPress uploads folder — "https://yoursite.com/wp-content/uploads/file.pdf"

url_external URL of a file hosted outside WordPress — "https://example.com/file.zip"

file_size "1" auto-detects size; any other value is displayed as-is — "1" or "14.5 MB"

extension Show ("1") or hide ("0") the file type icon "1" "0"

extension_text Also show the extension as text next to the icon "0" "1"

open_new_window Open link in a new tab "false" "true"

wait Seconds before the download starts 0 "15"

msg Message shown during the countdown "Please wait..." "Loading..."

button_type Button style "large" large / mid / small / basic / pill / card / ghost

color_bg Button background colour — "#ffc107"

panel_color Panel/card background colour (pill, card, ghost styles) — "#f0f8ff"

color_font Button text colour — "#ffffff"

color_icon_dark Use dark icon ("true") or light icon ("false") "true" "false"

icon_id Built-in download icon "default" default / cloud / circle / file-dl / inbox / save / bolt / folder / archive / info / chip

file_size_icon_id Built-in file size icon "folder" same set as icon_id

icon_position Icon side of the button label "left" "right"

border_width Border thickness in pixels — "2"

border_style CSS border style — "solid"

border_color Border colour — "#333333"

border_radius Corner rounding in pixels — "9"

align Button alignment on the page — left / center / right

padding Vertical padding in pixels — "12"

user_must_be Restrict access by role or login — "loggedin" / "subscriber"

validate_msg Error message shown when access is denied — "Members only."

popup_closable Allow ("1") or prevent ("0") dismissing the popup before countdown ends "1" "0"

The popup_content is passed as enclosed shortcode content (between the opening and closing tags), not as an attribute. This allows unrestricted HTML, ad code, and nested shortcodes.

[quick_download_button_group]

Attribute Description Default Example value

layout "horizontal" (side by side) or "stack" (column) "horizontal" "stack"

stack_on_mobile Automatically stack buttons vertically on small screens "true" "false"

alignment Justify the buttons within the row "left" left / center / right

gap Gap between buttons in pixels "12" "20"

Donations

If Quick Download Button saves you time and you’d like to support its development, buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Documentation & Source Code

To report issues or contribute, visit the GitHub repository.