6 Best File Upload Plugins for WordPress
When it comes to uploading files to your WordPress website, as an owner, admin, or user with some privilege, uploading files shouldn’t be a big problem. You can upload files to the media library from your website’s dashboard. FTP gives you even more options and you can, for example, bulk upload media files using it. You can also do interesting things like increase the maximum size of files you can upload – you can have a full range of file upload options at your disposal.
Your website’s users, however, usually don’t have that privilege, and for a good reason, too. Allowing anyone to upload anything to your website would be a serious security risk. Still, in some situations, you’ll find that you’ll need a way to allow users to upload files to your website. You might even find it useful to have a way to upload a file or two from the frontend for yourself. That can set you on a journey to find – what else – a WordPress file upload plugin.
If this was the case with you, you can finally rest knowing that you’re almost there. In this article, we’ll share eight of the best WordPress file upload plugins for various use cases – from e-commerce to form building.
The list includes:
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If you have an online store, you might need a way to let your customers send you a file. You could ask them for specifications, a scan of a document, or an image file, and you’ll come across the same problem – you need a way to have them send you the file without too many extra steps. If you use WooCommerce, the Checkout Files Upload for WooCommerce plugin could be just the thing you need.
The plugin will let you add a file upload field before or after the checkout form. You’ll have the option to add in to Thank You or My Account pages, as well as choose various settings that include accepted file types, maximum file size, custom messages, and the condition on which the field appears.
The plugin is available in both the free and the premium versions. To get access to the premium version and all of its features, you’ll have to purchase a license which starts at $39.99 for a single site.
WordPress website admins who want to encourage their users to interact with their website might do so by allowing them to post user-generated content. If, for example, you have an online magazine, what not open it for user submissions? All you’ll need is a plugin that can make it easy for the users to upload their content, and User Submitted Posts could work out great.
User Submitted Posts is a plugin whose primary role is to enable support for user submission of posts. For starters, it will let you create a post-submission form with a variety of fields that include post images – the reason why it’s on the list of file upload plugins. You can use Google’s reCAPTCHA, customize the forms using CSS or HTML5, and fine-tune the image upload settings.
The plugin’s basic version is free to use. To get features that include unlimited form building, further customization options, and advanced settings, you’ll need to access the premium version starting at a one-time $40 payment.
Do you want a red-blooded WordPress file manager with the option to let you upload files from your website’s frontend? The Advanced File Manager is a WordPress plugin that will help you take care of everything that has to do with files, although you might need addons to access all the features – including those that enable frontend file upload.
The plugin will help you do all the important file management operations you have to do as a WordPress website admin. On top of that, you’ll have at your disposal options that include root directory path editing, file access outside and inside the root directory, drag-and-drop support for file upload, image edit support, and many more.
The plugin is available for free. However, if you want to use shortcode to enable frontend file uploading, you’ll have to opt for an addon for the plugin starting at $14.
Are you a Contact Form 7 user who wants to extend what they can do with the popular form plugin? You can master styling CF7 forms in WordPress, but why not also add support for drag-and-drop multifile upload? Especially when there’s a plugin – Drag and Drop Multiple File Upload – that will help you do that in a couple of minutes.
Besides the obvious, the plugin adds lots of other very useful features to Contact Form 7. It will, for example, validate the size and type of the file a user’s uploading. You can use the plugin to set the size and amount of files uploaded, specify custom file types, and manage messaging from the admin settings.
With the premium version, which starts at $29.99, you’ll get many additional useful options. To name a few, you’ll be able to change the upload folder, preview images, adjust auto-delete of files, and chunk uploads to allow uploading very large files.
Access management is one of the cornerstones of website safety, although it’s a natural part of many different business models. If you require a way to allow people to register for your website, and you want to let the people upload files in the process, look no further than the User Registration plugin.
With the plugin, you’ll be able to drag and drop your user registration form into existence in any way you’d like – you won’t need to write a single line of code. You’ll be able to set custom form fields, get email notifications about users, treat your users to awesome profile account pages, and even assign user roles. You get all of that for free.
To get enhanced features, including support for file uploading, you’ll need to use one of the paid packages which start at $69 per year. Besides the ability to upload multiple files, you might also get access to an import users feature, WooCommerce, and various other integrations, as well as conditional logic for forms.
Finally, you’ll easily discover that many form builders have a way of letting people upload files to your WordPress website. Some have it integrated, others rely on premium versions or addons to enable the features. The Formidable Form Builder is one of the form builders you can use.
The scope of features offered by the Formidable Form Builder is – formidable. You can create multipage forms with a progress bar, use cascading lookup fields, let users resume filling out forms later, and even enable them to register on your website.
Some of those features are available with the free version of the plugin. For others, you’ll need a paid plan. File uploads are among the premium features, available with the Basic package that starts at $39.50 per year.
Let’s Wrap It Up!
Having a way to upload files to your WordPress website from the frontend can be useful in various ways. More importantly, however, is that this is a feature you could add easily to your WordPress website if you ever needed it. Simply pick the WordPress file upload plugin from our list that matches your requirements, install and set it up, and you’ll be ready to go!
