🚀 Overview

downGrade is a professional, single-vendor digital goods marketplace built for creators, studios, and agencies that sell downloads such as themes, templates, plugins, PDFs, audio, or video assets. It combines one-time purchases with recurring subscription/membership plans, couponing, and secure file delivery—so you can monetize your catalog and build predictable revenue.

Real-world use: inspired by creator storefronts and indie marketplaces, downGrade streamlines entitlement, updates, and license keys—reducing support load while improving conversion and retention.

Best for: solo creators, digital publishers, agencies, course/material vendors, and startups launching a branded download shop.

✨ Key Features

• Single-Vendor Storefront: Your brand, your catalog, your payouts—no third-party commission marketplace.
• Subscriptions & Memberships: Create tiers (e.g., Basic, Pro, Agency) with recurring billing, trial periods, and entitlements.
• One-Time Purchases: Sell individual items with instant, secure download links and purchase history.
• License Keys & Updates: Optional license generation, versioning, and update logs per product/release.
• Secure File Delivery: Expiring links, bandwidth limits, and checksum validation to protect assets.
• Coupons & Promotions: Percentage/amount discounts, usage limits, start/end dates.
• Tax & Invoicing: Configurable VAT/GST rules, tax ID capture, downloadable invoices.
• Customer Portal: Manage subscriptions, payment methods, invoices, license keys, and downloads.
• Catalog & SEO: Categories, tags, rich product pages, schema-ready markup, slug control, and sitemaps.
• Analytics Dashboard: MRR/ARR, churn, LTV, conversion rates, top products, cohort views.
• Team & Roles: Owner, manager, support roles with granular permissions.
• Email & Webhooks: Transactional emails (purchase, renewal, failed payment) and webhooks for automations.
• Payment Gateways: Stripe & PayPal out of the box; cash/bank/manual options available.
• Internationalization: Multi-currency display, multi-language UI, and RTL-ready layout.
• Compliance-minded: GDPR helpers (data export/delete), cookie consent, and terms/privacy pages.

⚙️ Technical Stack

• Framework: Laravel (PHP 8.1+)
• Frontend: Blade/Alpine.js/Bootstrap (responsive, dark mode ready)
• Database: MySQL 8+/MariaDB 10.4+ (Redis optional for queues/cache)
• Storage: Local or S3-compatible object storage for digital files
• Payments: Stripe (Subscriptions, PaymentIntents) & PayPal (Checkout/Subs)
• Server Requirements: Nginx/Apache, PHP extensions: BCMath, Ctype, JSON, Mbstring, OpenSSL, PDO, Tokenizer, XML, Zip
• DevOps: Queue worker (Supervisor), Scheduler (cron), .env configuration

🧩 Installation Guide

1. Server prep: Create database & user; set PHP 8.1+; configure Nginx/Apache vhost with HTTPS.
2. Upload code: Place files on server and set correct permissions for storage/ & bootstrap/cache/.
3. Dependencies: Run composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader.
4. Environment: Copy .env.example → .env; set DB, APP_URL, MAIL_*, STRIPE_*/PAYPAL_*.
5. App key & DB: php artisan key:generate then php artisan migrate --seed.
6. Storage & assets: php artisan storage:link (configure S3 if used); build assets if applicable.
7. Queues & cron: Start queue worker (Supervisor) and add * * * * * php artisan schedule:run.
8. Go live: Create products, plans, and test purchase/renewal and download flows.

📦 Deliverables

• Full source code (Laravel) with modular product, billing, and licensing modules
• Admin dashboard & customer portal
• Payment gateway integrations (Stripe, PayPal)
• Sample products, plans, coupons, and email templates
• Configuration & deployment documentation
• GPL license file & changelog

📱 Supported Platforms

• Web: Modern browsers (Chromium, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
• Server OS: Linux (Ubuntu/Debian/CentOS) recommended; Docker/K8s friendly

🧠 Notes

• License: Distributed under the GPL. You may run, study, modify, and redistribute the software under GPL terms with proper attribution.
• Customization tips: Use separate disks for storage/app/downloads, enable object storage for large files, and place downloads behind signed URLs with short expirations.
• SEO assurance: Clean URLs, canonical tags, structured data on product pages, and automatic sitemaps help search visibility. Add unique copy and release notes to avoid thin/duplicate content.

👨‍💻 Original Developer Credit

Credit to the original author/vendor (e.g., CodeCanyon listing) for concept and initial implementation. Please retain author credits as required by the license.

🔒 Disclaimer

GPL Redistribution Notice: This package is provided for educational and archival purposes under the GPL. We are not the original vendor and do not claim trademark rights. Trademarks and brand names belong to their respective owners. Ensure your use—including payments, tax collection, and consumer protection—complies with your local laws and payment-processor policies.