Cloud Storage Overview

Pro feature. Available in WP Sell Services Pro.

Cloud storage moves order files off your WordPress server onto a dedicated provider, for better performance and faster downloads worldwide. Once a provider is active, every new delivery, requirement, message, dispute and payment-receipt file goes to your bucket.

Why Use Cloud Storage?#

By default, all delivery files (the work vendors upload for buyers) are stored on your WordPress server. This works fine for smaller marketplaces, but as your platform grows, file storage can become a bottleneck:

  • Disk space fills up -- Large or frequent deliveries eat into your hosting storage
  • Downloads slow down -- Your web server handles both page requests and file downloads
  • Bandwidth costs rise -- Every file download counts against your hosting plan

Cloud storage solves all of these by moving files to a specialized service designed for exactly this purpose.

What Changes With Cloud Storage#

Without Cloud With Cloud Storage
Files stored on your WordPress server Files stored in a cloud bucket (S3, GCS, or DO Spaces)
Downloads served by your web server Downloads served by a global CDN
Limited by your hosting storage plan Virtually unlimited storage
Bandwidth counts against hosting Separate, affordable bandwidth

The upload experience stays the same for vendors either way -- they upload through the familiar WordPress interface.

Supported Providers#

Amazon S3#

The industry standard for cloud storage. Proven reliability (99.999999999% durability), global datacenter coverage, and integration with Amazon CloudFront CDN for fast worldwide downloads.

Google Cloud Storage#

Google's cloud storage with strong performance, multi-regional redundancy, and Google Cloud CDN integration. Particularly strong for marketplaces with significant Asia-Pacific traffic.

DigitalOcean Spaces#

S3-compatible storage with simple, predictable pricing: $5/month for 250GB storage and 1TB transfer. Includes a built-in CDN. The easiest option for small to medium marketplaces.

How File Delivery Works#

With a provider active, the flow is:

  1. A vendor uploads their delivery files through the order page (same as usual)
  2. The plugin uploads each file to your cloud storage bucket and removes the local copy
  3. If an upload fails, the local copy is kept and served instead, so a bucket outage never loses a delivery
  4. When the buyer downloads, a permission-checked link on the order hands out a short-lived signed URL from the provider

Each stored file records which provider holds it, so files uploaded before you switch providers keep downloading from their original bucket.

Current File Storage (Without Cloud)#

Until you enable cloud storage, files are stored locally:

  • Order files go to a wpss-order-files/ folder outside your web root where the host allows it, otherwise to wp-content/uploads/wpss-order-files/ with access rules added
  • Only the buyer, the vendor and site admins can download them
  • Storage is limited by your hosting plan

Tips for managing local storage:

  • Set reasonable file size limits in Settings > System
  • Monitor your disk usage through your hosting panel
  • Consider upgrading your hosting storage if it fills up