Seeking front end login w/ email verification download approval

Hi all,

Our site currently has content available for download in our “industry intelligence” section (https://mccaffertyco.com/industry-intelligence/) and we are trying to determine the best way to incorporate a front-end user login and added level of security to our download process. At present, any user can download the content if they submit a form (’email’ is a required field, but not verified in any way). When a user clicks the “download” button they are directed to our “register before download” form that once submitted, will automatically initiate the download.

We are looking for 3 things in particular:
1. A front-end user registration/login that requires the user to verify their email in order to activate their account.

2. A way to restrict access to our downloadable content so that when the “download” button is clicked by an un-registered user, they are directed to the front-end register/login page and when the “download” button is clicked by a logged in user, they are sent a message effectively saying that “their download request has been received and is pending approval….”

3. Requests for downloads to be sent to the back-end admin, who can approve or decline the request. If approved, the requesting user will receive an email with a link to download (open to ideas as to how/where this could take place).

Eventually, we would also like to add a pay-to-download (preferably using paypal) feature, whereby the admin-acceptance step could be bypassed if the logged in user agreed to pay for the material. I know Woocommerce is a popular choice, does anyone have any insight on this plugin? Or recommendations for any others?

Does anyone know of any plugins or software that can do all of the functions above? Or are there multiple (compatible) plugins that together can do all of these functions? I am not a developer or an expert in wordpress so I greatly appreciate your suggestions and advice. Thank you.