Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Purchasing a product through one of these links generates a commission for us at no additional expense to you.
Ready to create your own directory site?
With the success of geo-directories like Yelp and link directory sites, this is a pretty common type of site to create.
Thanks to the demand from WordPress users, developers have taken notice and built plenty of high-quality solutions for you to create your own directory website.
We’ve collected the top directory plugins in this list, but you should also consider our guide on how to create a directory site from scratch and our list of the best directory WordPress themes too.
Keep reading to find our top plugin recommendations.
Best WordPress directory plugins
You’ll find a mix of freemium and premium plugins included here, so you can select the one that best matches your functionality requirements and budget. All of these plugins have amazing customer reviews, so you can expect a great experience regardless of which one you pick.
Here are my top recommendations for the best WordPress directory plugin.
1. HivePress
Plugin Description
HivePress is a well-designed plugin for adding a directory to your site. With very little configuration, you can have styled listings show up on your site for any kind of directory you want – restaurants, local parks, events, used cars, etc.
In addition to the user-friendly directory functionality, HivePress also includes a number of free extensions. These include features like user favorites, on-site private messaging, geolocation, reviews, and the ability to charge users for paid listings.
If you want to take things to the next level, there are some really advanced premium plugins and premium themes that are seamlessly integrated. Check out our guide on how to make a site like Airbnb to see how HivePress and the RentalHive theme can be used together to make a full-featured rental marketplace website.
If you want to learn more about HivePress and download a free copy for your site, click the link below.
2. Directories Pro
Plugin Description
Directories Pro is the most complete solution for adding a directory to your website. This is because it has a great mixture of practical features, user-friendly admin tools, and a great front-end design.
With most of the other directory plugins, you’ll need to rely on the default styles unless your theme integrates with it or you know how to spruce things up by writing your own CSS. Directories Pro has a beautiful style which makes it easier to integrate with more themes.
As for the functionality included, it’s pretty robust. There’s a front-end submission form so members can signup and add listings, plus they can even review and edit their listings from their own private dashboard.
You can monetize the site easily by charging for listings. Like most eCommerce WordPress themes and plugins, Directories Pro integrates with WooCommerce for all payment processing and order management.
3. Link Directory Pro
Plugin Description
If you want to make a simple listing or link directory website, this is the perfect plugin.
Released just 26 days ago, Link Directory Pro is a new and modern take on the classic link directory. It gives you a beautiful and modern design, SEO-friendly HTML, automatic sitemap generation, and a lot more.
One of the coolest features of this theme is the ability to add Featured links to the site, which you can easily charge more. There are also built-in email notifications for link approval. Additionally, you’ll enjoy the pre-configured advertising spaces and the broken link report, which will help you find any links pointing to sites that are no longer online.
Overall, it’s an exceptional plugin for anyone looking to build a link directory website.
4. Business Directory
Plugin Description
Business Directory is a free and extremely popular plugin active on over 20,000 websites at the time of writing this tutorial.
This plugin is really versatile. For instance, you can customize the fields in the submission form, so instead of requiring a fixed set of inputs like the business name and website, you can decide exactly which fields to use. This allows you to adapt your directory to any specific niche.
All listings can have multiple images and you can even charge members for inclusion. There are a handful of payment gateways available and premium add-ons that include even more options. On top of this, Business Directory has been optimized for SEO and is fully compatible with Yoast SEO enabling you to get more traffic to the user-generated content in your directory.
This plugin has followed suit with a lot of other popular plugins and created a freemium offer (and they’ve executed it well). The free plugin is quite valuable and includes everything you need to make your directory. Only more advanced extra functionality is included in the premium add-ons which makes them reasonable to purchase.
5. GeoDirectory
Plugin Description
GeoDirectory is an awesome plugin for creating a site like Yelp. It has built-in user reviews and Google Maps embeds which make it perfect for listing restaurants and hotels.
It’s impressive that this plugin is offered for free because it adds such valuable functionality to your site. You can create a site made for a region of any size using this plugin which makes it incredibly adaptable. Like some other plugins listed here, it allows you to create a front-end submission form, but it does so with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
The GeoDirectory plugin works with any theme out-of-box and is written with developer-friendly code (plenty of action and filter hooks to work with). Beyond the basic features, there are some other really helpful tools for directory businesses including CSV importing and exporting to transfer your data when needed. Add over 15+ custom widgets and there’s very little you can’t do with GeoDirectory.
6. Advanced Classifieds & Directory Pro
Plugin Description
I like this plugin because it provides basic and flexible functionality without any excess or distractions.
Thanks to the customizability included, you can use this plugin for any niche like a classified ads site, car directory, or even a real estate portal. The listing submission form is completely customizable which enables this flexibility. You can also create unlimited categories and category levels for enhanced hierarchy.
You might be surprised by the huge number of monetization methods at your disposal too. Advanced Classifieds & Directory Pro lets you charge for listings or just for featured/sticky listings. The premium add-ons add even more options like subscription plans for recurring revenue.
Overall, this is a well-rounded plugin for creating a directory and deserves the great reviews it’s attracted so far.
Which directory plugin is best for you?
There are some awesome plugins included here, and regardless of exactly what type of directory you want to start, you can find an excellent option here.
Directories Pro stands out as the most feature-filled and best-designed directory plugin, and it can serve a large variety of purposes.
Link Directory Pro is an excellent new plugin for creating a listing or link directory website. It’s likely the best choice if you’re looking to build that type of directory.
For a free alternative, check out Business Directory or GeoDirectory to build a multipurpose directory site.
These options stand out as the best directory plugins for WordPress and can be used to create virtually any kind of directory website.
I hope this collection guides you to the perfect plugin for your site. Thanks so much for reading!
