The Best Business Directory Plugin Alternative
A side-by-side comparison of HivePress and Business Directory plugins.
If you’re planning to create a car directory website without spending a lot of money but don’t know which WordPress theme to choose, then this comparison article is just for you! We have carefully selected the best free car dealer WordPress themes from the WP repository to make your choice easier.
Also, feel free to check our overview of the best WordPress directory plugins since you’ll most likely need a directory plugin for your website.
So, let’s start our overview!
ListingHive
ListingHive is the first theme on our list. It’s an extremely versatile WordPress directory theme suitable for building absolutely any kind of directory website, including car directories. At the time of writing, ListingHive has more than 9000 active installations, making it the most popular free directory theme in the WordPress repository.
This free car dealer WordPress theme comes with many features right out of the box. Some of them are:
- Front-end Listing Submission – users can add listings in just a few clicks;
- Vendor Dashboards – all vendors can manage listings via personal dashboards;
- Messages System – users can communicate via private messages;
- Ratings & Reviews System – registered visitors can leave feedback;
- Favorites – allows users to add listings to favorites;
- Geolocation Functionality – enables users to search listings based on their location.
ListingHive has no hard-coded fields and is highly customizable, which means you can easily create your own listing fields and search filters, as well as unlimited listing categories. You’ll also be able to create stunning layouts without having to mess with shortcodes, thanks to the seamless integration with the WordPress block editor. Moreover, you can translate any static text in ListingHive to your language without changing the code.
Furthermore, ListingHive allows you to monetize your directory website in several different ways. You can:
- Charge users for adding listings.
- Charge users for claiming listings.
- Make listings featured for an extra fee.
The theme is fully integrated with WooCommerce, so you can use dozens of available payment gateways.
Extensibility
ListingHive is powered by the HivePress plugin, an all-in-one solution for building any type of directory and marketplace website, making it highly extensible. There are dozens of HivePress add-ons that allow you to easily extend the functionality of your website. For example, you can install:
- Marketplace – allows users to sell listings;
- Memberships – lets you charge users for viewing listings or certain listing details;
- Social Login – allows users to sign in via third-party platforms;
- Search Alerts – notify users when new listings are available;
- Statistics – allows users to view listing statistics.
Also, keep in mind that all HivePress extensions are fully compatible with each other.
Support
When you need support, you won’t have to look far: ListingHive is directly supported by its developers, with 24-hour email and forum response time, comprehensive documentation, and numerous video tutorials on this official YouTube channel.
Pricing
The ListingHive theme, as well as the HivePress plugin, are completely free to use and can be installed directly from your WordPress dashboard. As for the premium extensions, prices range from $29 to $39 per lifetime single-site license.
Key Takeaways
| Active Installations | 9,000+ |
| Average Rating | 5 out of 5 stars (19 reviews) |
CarListings
The next free car dealer WordPress theme is CarListings, an easy-to-use WordPress auto-listing theme for car sellers and dealers, which is powered by the Auto Listings plugin. Thanks to it, most of the features that are needed for the creation and management of a car dealership website are available right away.
The theme has a user-friendly design and is filled with all the necessary car-specific attributes, a powerful search engine with the location search feature, and filters that are essential for car sellers and dealer websites. CarListing is also integrated with Jetpack, a WordPress plugin that helps you keep your site safe, fast, and secure.
Extensibility
Additionally, there are 6 premium AutoListings extensions. Although the core functionality of the theme is decent, it still lacks several features in its free version, so you’ll have to purchase some add-ons to extend the functionality. For example, you’ll need the Frontend addon to enable front-end listing submission or the Multiple Dealers addon to create a multi-dealer car sales website. Also, you’ll be able to create custom pages only after purchasing the Custom Page extension.
Support
In case you need support with the CarListings theme, you can visit the documentation section of the official website. Additionally, there is a ticket system, but the developers stated that priority support is available only for users with premium status, which costs $39, while support for free users is not guaranteed and may take up to 7 days.
Pricing
CarListings goes for free and can be downloaded straight from the WordPress dashboard. However, if you want to push the boundaries, you’ll have to buy some extensions that cost 69$ for a 1-year period each.
Key Takeaways
| Active Installations | 900+ |
| Average Rating | 5 out of 5 stars (3 reviews) |
Auto Car Dealership
Let’s move on to Auto Car Dealership. This free car dealer WordPress theme has an attractive and responsive design, while its built-in functionality will allow you to create a full-fledged car website without much effort. However, note that you won’t be able to create a multi-vendor directory with this theme.
There are plenty of customization options available for you to tweak the design and add your own flavor. You can customize the homepage layout, text, color, and fonts of peculiar sections. A good bonus is that the theme is also translation-ready.
Extensibility
With that being said, the real deal begins after purchasing the Premium version of Auto Car Dealership. For example, you’ll be able to use WooCommerce on your auto directory website, add custom CSS and shortcodes, include image galleries in listings, or use the Live Customizer feature to add tons of custom backgrounds, colors, headers, logos, and menus.
However, there are also some free extensions, such as VW Social Media, which allows users to share web pages on reputed social platforms, or VW Proloader, which lets you add a preloader to your site.
Support
Free support is available on the official website’s forum. There is also a documentation section with helpful articles on setting up the theme. If you want to contact the developers directly and get a quick response, they offer premium support for those who have purchased a premium theme.
Pricing
The Auto Car Dealership theme is available for free on WordPress.org, while the premium version of the theme costs 40$. As for the premium add-ons, their price starts at 5$.
Key Takeaways
| Active Installations | 1,000+ |
| Average Rating | 5 out of 5 stars (2 reviews) |
Sayara Automotive
Sayara Automotive is a simple free car dealer WordPress theme designed to build all kinds of automobile-selling websites. It’s easy to understand and can be used by anyone without coding knowledge.
Some of the most notable features of this theme are its multi-language capabilities with support for RTL writing languages and its integration with WooCommerce. Furthermore, although the free version is a bit limited, the built-in customizer and custom page templates add a touch of flair. Finally, the developers mentioned that this theme supports most of the popular third-party plugins that will help you extend the functionality of your website.
Extensibility
Speaking of extensibility, the developers don’t offer any official extensions. Instead, there is a premium version of Sayara Automotive, which adds some additional features, like advanced customization options, social media integration, a range of fonts and icons, and the ability to incorporate shortcodes into various blocks.
Support
There is a forum and a documentation section on the official website for support. Also, the developers claim that they have a great email support team, and it gets even better after purchasing the premium version of the theme.
Pricing
You can download this free car dealer WordPress theme on WordPress.org, while the premium version can be purchased for 59$ on the official website.
Key Takeaways
| Active Installations | 400+ |
| Average Rating | 3,5 out of 5 stars (6 reviews) |
KarDealer
The last free car dealer WordPress theme on our list is KarDealer. Packed with the most basic features for this type of website, it’s pretty plain and straightforward but still allows you to create a simple car directory. However, it heavily falls behind previous themes due to its outdated design and lack of customization in the free version.
Extensibility
To improve functionality, the developers offer to purchase a Pro version of the theme with a Car Dealer plugin included. This way, you’ll be able to create custom car fields, providing you with the flexibility to manage, search, and filter these fields for any dealership. You’ll also get additional shortcodes that allow you to create animations, price tables, progress bar elements, testimonials, parallax backgrounds, and more.
Additionally, there are some separate premium extensions, like the Anti Hacker add-on, which boosts your system security, and WP Tools, which enables 44 WordPress tools.
Support
As for support, there is a FAQ section on the official website. If you need to contact the support team, there’s also a ticket system, and the developers promise a response time of 24 hours.
Pricing
You can download this free car dealer WordPress theme from the WordPress dashboard. The one-time fee for a premium version of this theme is 69$. As for the extensions, their prices range from 18$ to 24$.
Key Takeaways
| Active Installations | 200+ |
| Average Rating | 5 out of 5 stars (2 reviews) |
Final Words
This concludes our overview of the best free car dealer WordPress themes available on WordPress.org. We hope it was helpful to you and that you now have a better understanding of the options. However, if you’re still uncertain about which theme to choose, we highly recommend checking the ListingHive theme since it already includes all the necessary features, so you can just plug and play.
Additionally, you may want to check our articles on how to:
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