The Best Directorist Alternative in 2024

Looking for a Directorist alternative to organize listings on your WordPress directory website but aren’t sure which one to choose?

In this article, we’ll compare the Directorist plugin with the HivePress plugin. We’ll highlight the strengths of each and how they stack up against each other, so you can choose the option that best fits your needs, budget, and skill level.

Additionally, we highly recommend checking out our comparison article on the most popular WordPress directory plugins to get a better understanding of all the available options on the market.

Please note that we’ll start by comparing the free versions of both plugins before moving on to the premium features. You can also skip ahead to the section that interests you the most.

Let’s dive in!

Introduction

Let’s start our comparison with a short overview of both directory plugins.

Directorist

Directorist is a WordPress directory plugin that has been gaining popularity among users looking to create online directories. It allows you to build various types of directories, such as business listings or classified ads sites, etc.

This directory plugin has a straightforward interface that works well for both beginners and experienced users. It comes with plenty of built-in features to help you create and manage your directory website. Also, it’s pretty customizable and has different add-ons available if you want to expand its functionality further.

HivePress

HivePress is a free directory WordPress plugin designed for creating directory and classifieds websites of any type. Whether you’re building a business directory, job board, real estate listings, or any other type of listing site, HivePress provides all the essential features you need.

HivePress is a highly customizable plugin that comes without any hard-coded fields, letting you set everything up just the way you want. Moreover, if you’re handy with coding, you’ll be happy to hear that its codebase is clean and easy to work with, making it a breeze for developers to tweak or customize the plugin to fit their needs.

Side-by-side Comparison

Feel free to check out the table below for a quick preview before diving into the more detailed comparison of HivePress and Directorist.

	HivePress	Directorist
Active Installations	10,000+	10,000+
Custom Listing Fields	✔️	✔️
Custom Listing Search Filters	✔️	✔️
Custom Vendor Profile Fields	✔️	❌
Custom Vendor Search Filters	✔️	❌
Listing Packages	✔️	💲
Claim Listings	✔️	💲
Featured Listings	✔️	✔️
Geolocation	✔️	✔️
Unlimited Locations	✔️	✔️
Radius Search	✔️	✔️
Bookmarks	✔️	✔️
Ratings & Reviews	✔️	✔️
Private Messages	✔️	💲
reCAPTCHA	✔️	💲
Customizable Emails	✔️	✔️
Code Snippets Collection	✔️	❌
Code Reference	✔️	❌
Hook Reference	✔️	❌
Marketplace Functionality	💲	💲
Requests Feature	💲	💲
Booking & Appointment Functionality	💲	💲
Memberships Feature	💲	❌
Social Login	💲	💲
Social Links	💲	✔️
Opening Hours Feature	💲	💲
Statistics for Vendors	💲	❌
Search Alerts	💲	❌
SEO Add-on	💲	✔️
Import Add-on	💲	✔️
Compare Listings Feature	❌	💲
Coupons	❌	💲
Mark as Sold	❌	💲
Ads Manager	❌	💲
Multi Directory Linking	❌	💲

Wanna learn more about HivePress?Learn More

Core Functionality

Let’s start with comparing the main features of both plugins, that come right out of the box. Meaning that you won’t have to purchase any third-party plugins or premium add-ons to have this functionality.

Directorist Core Features

With the free version of Directorist, you’ll get this bunch of features:

Custom Listing Fields & Search Filters – you’ll be able to add your own listing fields and search filters that match your niche;
Geolocation – set up the location-based search on your directory website;
Bookmarks – allow your users to save listings for future;
Reviews System – users are able to leave reviews and rate listings;
Customizable Emails – set up the emails that your users receive;
Featured Listings – monetize your website through the featured listings (currently, that’s the only monetization option in the free version of Directorist);
Social Links – allow vendors to add links to their listings;
Import/Export – import listings using CSV files.

We mentioned the main features that are available in the Directorist’s free version. Now let’s check the features that are included in HivePress for free.

HivePress Core Features

Here are some of the features that you’ll have even in the free version of HivePress:

Listing Fields & Search Filters – add your own listing fields and turn them into search filters;
User Profile Fields & Filters – unlike, Directorist, you can also create custom fields and filters for user profiles;
Geolocation – allows users to search listings based on their location or certain radius;
Favorites – let users keep a list of favorite listings;
Rating & Reviews – any registered user can rate a listing and leave a review;
Private Messages – users can communicate with each other and send attachments via messages;
Listing Packages – monetize your directory website by charging users for adding listings;
Featured Listings – charge a fee for making certain listings featured;
Claim Listings – charge business owners for claiming listings;
Customizable Emails – create your own email templates, using the available tokens;
reCAPTCHA – protect your website from spam bots.

Please keep in mind that we mentioned only the features available in the free versions of both plugins. Later in this article, we’ll compare all the features, including premium ones.

Core Functionality Key Takeaways

	HivePress	Directorist
Custom Listing Fields	✔️	✔️
Listing Search Filters	✔️	✔️
Custom User Profile Fields	✔️	❌
Vendor Search Filters	✔️	❌
Geolocation	✔️	✔️
Bookmarks	✔️	✔️
Rating & Reviews	✔️	✔️
Messages System	✔️	💲
Featured Listings	✔️	✔️
Listing Packages	✔️	💲
Claim Listings	✔️	💲
Customizable Emails	✔️	✔️
reCAPTCHA	✔️	💲
Social Links	💲	✔️
Import	💲	✔️

Customization Options

When building a directory or any other website, it’s important to be able to customize everything in the way you like. Starting from the core functionality like listing fields & search filters and ending up with the look & feel of your website.

Within this section, we’ll compare HivePress customization options with Directorist’s features.

Directorist Customization

If you are going to use Directorist, you’ll be able to customize the following part of your website without any coding skills:

Listing Categories – feel free to add your own listing categories on the website or even create a hierarchy of categories;
Listing Fields & Search Filters – create custom listing fields that are required for your website niche;
Layouts – you can customize layouts of a single page, listing submission page and so on, using the block editor;
Email Templates – you can change the template of emails that are sent from your website.

These are the most important options that you should keep in mind. However, you can also change colors, fonts and all the other common things from WP Customizer.

HivePress Customization

Now, let’s take a look at HivePress and how it can be customized to match your website requirements. Some of the features are similar to Directorist’s, but there are also a few unique ones:

Listing Categories – add different listing categories to make your website easier to navigate;
Vendor Profile Categories – create categories for vendor profiles. It’s especially useful for different websites like directories for staff members, employees, etc.;
Listing Fields & Search Filters – create listing fields and search filters that are specific to your business and niche;
Vendor Profile Fields & Filters – customize vendor profiles on your website by creating different fields (e.g., “experience”, “languages”, etc.);
Customizable Emails – similarly to Directorist, you can customize the emails that are sent from your website;
Templates – rearrange different parts of your website, such as the listings page, the single listing page, etc, using our Templates feature.
Page Appearance – HivePress is integrated with WP Customizer, so all the features are fully supported;

By the way, you can find a collection of pre-made CSS & PHP code snippets on the official HivePress website that you can use hassle-free to customize your directory website even more. Simply copy and paste to make the necessary changes.

Customization Key Takeaways

	HivePress	Directorist
Listing Categories	✔️	✔️
Vendor Categories	✔️	❌
Custom Listing Fields	✔️	✔️
Listing Search Filters	✔️	✔️
Custom Vendor Profile Fields	✔️	❌
Vendor Search Filters	✔️	❌
Template Customization	✔️	✔️
Custom Emails	✔️	✔️
WP Customizer	✔️	✔️
Code Snippets Collection	✔️	❌

Monetization Features

At this point, let’s discuss the monetization capabilities of both directory plugins. It’s important to be able to make money with your website in different ways and without unnecessary third-party plugin integration. So, let’s check what monetization features both plugins offer.

Keep in mind that we’ll mention all the features that are available in both free and premium versions.

Directorist Monetization

In the free version of Directorist, there’s only one monetization model – featured listings, which allows you to charge vendors for making their listings featured. This a common monetization model for most directory websites.

Additionally, the plugin developers offer three monetization models that can be enabled with premium add-ons, namely:

Listing Packages – you can charge users for adding new listings on your directory website.
Commissions – set commission rates and take a cut from each transaction that occurs on your website.
Claim Listings – you can also charge business owners who want to claim listings on your directory website.

In a nutshell, Directorist offers all the necessary monetization features with its premium add-ons. However, if you plan to use only the free version, you will be a bit limited with one business model.

HivePress Monetization

In its free version, HivePress includes three monetization models right out of the box. You’ll be able to:

Charge vendors for adding listings – create various listing packages with different restrictions.
Charge users for making listings featured – charge a fee for making certain listings featured. Those listings will appear higher on the search page of your website.
Charge business owners – allow business owners to claim their listings on your site for a fee.

These business models can be used without the need to purchase anything. Just plug and play. But if you are looking for something special, you can purchase some HivePress extensions and monetize your directory website via:

Commissions – set a certain rate on your website and take a cut from each transaction that happens on your website. You can charge vendors, users, or even both.
Memberships – create membership plans and charge website visitors for viewing certain parts of your website.

Additionally, both plugins are fully integrated with WooCommerce, which offers dozens of payment gateways all around the world.

Monetization Key Takeaways

	HivePress	Directorist
Featured Listings	✔️	✔️
Listing Packages	✔️	💲
Claim Listings	✔️	💲
Commissions	💲	💲
Memberships	💲	❌

Plugin’s Extensibility

Often the core functionality is not enough to set up your directory website in the way you want, and it’s necessary to enhance it with additional features. That’s why in this section, we’ll check the extensibility of both directory plugins. We’ll check premium add-ons offered by Directorist and HivePress.

Directorist’s Add-ons

This is a list of the main Directorist add-ons that you can purchase to enhance your directory website. Feel free to visit the official website to see the whole list of Directorist’s extensions.

Digital Marketplace – turn your site into a profitable digital marketplace with this extension.
Booking – set up a booking and reservation system on your directory site.
Listings with Map – display your listings on interactive maps.
Business Hours – inform your customers about your business hours.
Pricing Plans – implement pricing plans to generate more revenue from your directory listings.
Directorist Coupon – generate coupons to boost conversions.
Directorist Ads Manager – insert ads on specific pages of your directory site.
Compare Listings – allow users to compare multiple listings.
Live Chat – enable real-time private messaging on your directory site.
Social Login – speed up registration with one-click login using Facebook.
Post Your Need – post your service needs and find matching providers.
Listings Slider & Carousel – enhance your site’s appearance with sliders and carousels.
Claim Listing – allow business owners to claim and manage their listings on your site.
HelpGent Integration – easily connect with your audience using video and audio messaging.
Oxygen Builder Integration – integrate Directorist with the Oxygen page builder.
PayPal Payment Gateway – let users make payments easily with PayPa.
Stripe Payment Gateway – accept payments with the Stripe gateway.

Please note that you can purchase all extensions only through subscriptions, meaning that you’ll have to pay each year for them.

HivePress’ Add-ons

Now, let’s check out the premium extensions offered by HivePress. You can extend the functionality of your directory website by installing any of these:

Marketplace – allows you to build a marketplace of fixed-price services or digital downloads.
Requests – lets your website visitors post requests and receive offers.
Bookings – allows users to book listings, while vendors can accept or decline booking requests. Additionally, vendors can manage the booking calendar and set booking restrictions.
Memberships – with this extension, you can monetize your site by charging users for viewing listings or certain listing details or even the whole categories.
Search Alerts – notifies users about new listings.
Statistics – provides vendors with stats on the monthly, weekly and daily number of unique visitors and views.
Social Login – allows users to sign-up via third-party platforms like Google, Facebook.
Social Links – lets vendors add social links to their listings and vendor pages.
Import – allows you to import listings from a CSV file.
SEO – improves SEO of your directory website.
Opening Hours – allows users to add opening hours to listings and search listings that are currently open.
Tags – lets users set listing tags and search listings by tags.

To find out more about HivePress extensions, you can visit the official website and check all the features, roadmaps and so on. Also, please note that HivePress offers lifetime licenses, so you don’t have to renew it every year, you can buy once and receive all the necessary updates in the future.

So, as you can see, both plugins offer many add-ons that can be used to enhance your directory website. Some of the extensions are similar, and some are different, so everything depends on your website’s needs and requirements.

Exclusive Themes

Now let’s talk about the WordPress themes that both plugins offer. Both Directorist and HivePress have their own niche themes that work perfectly with their plugins.

Directorist’s Themes

The Directorist’s developers offer you 10+ niche WordPress themes that you can use along with the main plugin. Some of them include:

dCar – a WordPress theme for car directories.
dPlace – build tourism and travel directories.
dClassified – a theme for classified ads and listing businesses.
dHotels – lets you create hotel directories.
dJobs – a theme for building job directories.
dRealEstate – a theme for real estate business directories.

Please note that we mentioned only a few themes, but you can visit the official website and check out the whole list of available themes.

HivePress’ Themes

On the official HivePress website, you can find 6 niche-specific WordPress themes crafted by the HivePress team.

MeetingHive – an appointment booking WordPress theme for building scheduling platforms.
RentalHive – a booking & rental WordPress theme for building websites like Airbnb.
ExpertHive – an on-demand services WordPress theme.
TaskHive – a service marketplace theme for creating Fiverr-like platforms.
JobHive – a job board theme.
Listing Hive – a free multipurpose WordPress directory theme.

Each of the mentioned themes is fully compatible with HivePress, so you can rest assured that no issues will occur.

Customer Support

Finally, let’s check the support policies of both directory plugins to better understand how they handle customer inquiries and resolve issues.

Directorist’s Support

When you purchase any paid extensions or themes built by Directorist, you’ll get an annual license that grants you a full year of access to technical support. This means you’ll receive help with bug fixing, installation, configuration, and any issues related to the plugin or extension’s functionality, along with usage guidelines and suggestions. To keep using support, you’ll have to renew your license each year.

Additionally, there’s a knowledge base where you can find many useful docs and tutorials on how to use the main directory plugin along with its themes and extensions. However, if you still struggling, you can create a support ticket on the official website.

HivePress’ Support

HivePress offers direct support from its developers, ensuring that any issues are resolved quickly and efficiently by experts who know the product inside and out.

Support is available via email or the community forum, where all registered users can:

Ask questions
Participate in discussions
Report bugs
Suggest features

Additionally, on the HivePress website, you can find a documentation section, a knowledge base, a collection of snippets, and code & hook references.

Keep in mind that any HivePress premium product (theme or extension) includes 6 months of premium support, guaranteeing a 24-hour turnaround time on weekdays.

Wrapping Up

That wraps up our article. We hope it was useful to you and that you now know a little bit more about the best Directorist alternative on the market. If you are still doubting which plugin to choose to create a directory website, you can visit the official HivePress website and learn more about it or ask any questions.

Also, we recommend checking out our other comparisons:

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