The Best GeoDirectory Alternative in 2023

Looking for a GeoDirectory alternative to organize listings on your WordPress directory website but don’t know which one to choose? Well, that’s exactly the topic of this post.

In this article, we’ll compare the GeoDirectory plugin with the HivePress plugin. We will highlight what each plugin does well and how they compare so that you can choose the option that best fits your needs, budget and knowledge level. Also, we highly recommend checking out our comparison article of the most popular WordPress directory plugins just to get a better idea of all the available options on the market.

Please note that first of all, we’ll compare the free versions of both plugins and then we’ll move to the premium features section. Also, feel free to jump directly to the section that interests you the most.

So, let’s dive in!

Introduction

To kick things off, we’ll start our article with a brief introduction to both plugins.

GeoDirectory

The GeoDirectory plugin is one of the major players when it comes to building directory websites with WordPress. It’s been on the market since 2011, helping people build directories of different types.

As the name suggests, GeoDirectory comes with advanced geolocation features, so it’s more suitable for building local business directories or websites that list products or businesses with brick-and-mortar locations.

HivePress

HivePress is a free directory & classifieds plugin suitable for building listing websites of any type. Whether it’s a business directory, job board, real estate, classifieds or basically any listing website — HivePress has got you covered.

It’s a relatively new plugin compared to GeoDirectory, but it has grown rapidly because of its versatility and tons of features that are included for free.

Side-by-side Comparison

You can take a sneak peek at the table below before moving to the more hands-on comparison of HivePress and GeoDirectory.

	HivePress	GeoDirectory
Active Installations	10,000+	10,000+
Average Rating	4.9 out of 5 stars (137 reviews)	4.7 out of 5 stars (501 reviews)
No Hard-coded Fields	✔️	❌
Custom Listing Fields	✔️	✔️
Custom Listing Search Filters	✔️	💲
Custom Vendor Fields	✔️	❌
Custom Vendor Search Filters	✔️	❌
Monetization Features	✔️	💲
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 Functionality	💲	❌
Memberships Feature	💲	❌
Social Login	💲	❌
Social Links	💲	❌
Opening Hours Feature	💲	❌
Statistics for Vendors	💲	❌
Search Alerts	💲	❌
SEO Add-on	💲	❌
Import Add-on	💲	💲
Compare Listings Feature	❌	💲
Social Importer	❌	💲
Custom Map Styles	❌	💲
Ajax Duplicate Alert	❌	💲

Core Functionality

Okay, now let’s compare the core functionality of each plugin in its free version so you have a better understanding of the features you can have right out of the box.

GeoDirectory Core Features

If you are going to use the free version of GeoDirectory for building a directory website, you can expect the following features:

• Front-end Listing Submission – you can accept and display listings submitted by users on your website;
• Geolocation Functionality – the plugin supports advanced geolocation features like searching listings by zip code or location name, ordering them by distance and even providing directions. Please note that in the free version, you can submit listings only within 1 location (city, town, or village);
• Reviews & Rating System – allows users to rate listings and leave reviews about them;
• Bookmarks – this feature lets your website visitors bookmark listings and get back to them later easily;
• Featured Listings – as a website admin, you can mark any listing as featured to display it at the top of the search results page of your directory site;
• Listing Tags – you can easily add various tags to your listings;

HivePress Core Features

The HivePress plugin is already jam-packed with all the necessary features for building directory or classifieds websites with WordPress. Some notable features include:

• Front-end Listing Submission – easily build a two-way website, where anyone can search for listings, as well as add their own;
• Monetization Features – you can monetize your website in no time in at least 3 different ways (by selling listing packages, by charging for claiming listings, by charging for listing promotion). We’ll talk about website monetization in the next sections;
• Messages – this feature lets your users communicate with each other and send attachments;
• Geolocation – HivePress allows you to integrate your website with Mapbox or Google Maps to enable location-based search;
• Reviews & Rating System – enables the reviews system on your site, so users can leave reviews and vendors can easily reply. Also, website visitors can rate any listing;
• Favorites – allows users to keep a list of their favorite listings;
• Featured Listings – you can mark listings as featured to display them at the top of the search results page;
• reCAPTCHA – you can set up reCAPTCHA on your site to protect it from spam and abuse.

These are the main (free) features of both plugins. To make it easier to compare, you can also take a look at the key takeaways table below.

Key Takeaways 

	HivePress	GeoDirectory
Front-end Listing Submission	✔️	✔️
Monetization Functionality	✔️	❌
Messages Feature	✔️	❌
Geolocation	✔️	✔️
Unlimited Locations	✔️	❌
Reviews & Rating System	✔️	✔️
Bookmarks	✔️	✔️
Featured Listings	✔️	✔️
reCAPTCHA	✔️	❌
Listing Tags	❌	✔️

Customization Options

When launching a website, it should be as easy as pie to customize everything according to your needs and preferences. Starting from the core functionality and ending up with the appearance of your website.

In this section, we’ll show how you can customize your website using GeoDirectory or HivePress plugins.

GeoDirectory Customization

By default, the GeoDirectory plugin allows you to customize the following parts of your directory website:

• Place Categories – you can create your own place (i.e., listing) categories and set them up in the way you like. For example, you can upload a category image, set a map icon, choose a category color and even select a schema type;
• Listing Fields – with GeoDirectory, it’s possible to customize your listing submission form by adding various custom listing fields;
• Forms – since the plugin is integrated with Ninja Forms, you may add different pre-made forms or create custom ones with the drag & drop builder;
• Layouts – GeoDirectory is fully compatible with Elementor, Divi and Beaver page builders, meaning that you can customize the layout of your website with blocks;
• Page Appearance – you can use the WordPress Customizer to customize fonts, colors, header image, etc.

Also, GeoDirectory allows you to customize common things like widgets or menus. But you should keep in mind that there are some hard-coded fields in the listing submission form that you won’t be able to change or remove without code changes (e.g., “address” or “images”).

HivePress Customization

HivePress puts you in the driving seat of your website, allowing you to set up its design and functionality hassle-free. For example, you can customize:

• Listing Categories – feel free to add as many listing categories as your need. You can upload category images, describe your categories and even create a hierarchy;
• Listing Fields – add your own listing fields tailored to your website niche;
• Listing Search Filters – with HivePress, you can create custom listing search filters to allow users to refine the search results;
• Vendor Profile Fields – collect additional information from your vendors by adding custom vendor profile fields;
• Vendor Search Filters – add custom vendor search filters, so website visitors can search for vendors, instead of just listings;
• Layouts – create a stunning layout for your website by overriding and customizing any HivePress page with the WordPress block editor;
• Page Appearance – HivePress is also fully integrated with WordPress Customizer, so you can set up the look and feel of your site easily;
• Emails – create custom emails and assign them to various events on your website.

Moreover, on the official HivePress website, you can find a collection of code snippets that allow you to customize your website even more. 

Also, contrary to GeoDirectory, the HivePress plugin doesn’t have any hard-coded fields, so you can add, change, reorder or remove any field as you like.

Key Takeaways

	HivePress	GeoDirectory
Unlimited Listing Categories	✔️	✔️
Custom Listing Fields	✔️	✔️
Custom Listing Search Filters	✔️	❌
Custom Vendor Profile Fields	✔️	❌
Custom Vendor Profile Search Filters	✔️	❌
Page Builders Integration	✔️	✔️
WordPress Customizer	✔️	✔️
Custom Emails	✔️	❌
Custom Forms	❌	✔️

Monetization Options

Now, let’s talk a bit about monetization since it’s a crucial part of most directory & classifieds websites. To successfully make money with your website, you should be able to set up different business models and test which work best for your niche.

So, let’s check out what monetization features each plugin offers.

GeoDirectory Monetization Options

The monetization functionality isn’t available in the free version of GeoDirectory, so you’ll have to purchase a premium add-on (Pricing Manager) if you want to make money with your website.

HivePress Monetization Options

With HivePress, you can monetize your website in at least 3 different ways without purchasing any premium add-ons or third-party plugins. For example:

• Charge Users for Adding Listings – you can create and sell various listing packages with different restrictions, so users have to purchase one of the packages if they want to add a new listing on your website.
• Charge Users for Claiming Listings – you can use the same business model as Yelp does by allowing business owners to claim listings on your website for a certain fee.
• Charge Users for Listing Promotion – you can mark listings as featured for a fee to display them at the top of the search results page.

Depending on your website niche and requirements, you can choose one monetization model for your directory or combine several. Moreover, you can use dozens of payment gateways and rest assured that all the payments are fast and secure since HivePress is integrated with WooCommerce.

Key Takeaways

	HivePress	GeoDirectory
Listing Packages	✔️	❌
Claim Listings Feature	✔️	❌
Paid Listing Promotion	✔️	❌

Exclusive Themes 

The look and feel of your website play a vital role and can make or break your business (just take a look at the statistics below).

That’s why it’s better to use a WordPress theme that is modern, lightweight and works seamlessly with your directory plugin. So, let’s take a look at the themes specially designed for each of the plugins.

GeoDirectory Themes

The plugin developers offer 8 themes that are fully integrated with GeoDirectory, namely:

• Directory Starter – a free directory theme (1,000+ active installations on WP.org)
• Supreme Directory – a free child theme for Directory Starter
• Whoop! – a free Yelp-like theme
• GeoDirectory Framework – a premium directory theme
• GDF Modern – a premium pre-made child theme for the GeoDirectory Theme Framework
• Geo Bold – a premium Genesis child theme for directory websites
• Geo Travel – a premium Genesis Child Theme for building travel directories
• Geo 1280 – another premium directory Genesis child theme

HivePress Themes

At the time of writing, HivePress powers the following WordPress themes:

• ListingHive – a free multipurpose theme for building directory & classifieds websites of any type (8,000+ active installations on WP.org)
• TaskHive – a premium micro-jobs platform theme
• RentalHive – a premium booking marketplace theme
• JobHive – a premium job board theme
• ExpertHive – a premium service marketplace theme

Each theme is clean, lightweight and intended to work hand in hand with HivePress. Moreover, with HivePress themes, you are not limited to the directory niche. You can also easily build different types of websites, for example, Fiverr, Airbnb, Indeed, Thumbtack and so on.

Extensibility

When choosing a plugin for your website, it’s important to check its extensibility. Ideally, it should be easy to add extra features without using dozens of third-party plugins that can bloat your website and without code changes.

Both HivePress and GeoDirectory allow you to extend the core functionality of your website by installing different premium extensions. Let’s check what premium features each plugin offers.

GeoDirectory Add-ons

With GeoDirectory, you can enhance your website with the following premium extensions:

• Location Manager ($39) – allows you to submit listings from different locations (by default, GeoDirectory allows submitting listings only within 1 location, like city, town, or village);
• Advanced Search ($39) – expands the default GeoDirectory search widget and enables custom search filters, radius search, proximity search, etc.;
• Custom Post Types ($39) – allows you to create and add as many custom post types as you need (by default, GeoDirectory offers a single custom post type – “Places”);
• Pricing Manager ($39) – allows you to monetize your directory quickly and easily with paid listings business model; 
• Claim Listings ($39) – allows business owners to claim their listings;
• Marker Cluster ($39) – combines listings that are nearby each other on the map;
• MultiRatings and Reviews ($39) – enables features like review ratings, multiple rating options, customizable strings, etc.;
• Social Importer ($19) – allows users to import their information from Facebook, Yelp, or TripAdvisor by entering the page URL;
• WP All Import ($39) – lets import your listings from anywhere by integrating WP All Import with GeoDirectory;
• Custom Map Styles ($19) – customizes the look and feel of your maps;
• Franchise Manager ($39) – allows users to submit listings for chains of businesses or franchises;
• Ajax Duplicate Alert ($19) – keeps your database clean and free from duplicate entries;
• List Manager ($19) – allows users to create and save their own special lists of places;
• Embeddable Ratings Badge ($39) – lets users build an embedded widget to show on their own website; 
• Compare Listings ($39) – allows users to view listings side by side;
• Advertising ($49) – this add-on for GetPaid, allows you to easily manage ads and insert them anywhere on your WordPress website;
• Events Tickets Marketplace ($49) – this one lets you sell event tickets on your website;
• BuddyPress Integration ($39); 
• reCAPTCHA ($19);
• Membership Plan ($199) – includes all the above-mentioned extensions.

Please note that all the prices are indicated for a 1-year subscription and will be billed yearly.

HivePress Add-ons

With HivePress, you can extend the functionality of your website by installing any of these premium extensions:

• Marketplace ($39) – allows you to build a marketplace of fixed-price services or digital downloads;
• Requests ($39) – lets your users post requests on your website and receive offers;
• Bookings ($39) – allows users to book listings, while vendors can accept or decline booking requests, manage the booking calendar and set booking restrictions;
• Memberships ($39) – with this extension, you can monetize your site by charging users for viewing listings, certain listing details or the whole categories;
• Search Alerts ($39) – notifies users about new listings matching their criteria;
• Statistics ($29) – provides your vendors with stats on the monthly, weekly and daily number of unique visitors and views of their listings;
• Social Login ($29) – allows users to sign-up via third-party platforms like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, etc.;
• Social Links ($29) – lets vendors add social links to their listings and vendor pages;
• Import ($29) – allows users to easily import listings from a CSV file;
• SEO ($29) – improves SEO of your website;
• Opening Hours ($29) – allows users to add opening hours to listings and search listings that are currently open;
• Tags ($29) – lets users set listing tags and search listings by tags;
• Bundle ($199) – includes all the HivePress extensions.

Bear in mind that all the prices are indicated for a lifetime single-site license, and you don’t have to purchase any membership plans.

Customer Support

Finally, let’s talk about customer support. Starting an online business is not all about rainbows and unicorns. It’s often a challenging task, so it’s vital to use a plugin that has a reliable support team to help you deal with any issues.

So let’s take a look at the GeoDirectory and HivePress support policies.

GeoDirectory Support

For users with an active membership plan ($199/year), the GeoDirectory team provides support via their own support ticket system. But if you are using the free version of GeoDirectory, you’ll only be able to ask basic questions on the WordPress.org support forum.

Also, there’s a documentation section on the official website, so you can check it out before reaching out to the support team.

HivePress Support

HivePress is directly supported by its developers to ensure that all the issues are resolved in the fastest and best way possible by people who know their product inside and out.

Support is provided through email or via the community forum where all registered users can:

• Ask questions
• Participate in discussions
• Report bugs
• Suggest features 

Additionally, on the HivePress website, there’s 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 you a 24-hour turnaround time.

The Bottom Line

That wraps our comparison article. We hope it was helpful, and now you have a better idea of the strengths and weaknesses of both plugins.

So, if you are looking for a GeoDirectory alternative, you may consider using the HivePress plugin. It’s a highly customizable directory plugin that includes tons of features right out of the box, so you can just plug and play.

In addition, we encourage you to explore the following articles:

• Best free Craigslist-like WordPress themes – if you’re thinking about starting a classified ads website like Craigslist, our article showcases the best free themes available. Explore their designs and features to create a user-friendly and visually appealing classifieds platform.
• Overview of the top classified ads plugins – in addition to the above-mentioned article, check out the comparison of the most popular classified ads WordPress plugins. You’ll find out more about the features and capabilities of these plugins and will be able to choose the best one for your website.