Best WordPress Plugins & Themes to Create a Directory or Membership List Website

Directory & Membership List Plugins & Themes for WordPress

When talking about WordPress plugins, there are two types of memberships, membership directory lists or membership areas.

This article is about creating membership lists or directory websites such as directories of groups of businesses like local restaurants or national directory of hotels, or yellow pages style business listings, and club roosters and organizational membership lists.

The other type of membership is a way of controlling certain areas of a website, to limit access to “members only”, by requiring “membership” to a website, or to view materials on certain pages in the website, or to access certain files or downloads.

This is the discovery phase of my research, and is specific to WordPress plugins, and I am using the term plugin loosely, some are themes that function similar to plugins. Many of these plugins/themes require for cost add-ons to achieve all the things advertised by the software company.

Note: A directory “theme” can not be used with another theme (except a child theme), because it is the theme. Where a plugin, in theory, can be used with most themes.

The first group of plugins, in alphabetical order, are the ones I considered the best prospects for my membership list project, which needs maps on the index page and detail pages, and a reasonable up front cost and pricing for add-ons. I also want to avoid any plugin with a re-occurring monthly fee, I do not want to build a website and following only to have the software company go out of business and leave me fluttering in the wind.

Note: I have added a “Down to the Final Five” group.

Your needs are surely different than mine, so one of the other groups might have the features you need. But for me, some of the products simply did not meet my criteria, some did not have enough product details, some did not have a demo, some sites were just too difficult to navigate to find the details about their product, and big one for me, some wanted monthly payments.

Reunion Website: If you are looking for a membership list program for a class reunion website, please see my article: Create an Alumni Website for Your High School or College. While a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress will certainly do the job of creating a school alumni site, some of the pre-made alumni sites might be easier to run than a WordPress site.

Down to the Final Five!

Directory Ninja (a theme)
Demo

Directory Portal WordPress Theme – The NEW Directory+ Version (a theme)
EnvatoMarket: 4.2 Stars – 1,098 Ratings – 9,334 Sales
Demo

Directory Theme – PremiumPress (a theme)
Demo
I have an article about installing and setting up PremiumPress Directory theme. HERE

GeoDirectory (a plugin)
Demo

Superlist (a theme)
EnvatoMarket: 4.4 Stars – 31 Ratings – 380 Sales
Demo

I have reviewed all of the directory themes and plugins below, and most are very nice, but one of the biggest drawbacks that I came across was a limit to what listing features could be monetized. Many programs only allowed for charging a fee for base items, like “featured” listings or how many photos, where I am seeking the ability to charge for line items such as URL or email address as well as the above mentioned ones.

Second was cost, most are charging a base fee and then a much higher cost for the needed add-ons. Some of the program costs and add-ons are extremely high and some even have a monthly fee.

While my final four are not cheap, with the needed add-ons, I feel they offer the best value for the money with the features I am looking for. I could not find a program with all the things that I wanted, so I am trying to prioritize for importance.

1st Group

BePro Listings
WordPress Review: 5/5 Stars – 4 Reviews – 500+ Installs.
Demo (Scroll down to “Theme”, click on an icon, next page scroll down to “demo” link.)

Business Directory Plugin
WordPress: 4.7 Stars – 224 Reviews – 10,000+ Installs
Demo

Directory Ninja
Demo

Directory Portal WordPress Theme or Business Finder
EnvatoMarket: 4.2 Stars – 1,098 Ratings – 9,334 Sales
Demo

DirectoryS
EnvatoMarket: 4.2 Stars – 75 Ratings – 970 Sales
Demo

GeoTheme (a theme)
Demo
GeoDirectory (a plugin)
Demo

Preminum WordPress Themes
Two options:
Business Directory Theme
Demo
Directory Theme
Demo

Sabai Directory
EnvatoMarket: 4.5 Stars – 423 Ratings – 4,276 Sales.
Demo

Templatic: Directory
Child Themes:
SpotFinder Child Theme – Yellow Pages – Emblem – Cuisine – Explore – Nightlife.
Demo – for Directory