The Future-Ready Directorist Journey: Thriving in the Age of AI

AI is changing the game everywhere and WordPress isn’t standing still either. While some see it as a challenge, at Directorist, we see it as the next big leap forward.

Last year, we’ve been hard at work blending AI into the heart of Directorist Core – not to replace your creativity, but to power it for Free. Our goal was to make your directory business smarter, faster, and future-ready, so you can turn AI from a buzzword into your business advantage. Now we’re planning to move ahead with even more exciting AI armours.

In this article, we’ll walk you through what we’ve added in 2025 so far and give you a sneak peek into our year-end additions followed by our 2026 roadmap crafted for business owners who want to sustain, scale, and win in the AI era.

Directorist Journey in 2025: Short Glimpse

2025 has been a year of transformation. From building strong foundation of Directorist core to launching powerful extensions, we’ve taken big steps forward together. And now, as we look toward 2026, we’re even more excited to share the upcoming additions that will redefine how your business will grow and perform in the coming year.

Directorist Core had been in the centre of our development this year as we scheduled the biggest release of the year last month. Directorist v8.5 came with powerful upgrades and fixes that our users had been asking for a while. And we ensured that we get to deliver them within this year. Deep dive into what our major release contains from the following article.

Prior to this release, we developed schema support in Directorist v8.4 for better search engine indexing. Earlier the year, we enabled category and location bulk edit which was one of the newest additions in Directorist core. Throughout the year, we fixed hundreds of minor issues to ensure smooth user experience.

Directorist Pro has enhanced it’s capabilities to greater strength and made it future-ready for AI revolution in 2025. From theme improvements to smarter extensions launch, we’re crafting features that will help you stand strong and thrive in the upcoming AI waves.

We have developed 4 extensions this year so far plus improving a few more (before year ends) . And a big surprise to reveal before we jump into a new Gregorian calendar (!). Stay tuned we will give you hints about that’s coming up to seal the deal.

The new extensions include:

• Search Alert
• Universal Search
• Advanced Review
• Analytics (Upcoming)

Plus we completely re-worked and launched with the following extension:

• Business Hours

Re-work in progress for the following extentions:

• Booking (Reservation & Appointment)
• Pricing Plans

Extensions we launched or re-worked on are designed to empower you and help you to understand your data more accurately, attract engaged users with more interactive features, and grow faster with results-driven actions.

Let’s move on to the next section, where we will discuss more details about our core plugin and extensions as well as upcoming exciting AI-features.

We Revolutionized Directorist Core Experience in 2025

We started 2025 with Directorist v8 enhancements. Throughout the year, our core plugin advanced significantly, anchored by multiple semi-major updates that brought new features, enhancements and stability fixes. These releases reflect our commitment to listening to you, improving developer experience, and empowering site owners to build better directories.

Directorist v8.1

In January, we launched Directorist v8.1 that came with infinite scroll pagination for listings archive pages including all popular pages. The version also had a number of serious issue fixes that we prioritized based on our observation of support tickets.

Directorist v8.2 – 8.3

In the following 2 months, v8.2 and v8.3 were releases subsequently containing bulk edit feature of category and location to assign or reset directory, enhancement of bulk import tool, Google Maps performance enhancement and listing status fixation.

Directorist v8.4

As we moved onto better SEO and visibility priority, v8.4 offered better indexing of listings with schema support as well as modification of default schema arguments using new filter hook. We also brought FormGent integration in v8.4.4 which enables displaying a dynamic form to collect user input in single listing page.

Directorist v8.5

The most anticipated v8.5 came with many useful features from enhancement to better control altogether. What’s included in Directorist v8.5? You probably already got it in our above article but here’s a TL;DR in case you missed.

• REST API v2: We moved onto REST API v2 upgradation to ensure better integration and control of your directory, seamlessly working with web and mobile app version.
• Taxonomy Migration: Directorist is now fully compatible with WordPress’s default taxonomy for cleaner URLs and better search engine visibility.
• Builder Enhancement: We improved directory builder interface giving it a modern and intuitive look so that users can build their forms with more confidence.
• Issue Fixes: A number of issues including element placements, viewport adjustments etc were ensured in this version.

Overall, this year we focused more on stability, better visibility and compatibility enhancement by bringing new features, refinements, and critical fixes on Directorist core based on your feedback. We want to make sure that the base is rock solid so that you can scale with confidence.

Game-Changing Extensions That Defined Directorist

If we had to sum up 2025 in one phrase, it would be the “year of transformation“. We rolled out 4 powerful extensions to improve the Directorist’s pro capabilities and help you turn your website into a more feature-rich platform. Each one solved real user challenges and pushed Directorist another step closer to being the most advanced directory builder in WordPress.

Let’s take a more detailed look into what we have developed from scratch in 2025 so far.

1. Search Alert Extension – To Keep Your Customers Coming Back

In a world full of distractions, retaining users is the key to growing your business without breaking the bank on marketing and promotions. With Search Alert feature, visitors can subscribe to their desired products alert when they cannot find a suitable listing. They will get notifications when a listing matches their saved criteria.

This particular feature is ideal for job boards in creating suitable job alert, property listings so that visitors get notified when properties in their area is listed, or service provider listing when new service providers get listed in the platform. This simple yet powerful feature transforms casual visitors into loyal, repeat users who stay connected with your directory.

2. Universal Search Extension – Help Customers Convert Quickly

The Universal Search extension changed how users explore your directory website. With a single smart search bar, visitors can find anything across multiple directories, countless listings and find their desired listing with a generic search term instantly.

Read the detailed article below to learn more about the Universal Search Extension of Directorist.

Universal Search feature reduces friction of setting various filter criteria to find one result and streamlines upselling options by showing relevant results against the search term that customers might be interested in. Because when users find exactly what they need in seconds, they come back again and again.

3. Advanced Review Extension – A Better way to Display Customer Feedback

Trust drives conversion. With the Advance Review extension, you can display more detailed reviews of the listings written by real customers. These detailed reviews drive more conversions by going beyond basic star ratings. It includes multi-criteria ratings specific to your directory type, photo uploads, and detailed feedback sections that highlight various aspects of the listing.

Find more details of Advanced Review in the below article.

It helps customers make educated decision. With advanced review, you’re not only showcasing authentic, structured feedback but also creating powerful social proof that boosts engagement and SEO. Because when reviews look real, users feel confident to take action.

4. Analytics Extension – Insights for Business to Make Decisions

Accurate numbers help to make more accurate decisions. And accurate decisions help to grow business faster. The analytics extension provides a clear visual dashboard that shows your top-performing listings, user activity, and growth – all in one place. Both admins and listing owners get access to these insights, helping them make data-driven decisions that lead to smarter marketing and better conversions.

This extension of Directorist is scheduled to launch soon but we have finished developing this a while ago. We can assure you that the data it will contain will not only help you as a site owner to make your business decisions but also your customers who has listings on the platform to gain valuable insights on their customer behaviour.

5. Business Hours Extension – Uplift Customer Satifcation by Displaying Active Hours

We re-worked on our Business Hours extension giving it a more powerful flexibility for businesses across the world. Whether you maintain a regional local business directory or an international one, all your listing owners can set their flexible business hours across various regions with our new enhancements. Information accuracy uplifts customer satisfaction by displaying active and inactive hours properly and reducing customer’s effort.

6. Booking Extension – Integrate with Your Favorite Calendar

The booking extension is getting an upgrade as we are enabling integration with listing owner’s Google Calendar. This enhancement will ensure that no appointments are missing and vital information are available across various devices to take care by businesses.

7. Pricing Plans – Streamline Your Revenue Growth

As we are re-working on the Pricing Plans extension to help Directorist users streamline their revenue growth, we are looking forward to a more stable version release very soon. Stay tuned as we will share more details on Directorist Community about this work in progress.

Harnessing AI to Take Directorist to the Next Level

We talked about the big mystery that we will reveal in this article and here it is!

Get ready to experience the future of directory template building with AI. No need to duct tape multiple “AI-powered” solutions to build various page parts, Directorist will enable creating various page templates with a single prompt all within our plugin ecosystem. We want to gift this exciting feature to our users in the upcoming months.

When we said we’re future-proofing Directorist and enabling you to turn AI into a power instead of panic, this is what we meant. It’ll complete the Directorist circle by offering a complete suite of directory builder that you can rely on for a long-term business goal. As we are rapidly developing this feature, we’re seeking your enthusiasm by providing valuable feedback on our roadmap board and communities.

Don’t just start a directory business for quick cash- build a future-proof directory website first with AI-powered Directorist to kickstart your stable passive income journey.

Directorist Mobile App – Directories on the Go

Next, we’ll be bringing more monetization power to directory business owners with the new-look Directorist Mobile App. The upcoming version will be loaded with more features to grow your directory business with ease. It will offer both owners and users a new experience of discovering, connecting, and converting.

Partnership Beyond Just a Plugin

Is Directorist just a plugin? We firmly believe that it isn’t just a plugin but a partnership between us and our valued users. This is why our intention is not just to sequentially upgrade features but to make your directory business more stable, flexible and scalable.

And what fuels our motivation? It’s your feedback.

When our users vote on the roadmap and tell us which features they want most, we take it seriously. Your input directly shapes our development priorities, helping us build the tools you need, faster and smarter. Every suggestion, every vote, drives us forward because we don’t want to be just a plugin to you – but a partner in your growth.

Check out our roadmap to track upcoming features, share your feedback or make a new feature request.

Our Journey Goes On

In 2025, we proved what’s possible when innovation meets dedication. But we’re not stopping there. 2026 will be bigger, bolder, and built around you – our community of creators, entrepreneurs, and dreamers.

And this is just the beginning. We’ve more plans on our pipelines. Our vision for coming years is a connected ecosystem – where directory website owners can build, manage, and scale their businesses seamlessly across web and mobile.

If you have any ideas or feedback, we invite you to join our official Directorist community to share your thoughts and help us shape the next generation of directory solutions together.