Introducing New Pricing Plan for Directorist – Is It Worth It?

On the 1st week of October 2021, we will be launching our brand new subscription pricing plan. And this new pricing plan will only apply to the new membership owners. If you are already an existing product user, worry not! For now, you can renew it at the current rate.

We released Directorist back in 2017 with the high hope of satisfying our customers with just a basic directory solution. Since then it has substantially evolved from a mere basic directory solution to a comprehensive directory solution over the passage of time. And you will be glad to know that these changes did not stem only from our end, rather you were also a part of it. By that we mean, you required the features, showed us your love and in return, we just kept our commitment to our heart. That’s exactly how it met inroads and grew this fast.

Then again, we have grown together as a community from around the world aside from the value Directorist has been adding for the last 4 years. Guess what, Directorist is actively installed, used, and maintained by a whopping 8k+ members from around the world as of 21st September 2021. And obviously, behind all of our wonderful successes, it’s always you who backed us up even during the hard times of pandemics. Now, let’s talk about the reasons behind the change of the current pricing plan.

Why Changes to the Pricing Plan Then?

The fact that Directorist is growing by leaps and bounds in terms of its features is not a new phenomenon. Not only fresh features are rejuvenating the free version but also invigorating the premium extensions with frequent tweaks, improvements, as well as bug fixes. For instance, in March 2021, it has got its major release 7.0 with multi-directory functionalities accompanied by other new features.

1. A Host of New Extensions & a Theme Since the Last Price Update

If you have bought Directorist lifetime plan before April 2021 you are using 11 more extensions and a new theme as a bonus. Here are the 11 new premium extensions and the new theme we rolled out since the last update of our pricing plan that took effect in April 2020:

It means you are getting an extra $360, $732, and $1368 for 1 site, 5 sites, unlimited sites respectively.

Most importantly, you will be getting all of these extensions in both of the pricing plans (Yearly Access and Lifetime Access).

The present Yearly Access pricing plan of Directorist (as of today, 21st September 2021):

Yearly Access

And this is the Lifetime Access pricing plan:

Lifetime Access

2. A Myriad of New Core Features Since the Last Price Update

Apart from the premium extensions, we did not skimp on rolling out new features in the core version. Since April 2020, the time when we last changed the pricing plan, we have dished out a whole slew of useful features:

• Autofill in user registration form
• FontAwesome and LineAwesome icons
• New hooks
• Custom shortcode/HTML support in single listing
• Single listing shortcode template
• Text alignment & style option in Elementor search form widget
• 16 Gutenberg blocks
• Option to edit directory type slug
• Unmimified assets
• Buttons (renew and promote) in user dashboard
• Filter hook to range slider and dashboard query arguments
• New parameter to show/hide popular category in search form
• Tooltip dependency
• Excluded custom taxonomy links (native) from YOAST sitemap
• Option to remove dynamic directory slug
• Multi directory
• Custom form and layout builder
• New settings panel
• Templating
• Listing CSV Export/Import with custom field
• Legacy template support
• Asset loading on demand
• Different dashboard and signup options for users and listing owners
• Same author listings in similar listings
• PHP compatibility (7.0 to 8.0)
• Admin debugger
• Compatibility with PHP 8
• Rank Math plugin compatibility
• Guest submission login modal for existing users
• All listing short code parameter “map_zoom_level”
• Option to restrict single listings for logged in user only (—Compiled from WordPress.org product description).

Among these free core features, you will find some features that are premium in other directory systems. They are:

• Multi-directory features: With this feature, you can incorporate multiple niche without buying additional domain and hosting plans. Meaning you can host multiple directories in only one domain and hosting plan. This is pretty handy to keep additional costs in check if you are setting off with a tight budget.

• Custom Form & Layout Builder: This one is useful when you want to create a add listing form, submission form, and single listing form your way. This gives you an enormous flexibility to your choice on what to show or how to show to visitors.

• Template override features: The templating features gives you another great way to customize stock directory layouts. This is a developer friendly feature that will ease the process of customizing Directorist exactly the way you want.
• RankMath optimization: Directorist is compatible not only with Yoast but also with RankMath. We released this integration due to the increased popularity of the plugin and specifically as per your suggestion.
• Listing CSV Export/Import with custom field: With custom field CSV export and import feature, you can effortlessly export import bulk data.
• Gutenberg compatibility: Very lately, we have released 16 Gutenberg blocks.
• Elementor page builder support: Elementor does not need any introduction as it has so many users. To this end, we released a wide array of page builder widgets for it.

• Restrict single listings view: Make your directory website more exclusive by restricting single listings view only to the logged in users. This makes your directory website more exclusive to the users. Not to mention this will eventually help you generate leads lightning fast.

3. Increased Maintenance Cost Since Last Pricing Plan Changes

Formerly, we had only a few customers so we did not need to spend much on maintenance purposes. As our users are growing, we have to manage the additional license keys, optimize our website with a much faster server due to high traffic, grow our team members to give you the best value from our side.

We are also investing in the process of maintaining product quality. So, we are also hiring Quality Assurer.

Obviously, all of these do not come up for free! And so we can not help making changes to the current pricing plan.

4. Hey wait, that’s not the end!

We also feel excited that, other than regularly adding new core features, bug fixes, and extensions, we will be launching a fleet of themes within the next three months to align with different directory niches. The good thing is that the themes will cover a wide range of directory industry faucets like Lawyer Directory, Doctor Directory, Place Directory, Real Estate Directory, Automobile Directory, and what not!

Important Takeaways for the Current Pro Users

• The price of individual extensions will not be affected. Meaning, their price will remain as it is.
• Before we change the pring plans, we want to give our current subscription users one last chance to grab Directorist Lifetime Access with the current pricing plan and it is obviously before September 30th, 2021. And guess what you will be able to get the pro version upto 35% discount. The discount will be applied based on the current pricing plan, not on the newly changed pricing plan.

Final Thoughts on Changing Directorist Pricing Plan

We are planning to make changes to the current pricing plan primarily because we don’t want to compromise the quality of our product. And we want to firmly stay in the market for a long long time by providing you with the best quality support from our end. Now that we are rolling out so many heavy features, themes, and plugins, we needed to expand our Development, Quality Assurance, Content, and Support team to fix bugs, produce helpful resources and give you more quality support.

Consequently, a huge spike has struck in our operational costs. And so, we can not but have to change our pricing plan to meet the additional costs and to maintain product sustainability by carrying out continuous development, improvement, and support.

Howbeit we promise for each and every hard-earned penny, you will get the value and exclusivity from Directorist you are looking for.