Directory sites are one of the first few sites I’ve built, of course, the game has changed, and I still maintain a couple (different niche) of sites, so contrary to popular belief, directory sites aren’t dead.

I’ve explored different scripts for a directory site: open source, laravel, flynax, WP powered (plugins, themes, oxygen + ACF Pro, even got my Directorist LTD) and so on. One thing I can tell you is that maintaining your own script is not an easy task, it'll eat up a lot of time, and sometimes it’s a lot of pain.

That’s why I got excited when I learned that Brilliant Directories is coming as I checked this before, the price back didn't make much sense for my use cases, but that's not the case now since it's under LTD.

Get a license, grow your site and get that discounts for the addon. This is practically a a machine that's ready to run, you'll just have to configure it, and make money from it.