Hey Sumo-lings 👋

Less than 24 hours left, and I wanted to write this one myself before the campaign closes.

Thank you. To everyone who purchased, even those of you who ended up not sticking with Directorist, thank you for giving it a chance. To everyone who just visited and asked questions, thank you too. Those questions told us a lot about what people actually need from a directory plugin, and that's already shaping what we build next.

This was our first AppSumo campaign, and honestly, it's been a good experience. Dealing with your questions, concerns, praise, and complaints all at once isn't always comfortable, but it's exactly the kind of feedback that keeps a product honest.

A lot of you have asked when we'll be back. I still can't give you a firm date, but it shouldn't be a long wait.

If there's one thing this campaign made clear to us, it's that our core plugin is genuinely strong on its own. Plenty of people who didn't buy anything still went on to build solid directory or classifieds projects using just the free core. That's exactly what it's meant to do, and seeing it used that way, at this scale, meant a lot to us.

If you're still trying to get everything set up the way you want, remember our Done For You service is there. Whether it's initial setup, custom development, or scaling an existing project, our team can take that off your plate.

Last thing. The campaign is ending, but reviews matter to us well beyond today. If you have a few minutes, please leave one on our landing page, good experience or bad. We'd rather hear the honest version than none at all.

Thank you for being part of this. 🙏

Hey Sumo-lings 👋

We're down to the final days of this campaign, so let's talk about what's coming in September, and what's waiting for you after that.

September pipeline

• A new extension is joining the lineup: Pay Per Lead. This gives directory owners another way to monetize, charging for lead access instead of just listing fees or featured placements. More options for how you turn your directory into revenue.

• Templates will be live this month. We know this one ran behind schedule, and we'd rather tell you plainly than let it slide quietly. It's confirmed for September.

• Elementor and Gutenberg Advanced Integration is moving from beta to official release. This has been through extended testing and improvement, and we're ready to call it stable.

• dTour, our tour and travel directory theme, is also confirmed by the end of September. The release was delayed because we ran into integration issues across builders, and we chose to fix that properly rather than ship something inconsistent. It'll be available across all supported builders when it goes live.

What's ahead for BFCM

A lot of you have asked what we're planning around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Here's the honest answer: you're already getting Directorist ahead of that, through AppSumo.

But the BFCM pipeline itself is worth knowing about, because if you're on Tier 4, you get those releases too.

That includes new themes, more templates, AI Pro, and a more optimized version of Directorist overall. None of this requires a separate purchase if you're already on Tier 4. It just arrives as part of your plan.

If you're still deciding

We're down to less than a week on this campaign. If you've been on the fence, this is the point to decide.

We can't say for certain if or when Directorist will return to AppSumo. We hope it does, but we're not making that promise.

If you're already in

If you've been enjoying Directorist so far, this is a good moment to leave a review on our AppSumo page. It genuinely helps other builders discover the deal while it's still here, instead of waiting an indefinite stretch for the next campaign, if there even is one.

Thanks for being part of this launch. Whatever you decide, we appreciate the time you've spent looking into it. 🙏

Hey Sumo-lings,

August is shaping up to be a busy month for Directorist. Here's what's coming, and what's getting better.

What's launching in August

In the first week of August, we're finally launching dTour, our tour and travel directory theme. It's built to work across major page builders, not locked into one. Tier 4 users will see it available directly in their dashboard once it goes live.

We're also close to releasing something we've been working on quietly for a while: an AI Setup Wizard. The current setup wizard has done its job, but this new version is a genuine step forward. It's a core plugin feature, and we're treating it as a long-term investment, because a smoother first setup means fewer people getting stuck before they even see the value of the plugin.

Later this month, we're starting work on a standalone dashboard for the backend. This has been on our roadmap for a while and we haven't gotten to it yet. That's on us, and we'd rather be upfront about the delay than pretend it wasn't planned. When we build it, we want to get it right rather than rush a version we'd have to redo.

What's getting better

The Divi Integration extension is being refined. The initial release did what it needed to, and a more mature version is coming soon with the improvements we've learned from real usage.

We're also expanding our theme lineup. dFitness is in the pipeline, along with a revamped version of dCar. More niche-specific themes means less customization work for you if you're building outside the standard business directory use case.

And the Claim Listing extension is getting a significant upgrade. This is one of the more requested improvements, and we're putting real effort into it.

One ask

If Directorist has been useful to you so far, a review on our AppSumo page would mean a lot. It helps other builders here decide if it's the right fit for them, and it tells us what's actually working.

Thanks for sticking with us through August. More updates soon. 🙏

This week we're releasing Custom Badges for Directorist.

Until now, every directory site had the same three badges: New, Popular, Featured, fixed rules, no way to add your own. If you wanted a "Trending this week" badge, a "Top Rated" badge, or one for your own promotion, you had to hack it in with code. Not anymore. You can now create as many badges as you want, set the conditions that trigger each one (view count, listing age, average rating, review count, or featured status), and pick a text label or an icon with your own colors. Directorist checks the conditions and shows the right badge on the right listing automatically, no coding needed.

You can place badges on the single listing page or right on the listing cards in your grid or list view, up to three badges per position, alongside the built-in ones. Set an internal name so you know what each badge is for, choose whether all conditions need to match or just one, and if you ever want to start clean, a Reset defaults button brings everything back to the original New/Popular/Featured setup.

Custom Badges is part of Directorist core, so if you already run Directorist, it's already yours. No extra purchase, no separate extension to activate.

If you've been using Directorist, we'd love to hear what you think, please leave us a review.

Now, I wanted to share something on the client side.

Over the past while, we've had a steady stream of good conversations with AppSumo users, people who bought Directorist expecting a directory plugin and came back asking us to help build something bigger on top of it. Some want a white-label build, we do the development work under their brand. Others just want help shaping the directory itself, figuring out what structure, fields, and workflow actually fit their use case. We're thrilled with how many of these conversations are turning into real projects.

It's a good reminder for us too. Directorist was built for business directories, listings, and classifieds, but the underlying structure, custom fields, submission workflows, search, monetization, isn't tied to any one niche. We've seen it get repurposed for things well outside the original brief, and a few of those projects are on track to power large global businesses soon. We'll share more once those are far enough along to talk about publicly.

If you've got an idea for what Directorist could become for your business and aren't sure how to get from "idea" to "built," reach out. We're open for business as usual, happy to help you think it through even before it's a formal project.

Today we're releasing a new extension called Directorist Notifications Pro.

It adds native browser push notifications to your Directorist site. Admins and listing owners get an instant alert the moment something happens, a new listing comes in, an order gets placed, a payment lands, a listing gets approved or is about to expire, a review comes through, right in their browser, without needing to check email.

Each event can be turned on or off separately for admins and for listing owners, and it runs alongside your existing email notifications rather than replacing them. Click a notification and it takes you straight to the listing or order it's about to.

We built this because of a gap we kept running into. We looked at how other directory plugins handle notifications before building this. One of the directory plugins offers saved-search alerts, but only by email. Another directory plugin has a similar search-alert feature, and its own user community has an open thread asking for push notifications that still hasn't been built.

Nobody in this space has shipped native browser push for directory events. So we did. No OneSignal, no PushEngage, no third-party account to set up, it runs on your own site using your own credentials.

If you think this is a valuable add-on, you can get it from our site. If you're on our Tier 4 plan, it's already yours, no extra purchase needed.

Notifications Pro is one of several extensions we've built to make Directorist do more.

Explore all our extensions →

Next up: dTour, our first Gutenberg-compatible theme. The plan is for dTour to eventually work across Elementor, Gutenberg, and Divi, but we're starting with the block (Gutenberg) version first. It should be ready by the end of this week. Stay tuned.

Thanks for checking in on this one. If you've been using Directorist, we'd love to hear what you think, please leave us a review.