Directory and listing websites have become part of our everyday lives. Whether you’re booking a hotel, checking restaurant reviews, looking for a job, or just listing something for sale, you’re always using one. While there are big players in this market already, we believe that there’s still a place for local directories and niche listing websites.
Not very long ago, creating and maintaining a directory website required lots of designing and coding skills. However, things have changed with WordPress, a free platform that makes creating websites a breeze. If you choose the right WordPress theme and plugins, you’ll be able to build and launch any type of directory website like Citylocal 101 in no time.
In this review, we’ll take a look at ListingHive, a free WordPress theme for directory and listing websites.
ListingHive Performance Benchmarks
Following are the server and application configurations.
Cloudways Server Configurations
- Cloudways Server: Vultr – High Frequency
- RAM: 4GB
- SSD Disk: 128GB
- Bandwidth Transfer: 3TB
- Processor: 2 Core
- Operating System: Debian 9
- NGINX: 1.14.1
- Varnish: 5.0.0
- Apache: 2.4.25
- Database: MariaDB 10.4
- PHP-FPM: 7.4
Application Configurations
I have created ten blog posts and imported the demo content files of the ListingHive theme..
- WordPress Version: 5.6.1
- CDN: CloudwaysCDN
- SSL: Lets Encrypt
- ListingHive Version: 1.2.2
Installed Plugins
- Contact Form 7
- Rank Math SEO
- Breeze Cache
- Cloudways – WordPress Bot Protection
Loader.io Test
- Tested Pages: 3
- Test type: Maintain Client Load
- Clients: 0 to 1000
- Duration: 5 Mins
Test Result: https://bit.ly/2PoLh5j
GTmetrix Test
An Overview of ListingHive
ListingHive is a lightweight, clean, and modern WordPress theme that allows you to build any type of directory and listing websites. Whether it’s a business directory, job board, service marketplace, classifieds, or a real estate website, you can create it with ListingHive.
The theme is free and available on the official WordPress theme repository, which means that you can install or update it with one click directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Installation and Setup
In order to install ListingHive, you just need to type “listinghive” in the search field of the Appearance > Themes section of your WordPress dashboard and click on the “Install” button.
After the installation, you can proceed by installing the recommended plugins or importing demo content to start with pre-made layouts and quickly understand how everything works.
ListingHive settings are pretty intuitive, but if you have any trouble setting it up, you can always check the documentation or get help via the official support forum.
ListingHive Theme Performs Better With Cloudways Managed Cloud Hosting Platform.
Try Cloudways for better performance, security, and 24/7 support.
Customization Options
ListingHive has a minimalist design, so even the basic customizations like changing the primary color, background image, or heading font may heavily change its look and feel.
Just like any modern WordPress theme, ListingHive is integrated with the WordPress Customizer, so you can easily customize the site logo, heading font, background image, primary and secondary colors without any code changes.
Moreover, ListingHive is optimized for Gutenberg, the built-in WordPress block editor. Unlike the text editor, it allows you to create any layout using blocks, without messing with custom HTML or shortcodes, and it will look the same on the front-end.
Integration with HivePress
The secret sauce of ListingHive’s directory features is that it is powered by HivePress, a free multipurpose WordPress plugin for building directory and listing websites. Like ListingHive, it is also free and listed on the official WordPress plugin repository.
The plugin itself implements the essential features required for any directory website, such as the listing submission, moderation, attributes, categories, and search. However, you can easily extend the core functionality by installing extensions.
As of the time of writing, there are seven free extensions available for HivePress: Authentication, Favorites, Messages, Geolocation, Hosting Reviews, Claim Listings, and Paid Listings. By using different combinations of extensions, you can build directory websites with completely different purposes and monetization models
Monetization Options
There are a lot of ways to monetize a directory website, and ListingHive allows you to maximize your earnings by having at least six monetization options to choose from.
First of all, you can turn your website into a paid directory, in which users need to pay upfront before they can publish their listings. This option is recommended if you have a local directory, or your listing website is niche enough.
Another way to earn from your directory website is to allow users to claim their listings. If you have a directory website similar to Yelp or TripAdvisor, businesses might want to claim their listings on your website in order to reply to messages and keep their details up-to-date.
There are also a few other monetization options that might be suited for niche websites, such as requiring users to pay to see listings (this option is perfect for job boards, where potential employers would need to pay to see CVs in your job seekers database), and even turning your website into a marketplace of services or digital downloads, such as Fiverr or Creative Market.
If you want, you can also choose the most common way of monetization and integrate your website with Google AdSense or sell ad spaces to other advertising platforms.
Pricing and Support
As mentioned before, both ListingHive theme and HivePress plugin are free and listed on the official WordPress repository. However, if some extra functionality is required for your site, you may choose to buy some premium extensions available for HivePress.
ListingHive has a friendly community of website owners helping each other and sharing their experience via the official support forum. Apart from the community support, ListingHive is also supported by its developers, so any issues are resolved in the fastest and the best way possible, by people who know their product inside and out.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, ListingHive is a lightweight yet very functional theme suitable for any type of directory and listing websites. The theme and its companion plugin, HivePress, are free to use and provide all the essential directory features out of the box, so ListingHive is an excellent choice if you’re looking to build a directory website in next to no time.
Disclaimer: This is a guest post by Themex. The opinions and ideas expressed herein are author’s own, and in no way reflect Cloudways position.
Note: This article was published in collaboration with HivePress.
Muhammad Muzamil
Muhammad Muzamil is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Cloudways. He's Passionate about digging websites from the depths of search indexes. His journey has made him a hardened digital marketer with a special love for cutting-edge digital marketing tactics. In his free time, he likes to watch a series. feel free to discuss anything! ~ Hope you’ll enjoy it.
