Launch a Public or Members-Only Directory with PMPro
Create a public or members-only directory with customizable profiles, searchable listings, and optional maps.
Control the design, visibility, and monetization of your directory without being locked into a closed platform.
Why Directories Matter
Directories aren’t just a feature. They’re often the heartbeat of a membership site. Whether you’re:
- Running an association that wants to showcase members.
- Building a local directory of people (lawyers in Philadelphia, yoga studios in Austin, contractors in your town).
- Offering a perk of membership (premium exposure for certain tiers).
A directory helps members connect, gain visibility, and find opportunities, while giving you a scalable way to add value and monetize.
Real Members. Real Directories.
Excellent Product, Fantastic Support, Perfect with BuddyBoss
We migrated away from expensive SaaS products and settled on PMPro as our membership tool. As an association of more than 4,000 members, we wanted an elegant solution that would allow us to restrict content, manage memberships, and integrate with a variety of other WordPress plugins for Events, CRM, and LMS.
The migration was easy and doing custom dev has been smooth and seamless.
The Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners Club (founded in 1972) made the transition from a previous website platform to WordPress.
Paid Memberships Pro was the key to making this possible.
We have a very active forum that needed to be converted to phpBB and a full membership management system. I could easily use hooks and filters to customize the plugin for our needs. This made building the WordPress member, billing, and self-service interfaces quick and easy with very little help from the wonderful staff at PMPro.
What happens after you sign up?
After checkout, you’ll gain access to everything you need to launch a working directory:
- The Member Directory Add On for searchable listings, maps, and member profiles.
- Documentation, tutorials, and recipes for customization.
- The Member Directories Hub™, which walks you step-by-step through setup, customization, and monetization.
Flexible Member Directory Monetization Options
Directories can be powerful revenue generators:
- Members-only access: Lock your directory behind a paid membership.
- Paid listings: Charge for premium profile fields, media, or featured placement.
- Tiered exposure: Offer higher membership levels more visibility or extra data in their profiles.
- Sponsored categories: Monetize by featuring organizations or spotlighting members.
Own the Directory You Build
With hosted directory platforms, you risk:
Losing access to your data or members.
Paying ever-increasing fees as you grow.
Limited customization and branding.
No control over future direction.
With PMPro, you own your content, profiles, and members. 100% open source. Built on WordPress. No lock-in.
Challenge
Matthew, a saxophone teacher with over 35 years of experience, wanted to move beyond one-on-one lessons. He needed a flexible way to deliver video lessons, build community, and monetize his growing audience online.
Solution
With Paid Memberships Pro, Matthew transformed his passion into a thriving online business. He offers free starter lessons to attract new students, then upsells them into premium memberships that unlock forums, advanced lessons, and community interaction. Read the full story »
The flexibility within Paid Memberships Pro’s “tool-shed” allows me to pick and choose what I need and ignore what I don’t.
—Matthew, HowToPlayTheSax.com
Focus on Members and Getting Paid
PMPro is the best way to run a membership-powered directory:
Automate renewals and member communication.
Manage approvals for who gets listed.
Protect content while showcasing members.
Track engagement and grow your community.
Do I Really Need a Membership Plugin?
There are many different ways to build and sell membership to a directory—and some don’t require a website at all. But we think that choice limits you in the future.
Paid Memberships Pro works best when the focus of your online presence is your members. Putting members at the center of your concerns is a great way to build out an online presence.
Our Commitment to You:
Money Back Guarantee
Every purchase is backed by a 100 day money-back guarantee. If you decide not to use your premium plan, request a full refund—no questions asked.
Even if your request comes after 100 days, we will still refund your payment by any means necessary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which plan should I choose?
We currently offer three plans: Free, Standard, and Plus. We put together a full guide to help you select the right plan for your business.
We designed these plans through our experience supporting thousands of membership sites on this platform for over 10 years. As such, Add Ons cannot be purchased individually. As a fully open source WordPress plugin, you can use our code for free if you cannot afford a membership or if you’re just testing.
Remember that if your needs change in the future, you can upgrade at any time and it will not affect your site settings, content, user and member information, or subscriptions.
If you’ve already read the guide and still can’t decide which plan is right for you, you can always try out Paid Memberships Pro for free.
Can I run both public and members-only directories?
Yes. You can create hybrid setups where basic info is public, but contact details or premium fields are members-only.
Do I need Google Maps to run a directory?
No. Maps are optional. You can run a simple list view or enable maps for location-based searches.
How do I create premium listings?
Use PMPro levels. For example, level 1 members get basic profiles, level 2 members get enhanced fields, media, or featured placement.
What if I want to migrate from another directory platform or plugin?
PMPro supports importing users from CSV. We also have guides for migrating from tools like MemberPress or Ultimate Member.
Which plan includes the Member Directory Add On?
The Member Directory Add On is included with a Plus plan.
Can I use Paid Memberships Pro even if I’m not a technical person?
There are over 90,000 sites that use Paid Memberships Pro — and from our customer research most of them are DIY. They’re building their own site (not working with a developer) just like you.
Here’s what our user @asienchris says about PMPro:
How much support can I expect to receive?
We provide very deep support and are able to troubleshoot most issues via the support forums.
Some custom code is straight forward, and we can assist with writing the code and instructing you on exactly where to put it. If you have found a tutorial on our site about a customization, we can usually help you to set that customization up or tweak it in small ways.
What if I have unique requirements and need more help?
In the case you need more hands on help, we can recommend a developer we trust.
We will write the requirements and outline the possible solutions for you to share with them. This alone saves your developer tons of time, which saves you hundreds of dollars.
Choose a Plan
Plus Hosting
- Everything in Plus, with:
- Premium PMPro-optimized hosting
- 1 dedicated site on its own virtual server
- Base plan includes 80GB storage, 2 CPUs, and 4GB ram
- First month free
- Free migration
- Built-in object caching (Redis)
- Smart page and image optimization
- Cloudflare DNS, HTTPS, and CDN
- Priority hosting + membership support
- SSH and SFTP access
- No plugins needed for caching, image compression, or CDNs
- Open stack (no lock-in) with optional self-hosting later
- Learn more
Plus
- Everything in Standard, plus:
- 2 site license
- Priority support
- Accept donations
- Invite only membership
- Member approvals
- Member directory & user profiles
- Multisite & WordPress Network features
- Payment plans by level
- Prorated pricing
- Recover abandoned carts
- Sell gift memberships
- Series/content drip-feed
- Sponsored or group accounts
- Variable "pay what you want" pricing
- Also sold as a lifetime membership
Standard
- Everything in Free, plus:
- 1 site license
- Premium support
- Memberlite theme support
- Advanced customization recipes
- Automatic updates
- Affiliate tracking
- Protect custom post types
- Email confirmation
- Membership cards
- Mailing address
- Google Analytics + Ecommerce Tracking
Free
- The entire core plugin, with:
- Access to our Slack Community
- Unlimited restricted content
- Unlimited membership levels & members
- Free or paid registration
- Multiple memberships per user
- Recurring subscriptions
- All gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, & more
- All email marketing integrations
- Memberlite theme
- bbPress, BuddyPress, BuddyBoss integrations
- Courses & LMS integrations
- Frontend login
- No-code user profile fields
- Restrict access to WordPress dashboard
- WooCommerce integration
- Zapier integration
Not sure which plan to pick? Choose Plus Membership to get everything you need for an advanced membership site. Or try things out for free.
