Feature Matrix - Free vs Pro
Every Listora capability at a glance. Use this page to decide whether Free covers your launch needs or you need Pro from day one.
Rule of thumb: Free gives you a complete, public, searchable directory with reviews, claims, frontend submission, and full taxonomy / map / spam-protection support. Pro adds the business model layer - credit-based plans, lead capture, advanced analytics, moderator team, comparison, verification, white-label, BuddyPress sync, and the reverse "Needs marketplace."
Setup & content infrastructure
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Setup wizard (6-step onboarding: type → location → maps → pages → demo → done) | Yes | Yes + Pro overlay (license, credit packs, plans, Google Maps key) |
| Multiple listing types (Restaurant / Hotel / Real Estate / Job Board / Place / Classified / …) | Yes 9 demo packs | Yes |
| Custom field framework per listing type | Yes | Yes + Pro fields (badges, criteria, services) |
Categories taxonomy (listora_listing_cat) |
Yes | Yes |
| Locations taxonomy (hierarchical, Country/State/City) | Yes | Yes |
| Amenities / Features (flat), assignable by members, limitable per listing type | Yes | Yes |
| Listing Tags - filter, facet and clickable chips | Yes | Yes |
| Listing Type Editor (icon, fields, schema mapping, category + feature allowlists) | Yes | Yes |
| Schema.org JSON-LD (LocalBusiness, Restaurant, Hotel…) | Yes 10 schema types | Yes |
| OpenGraph + Twitter cards | Yes | Yes |
| Breadcrumbs | Yes | Yes |
| Sitemap integration (WP core sitemap) | Yes | Yes |
| Demo content packs (9 verticals - restaurant, hotel, real-estate, job-board, general, classified, education, healthcare, place - 128+ seeded listings) | Yes via wp listora demo seed --pack=all |
Yes Pro overlay (wp listora-pro demo seed) |
| Setup wizard auto-creates Add Listing / My Listings / Directory pages | Yes | Yes + Compare / Buy Credits / Needs |
Search & discovery
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Full-text search (denormalized index table) | Yes | Yes |
| Faceted filters (category, location, feature, type) | Yes | Yes |
| Geo radius search (Near Me, distance) | Yes Haversine | Yes |
| "Search this area" (drag-to-update bounds) | Yes | Yes |
| Sort by date, rating, name, distance, featured | Yes | Yes |
| Saved searches with alerts | - | Yes |
| Advanced search builder (custom field filters) | - | Yes |
| Infinite scroll on listing grid | - | Yes |
| Quick view modal on cards | - | Yes |
SEO landing pages (auto-generated /type-in-location/ pages) |
- | Yes |
| Compare listings (2-4 side by side, one table across mixed types) | - | Yes |
Frontend blocks (Gutenberg)
| Block | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
listora/listing-grid |
Yes | Yes |
listora/listing-card |
Yes | Yes |
listora/listing-search |
Yes | Yes |
listora/listing-map |
Yes Leaflet + OSM | Yes + Google Maps + clustering |
listora/listing-detail |
Yes | Yes |
listora/listing-reviews |
Yes | Yes + multi-criteria + photos |
listora/listing-submission (wizard) |
Yes | Yes + duplicate-check + plan picker |
listora/listing-categories |
Yes | Yes |
listora/listing-featured (carousel) |
Yes | Yes + paid rotation |
listora/listing-calendar (events) |
Yes | Yes |
listora/user-dashboard |
Yes | Yes + Saved Searches + Needs tabs |
listora-pro/comparison |
- | Yes |
listora-pro/needs-grid |
- | Yes |
listora-pro/post-need |
- | Yes |
listora-pro/moderator-queue |
- | Yes |
listora-pro/credit-purchase |
- | Yes |
Submission & lifecycle
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend submission wizard (multi-step, draft-saving) | Yes | Yes |
| Conditional fields | Yes | Yes |
| Draggable map pin for address | Yes | Yes |
| Photos - gallery upload, drag-and-drop, front-end carousel | Yes | Yes + photo reviews |
| Video embedded via WordPress oEmbed | Yes | Yes |
| Business hours with timezone, up to 3 ranges per day (split shifts) | Yes | Yes + Google Places import |
| Social links - site owner chooses which platforms the field offers | Yes | Yes |
| Duplicate detection at submit | Yes | Yes |
| Listing renewal (extend expiration) | Yes | Yes + credit-gated pricing |
| Self-service deactivate / reactivate | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing plans (free / paid / featured) | - | Yes |
| Credit system (Hold-and-Commit activation) | - | Yes |
| Coupons (discount codes for plans) | - | Yes |
Reviews
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| 5-star rating + written reviews | Yes | Yes |
| Owner replies to reviews | Yes | Yes |
| Helpful-vote + milestone notifications | Yes | Yes |
| Report-a-review workflow | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-approve / require moderation toggle | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-criteria reviews (per-aspect stars: Food / Service / Value …) | - | Yes |
| Photo reviews (reviewers attach photos) | - | Yes |
Trust & moderation
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Business claims ("Is this your business?" flow) | Yes | Yes |
| Moderation queue (pending listings / reviews / claims) | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk-moderate (REST + admin) | Yes | Yes |
| Approve / Reject row actions on Listings list | Yes | Yes |
| Verification badges (verified, top-rated, choice-of-…) | - | Yes |
| Moderators team (non-admin users with moderate caps) | - | Yes |
| Audit log (every transition recorded) | - | Yes |
Owner / vendor tools
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend dashboard (My Listings overview) | Yes | Yes |
| Edit listing from dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Favorites with collections | Yes | Yes |
| Contact form on listing detail | Yes Free contact form | Yes replaced by Lead Form |
| Lead form (analytics, custom fields, integrations) | - | Yes |
| Services per listing (sub-products with prices) | Yes | Yes + cross-listing service search |
| Featured listing (rotation entitlement) | Yes admin-set | Yes self-serve via credits |
| Service-level booking CTA | - | Yes |
Marketing / Analytics
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Per-listing analytics (views, clicks, contact submits) | - | Yes |
| Directory-wide analytics (top listings, top categories) | - | Yes |
| Outgoing webhooks (listing.created, review.created, …) | - | Yes |
| Inbound payment webhooks (Stripe / PayPal + WooCommerce / WooSubscriptions / MemberPress / PMPro / WooMemberships bridges) | - | Yes |
| Notification digest (daily / weekly bundle email) | - | Yes |
| White-label (custom brand color + logo across admin) | - | Yes |
Anti-spam & abuse controls
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Honeypot on every form | Yes | Yes |
| Per-IP sliding-window rate limits | Yes | Yes |
| CAPTCHA (reCAPTCHA v3 + Cloudflare Turnstile) | Yes | Yes |
| Akismet integration for reviews + claims | Yes | Yes |
| Keyword blacklist | Yes | Yes |
| URL-density cap per event | Yes | Yes |
| Member blocking - members hide each other's reviews and close contact | Yes | Yes, honoured by per-aspect averages |
| Coming Soon mode (gate the directory) | - | Yes |
Migration & import
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| CSV import / export (per listing type) | Yes | Yes |
| JSON import | Yes | Yes |
| GeoJSON import (FeatureCollection) | Yes | Yes |
| Settings JSON export / import | Yes | Yes |
| Competitor migrators (Directorist / GeoDirectory / WPBDP / ListingPro) | Yes CLI + admin | Yes + Visual Importer (mapping UI) |
| Google Places import (single + bulk) | - | Yes |
| Visual bulk importer (auto-detect fields + preview) | - | Yes |
Integrations
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce (credits via WC product) | - | Yes |
| WooCommerce Subscriptions | - | Yes |
| MemberPress | - | Yes |
| Paid Memberships Pro | - | Yes |
| WooMemberships | - | Yes |
| BuddyPress activity sync (listing actions → activity stream) | - | Yes |
| Stripe / PayPal (direct via the bundled SDK gateways) | - | Yes |
| License / auto-updates (Pro license server at wbcomdesigns.com) | - | Yes |
| Akismet | Yes | Yes |
| Google Maps API | - | Yes |
| Automation triggers - published catalogue, versioned JSON schema per event | Yes 25 triggers | Yes 34 |
| Outgoing webhooks - HMAC-signed delivery of those triggers | - | Yes |
| App sign-in with a WordPress password | Yes | Yes |
Reverse marketplace ("Needs")
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer posts a need ("Looking for caterer in Brooklyn") | - | Yes |
| Needs grid + filters (type, urgency, budget) | - | Yes |
| Business responds with a quote | - | Yes |
| Needs dashboard tab for buyers + responders | - | Yes |
| Auto-match by type + location | - | Yes |
Developer surface
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | Yes 58 routes | Yes +73 endpoints (70 unique routes) |
| Action / filter hooks | Yes 259 fired hooks (133 actions + 126 filters) | Yes adds extension points |
| WP-CLI commands | Yes 8: stats, reindex, listing-types, import, export, repair, migrate, demo |
Yes Pro QA seeder (wp listora-pro demo seed/remove) |
| Template overrides (WooCommerce-style) | Yes | Yes |
| Custom capabilities | Yes 15 stored caps + 1 virtual (view_listora_dashboard) granted at runtime |
Yes + 3 Pro caps (wb_listora_pro_view_analytics, manage_listora_moderators, reverse-listings caps) |
| Interactivity API (single store) | Yes | Yes extends |
| Block development kit (shared editor controls, hooks, utils) | Yes | Yes |
| Action Scheduler (bundled - bullet-proof background jobs) | Yes 3.9.3 vendored | Yes consumes Free's copy |
Compatibility
| Requirement | Free + Pro |
|---|---|
| PHP | 7.4+ |
| WordPress | 6.9+ |
| MySQL / MariaDB | 5.7+ / 10.3+ |
Translation-ready (wb-listora text domain) |
Yes |
| RTL stylesheets | Yes |
| Multisite | Yes |
| Headless (Next.js / Astro / mobile via REST) | Yes |
What this means for you
| You're building… | What you need |
|---|---|
| Open directory of free listings | Free only |
| Niche directory (yoga studios, food trucks, …) with submission gate | Free only |
| Job board for a single industry | Free is enough |
| Paid business directory (vendors pay to list) | Free + Pro |
| Premium listings with featured rotation | Free + Pro |
| B2B services marketplace with lead capture | Free + Pro (Lead Forms) |
| Reverse marketplace where buyers post needs | Free + Pro (Needs) |
| Multi-city / multi-vertical directory with SEO landing pages | Free + Pro (SEO Pages) |
| Membership-gated directory | Free + Pro (with MemberPress / PMP / WooMemberships) |
| Community + directory hybrid | Free + Pro (+ BuddyPress) |
| White-label / agency reseller | Free + Pro (White Label feature) |
Related
- Plugin comparison - Listora vs Directorist / GeoDirectory / WPBDP / ListingPro.
- Why Listora? - the architectural reasoning behind these capabilities.
- Activating Pro - how to add Pro on top of an existing Free install.
- Pricing Plans (Pro) - the credit-and-plan business model.
- User Journeys - what a directory operator can do, end-to-end.