Lowest monthly cost
MakeADir
Trio is $39/mo for three directories, with Stripe, paid listings, memberships and paid leads included. Brilliant Directories' monthly plan is $97/mo — for one website.
MakeADir vs Brilliant Directories: which directory builder fits you in 2026?
Both are hosted. Both take payments and manage members, and neither asks you to touch a server. The real differences are price per site, how much membership tooling you need, and how you want to design and grow. Here is the honest version — including where Brilliant Directories is the better buy.
The 30-second verdict
Three kinds of buyer, three honest answers. Find yourself, then read only the section that proves it.
A membership community
Brilliant Directories
Up to 100,000 members, built-in email broadcasts and drip campaigns, events, premium content areas and member messaging. If the members are the product, BD has more of it built in.
Several niches at once
MakeADir
Every Brilliant Directories subscription covers one website. MakeADir Trio runs three directories for $39/mo, and Business covers unlimited sites for $99/mo.
Pick the one that matches how you work
No hedging. If the right-hand column describes you, Brilliant Directories is the better buy and you can stop reading.
Choose MakeADir if…
- You run — or plan to run — more than one directory. Trio covers three sites for $39/mo. On Brilliant Directories, every site is its own subscription.
- You want to start free. The Free plan is a live, public directory on a free subdomain — 100 entries, page builder, custom attributes — with no card and no time limit.
- You want a modern look without a developer. Drag-and-drop page builder, an AI page builder that builds pages from a description, and a theme editor for colours, fonts and spacing.
- You want SEO pages generated from your data. Dynamic Collections publishes ranked "Top 10" pages as categories clear your quality bar, and IndexNow pushes every change the moment you publish.
- You want listings that fill themselves. Add a listing from its website URL, pull in real Google Maps reviews, or bulk-upsert from a CSV.
Choose Brilliant Directories if…
- Your directory is really a membership community. Member messaging, permission levels, renewal notifications and up to 100,000 members on one site.
- You need email marketing built in. Broadcasts, drip campaigns, open and click tracking and autoresponders — no separate newsletter tool.
- You want events, courses or gated content in the same site. An events calendar, premium content areas and digital product sales ship with the plan.
- You want code and database access. An HTML/CSS/JS editor, MySQL database access, cPanel and a developer API.
- You would rather pay once. BD's pricing page listed a $997 lifetime plan in October 2026, flagged as being retired — check it is still on offer.
The differences that actually decide it
Everything in the tables below is detail. These six are why people switch.
$39 for three sites vs. $97 for one
Brilliant Directories' monthly plan is $97 per website. MakeADir Trio is $39/mo and covers three directories with the full monetisation suite.
A free plan, not just a demo
BD gives you a free demo to explore. MakeADir's Free plan is a real, public directory on a free subdomain with no time limit — validate the niche before you pay anything.
Visual page builder and theme editor
Drag blocks onto a page or describe it to the AI page builder, then set colours, fonts and spacing site-wide. BD customisation runs through themes, a widget manager and an HTML/CSS editor.
Ranked Top 10 pages on autopilot
Dynamic Collections turns your listing attributes into ranked collection pages that appear as categories clear the bar you set. IndexNow tells search engines the moment they go live.
Real Google reviews on local listings
Pull genuine Google Maps reviews onto listings in a couple of clicks, so a new directory doesn't launch with empty review sections.
Add a listing from its website
Paste a URL and AI collects the name, logo, address and description for you to review and publish. Filling a niche goes from days to an afternoon.
What it actually costs per month
Both are hosted platforms, so there is no plugin stack to price — the difference is how much one subscription buys you.
| MakeADir (Trio)$39/mo | Brilliant Directories$97/mo | |
|---|---|---|
| What one plan gets you | MakeADir (Trio) | Brilliant Directories |
| Websites included | 3 | 1 |
| Hosting, SSL and backups | Yes | Yes |
| Stripe payments and paid listings | Yes | Yes |
| Platform fee on your revenue | 0% | 0% |
| Content or member limit | 45,000 entries | 100,000 members |
| The total | MakeADir (Trio) | Brilliant Directories |
| Monthly price | $39 | $97 |
| Cost per website | $13 | $97 |
| Cheapest way to start | Free plan, $0 | Free demo, then $97/mo |
| One-time payment option | No | Lifetime plan (being retired) |
Where these numbers come from. Brilliant Directories prices are from its pricing page, checked October 2026: a $97/mo monthly plan and a $997 one-time lifetime plan that the page says is going away. BD also sells multi-site bundles, so ask about those if you run several directories. MakeADir prices are from our pricing page.
The honest caveat. BD's plans have changed several times, so older reviews quote different numbers — check the live page before you decide. And if you need more than 45,000 entries on one site or a six-figure member base, BD's limits are more generous than Trio's.
Feature by feature
Only rows where the two genuinely differ, plus a few where people assume they do. "Not listed" means we couldn't find it on Brilliant Directories' public feature pages.
| MakeADirfrom $0 | Brilliant Directories$97/mo | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting live | MakeADir | Brilliant Directories |
| Free plan with a live public site | Yes | Demo only |
| AI builds the directory from an idea | Yes | Yes |
| Hosting, SSL and backups included | Yes | Yes |
| Websites per subscription | 1, 3 or unlimited | 1 |
| Filling it with listings | MakeADir | Brilliant Directories |
| CSV import with upsert | Yes | Import / export |
| Add a listing from its website URL | Yes | Not listed |
| Google Maps reviews on listings | Yes | Not listed |
| Pre-loaded business records | No | Instant Business Data |
| Getting found | MakeADir | Brilliant Directories |
| Structured data and XML sitemaps | Yes | Yes |
| IndexNow submission on publish | Yes | Not listed |
| Auto-generated ranked Top 10 pages | Yes | Dynamic SEO pages |
| AI internal linking as you publish | Yes | Not listed |
| Making money | MakeADir | Brilliant Directories |
| Paid listings and featured spots | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring membership tiers | Yes | Yes |
| Sell leads to listing owners | Yes | Yes |
| Banner ad management | Yes | Yes |
| Email broadcasts and drip campaigns | No | Yes |
| Living with it | MakeADir | Brilliant Directories |
| Theme editor for colours, fonts and spacing | Yes | Colour schemes + CSS |
| Code and database access | No | HTML/CSS/JS, MySQL, cPanel |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes | Yes |
| Events calendar and premium content | Gated listings | Yes |
Where Brilliant Directories is the better answer
Not the things both platforms do well. The three reasons BD still wins for the right project.
Your members are the product
Up to 100,000 members, member messaging, permission levels, renewal reminders and self-service accounts. For associations, chambers and clubs, BD's member tooling goes deeper.
Email and content in one place
Broadcasts, drip campaigns, an events calendar, galleries and premium content areas all ship in the plan — fewer extra subscriptions to pay for.
Database and code access
MySQL access, cPanel and an HTML/CSS/JS editor give developers room that a page builder doesn't. MakeADir deliberately keeps you out of the code.
Already running a Brilliant Directories site?
Three steps. For a few hundred listings it is an afternoon; allow a full day if your listings carry a lot of custom fields.
Export and map
Export your members and listings from the BD admin. Download the MakeADir template, line your fields up against it, and add custom attributes for anything that doesn't fit. About 45 minutes.
How import worksImport, check, re-import
Upsert matches on listing name, so you can re-run the same import as many times as it takes to get it right. Minutes per run.
Redirect and resubmit
301 your old URLs to the new ones. IndexNow pushes every change the moment it goes live, so search engines usually catch up in days. About an hour.
Questions worth asking before you switch
The objections that come up most, answered straight.
Isn't a Brilliant Directories lifetime plan cheaper in the long run?
Over a long enough horizon, it can be. $997 once is about 25 months of MakeADir Trio. Two caveats: BD's pricing page said in October 2026 that lifetime plans were being retired, so confirm it is still offered — and it covers one website, where Trio covers three.
Can I bring my members over, not just my listings?
Listings move by CSV. Member logins and active payment subscriptions don't transfer between any two platforms, so plan a short re-signup: invite members to create an account on the new site and re-subscribe to their tier.
Will I lose my rankings when the URLs change?
Not if you redirect. Set 301s from every old URL to its new one before you switch the domain over. MakeADir ships structured data, auto-generated sitemaps and IndexNow submission, so the new URLs are usually discovered within days. Expect a short dip while redirects are processed, then recovery.
Does MakeADir send email newsletters?
No. MakeADir sends the automated emails a directory needs — welcome messages, lead notifications, claim confirmations — with templates you can edit. For newsletters, connect a dedicated email tool. If built-in broadcasts and drip campaigns matter to you, that is a genuine point for Brilliant Directories.
Do I need the $39 plan?
Only if you charge for something. Solo at $19/mo covers a custom domain, the AI assistant, analytics and IndexNow. Trio at $39/mo is where Stripe payments, paid listings, memberships, paid leads, custom forms and claim listings switch on — and it covers three sites.
Can I try it before migrating anything?
Build the whole thing on the Free plan first — one site, 100 entries, the page builder, custom attributes and MCP access, on a free subdomain. Import a slice of your listings, see how the pages look, and only then decide. Paid plans add a 7-day trial and the Free plan needs no card.
So, which one?
If you are building a directory — especially more than one — MakeADir costs less than half as much and gets you a modern, SEO-first site faster. If your project is a membership community that lives on email, events and gated content, Brilliant Directories packs more of that into one plan and is worth the premium.