Hello everyone I am newbie and have to learn about almost everithing in this field. I am thinking of creating a local bussiness directory website, with two options: free and paid. So I want to monetize the website and earn money. I am not sure if for this type of website, which would be business for me, I can use free wordpress directories templates, or I have to use paid software. Let me know, please
Your customers have no interest in how you build your product (the directory) only in the service they receive.
If you are talking about Free WordPress meaning wordpress.com, then that I would not recommend because you are less in control of what you do and you can get your site shut down if you violate one or more of their rules. I don't think there's anything about using it for a directory that would cause a problem, but since you would be operating completely under their TOS then you have less control over what you do. If you are talking about Free as in self-hosted WordPress (.org), then sure, you can use it to create a directory, free or paid. I have one and used it just because of the ease of use, setup, plugins, etc. If this is the Free WordPress you are meaning, then I say go for it. There are many directories out there that use WordPress self-hosted for their CMS. Good Luck.
I'm working on a paid local town directory... I'm looking at these three themes: https://www.ait-themes.club/wordpress-themes/directory2/ https://templatic.com/app-themes/directory-theme http://www.premiumpress.com/wordpressdirectory-theme/ Most of the ones I have seen don't work for one small town... I want the map to show just the town
If you want to creating a local bussiness directory website . I think you should Invest for it, no free