How to Build a Directory Site as a Solo Developer

What You're Building

A directory site is a curated collection of tools, services, businesses, or resources organized by category. Think Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, or niche directories like "Best AI Tools" or "Remote Job Boards." Directories are one of the best solo developer projects because they're simple to build, great for SEO, and have multiple proven monetization paths.

I built a directory site for AI tools and it was one of the faster projects I've shipped. The tech is straightforward. The real work is curating quality listings and building traffic.

Difficulty & Timeline

Recommended Tech Stack

SvelteKit or Next.js for the frontend, PostgreSQL for storing listings, and Meilisearch for fast search and filtering. Host on Vercel or Cloudflare Pages. The whole thing can run on free tiers until you have real traffic.

If you want to go even simpler, Astro with a JSON file as your "database" works for directories under 500 listings. No backend needed at all.

Step-by-Step Plan

Phase 1: Foundation (Week 1)

Pick your niche first. "Best AI Tools" is saturated. "Best AI Tools for Real Estate Agents" has far less competition and a clear audience. The narrower your niche, the easier it is to rank on Google and attract listings.

Build the listing schema. Each listing needs a name, URL, description, category, tags, and a featured image at minimum. Add pricing info, pros/cons, and a rating if it makes sense for your niche. Set up the database and create a simple admin interface for adding listings.

I'd also recommend building a submission form from day one. Let people submit their tools to your directory. It saves you research time and makes tool creators feel invested in your platform.

Phase 2: Core Features (Week 2)

Build the browse and search experience. Category pages, tag filtering, and a search bar are the core navigation patterns. Meilisearch makes this trivially easy. It handles typo tolerance, faceted search, and instant results with minimal configuration.

Each listing needs its own page with a unique URL. This is critical for SEO. A page at /tools/notion that has a detailed description, screenshots, pricing info, and alternatives will rank well for searches like "Notion review" or "Notion alternatives."

Add sorting options. Newest, most popular, highest rated, alphabetical. These seem small but they keep users browsing longer.

Phase 3: Polish & Launch (Week 3)

Seed your directory with at least 50-100 listings. An empty directory is useless. Spend a few days manually researching and adding quality listings. I know it's tedious. Do it anyway. Nobody will submit their tool to an empty directory.

Add basic analytics to track which listings get the most clicks. This data becomes valuable when you start selling featured placements.

Launch by reaching out to the tools you've listed. Email them saying "Hey, I listed your tool on [your directory]. Check it out." Many will share it with their audience, giving you free traffic.

Monetization Strategy

Directories have some of the cleanest monetization in the solo developer world.

Paid listings. Charge $49-199 for a permanent listing with extra visibility. Some directories charge monthly ($29-99/month) for ongoing featured placement. This is the primary revenue driver for most directory sites.

Featured placements. Charge $99-499/month for homepage placement, category page banners, or "Editor's Pick" badges. These are premium advertising spots that tool companies will pay for.

Affiliate links. Link to tools using your affiliate link. If someone signs up through your directory, you get a commission. This works especially well for SaaS tools with generous affiliate programs (many pay 20-30% recurring).

I've seen solo-run directory sites making $2,000-10,000/month from a combination of these three streams. The overhead is almost zero once it's running.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Launching empty. I said it above, but it's worth repeating. Seed with 50+ listings minimum. Nobody trusts a directory with 12 entries.

Ignoring SEO from the start. Directory sites live and die by organic search traffic. Every listing page should have unique meta descriptions, proper heading structure, and content beyond just a name and link. Write 2-3 sentences of original description for each listing.

Making submission too complicated. Your submission form should take under 2 minutes to fill out. Name, URL, description, category. That's it. You can ask for more details after you've reviewed the submission.

Not curating quality. A directory with 10,000 junk listings is worse than one with 200 quality listings. Review every submission. Remove dead links monthly. Quality is your competitive advantage over AI-generated directories that scrape the web indiscriminately.

Is This Worth Building?

For the effort involved, directory sites offer one of the best return on investment for solo developers. They're fast to build, naturally attract backlinks (tool creators link to their listing), and have multiple revenue streams that don't require a huge audience.

The main risk is competition. "Best X Tools" directories are everywhere. But niche directories still have plenty of opportunity. "Best Tools for Veterinary Clinics" or "Directory of Indie Game Asset Packs" have almost no competition. Find a niche where people are searching but nobody has built a quality directory yet, and you've got a winner.