At $64 US Dollars (presently $86.62 Australian) the Directory+ theme by AIT Themes is one of the more expensive products on sale through Themeforest.
This is especially the case when you also factor in that much of the ‘functionality’ in the themes demo site requires a not-insignificant number of additional ‘plugins’ for it to be fully featured as it’s promoted, with the author claiming this is to make the theme ‘lighter’.
Upon taking a closer look, we don’t buy it for a second, and it seems pretty clear that it’s simply a way for them to make more money after a consumer buys their base theme. Good on them, it’s what makes the world round, but the author should try and justify it in any other way.
By itself, and without the optional apparently ‘heavy’ plugins AIT’s Directory+ theme pales in functionality against many of the new and arguably more modern directory themes appearing on Themeforest. However, with all of the optional plugins installed listed below, it’s a pretty damn good product – albeit a little complicated to fully implement in comparison to many other themes.
Our feeling is that the demo of the theme should be ‘as sold’, then perhaps a second demo could showcase the plugin enhanced version.
To get the most out of the theme, the following AIT Plugins are required::
- Special Offers Plugin @ $45 USD
- Announcements Bar Plugin @ $15 USD
- Quick Comments Plugin @ $25 USD
- Get Directions Plugin @ $35 USD
- Claim Listing Plugin @ $35 USD
- Advanced Filters Plugin @ $25 USD
- AIT Languages Plugin @ $75 USD
- Paypal Subscriptions Plugin @ $25 USD
- Paypal Payments Plugin @ $25 USD (Yes, they’ve separated two plugins that should really be one)
- Stripe payments Plugin @ $25 USD
- Events Pro Plugin @ $74 USD
- Easy Admin Plugin @ $45 USD
- CSV Import / Export Plugin @ $45 USD
- Item Reviews Plugin @ $35 USD
Without the above plugins I think there are a number of other themes offering better value than Directory+, but some functionality we did really like was within Directory+ was the ability to use Google Maps and Google Street View in the header of each listing, as opposed to being forced to find an appropriate photo (which can also be featured within each listing) for each one.
This is pretty significant as many otherwise perfect directory related themes fall over by only allowing the option of including photos with each listing, and this becomes a significant issue when a webmaster is populating the sites themselves with hundred if not thousands of listings. You can imagine the sheer amount of wasted time it would take to self populate the database if you had to search for appropriate images, seek permission to use them, resize them, upload them, add meta, etc for each and every listing… as opposed to simply entering an address and letting Google Maps do its magic!
We feel that it’s misleading to showcase a demo with optional plugins that require a separate purchase. They should have a basic demo, showcasing the theme as you get it for $64 UD dollars, and perhaps another showcasing the enhancements that can be made at further cost. Given the high cost of the base theme, out view is that it should offer far more value than it does – as standard.
The author claims 12,000 happy customers, but our understanding is that this figure also includes those having purchased the original release of the theme – before they made it ‘lighter’ – as per the follow table:
