Starting a directory website

Hello everyone,

First of all I tried searching forums and didn't find any recent info about this so I figured I should post a thread. Someone may be willing to help me and I thank you for that!

For a couple a years I have this domain name I want to put into good use and create a local directory listing website. Still not sure about niche but I'm still doing research on that matter.

I'm a web designer and pretty good at front end development but no backend knowledge. So I was wondering what would be a good CMS to run this directory on. I don't need anything fancy with too many features I'm not going to use. Just allowing users listing submission and approval. Is wordpress with directory plugin a good choice for building website like this?

I've seen people recommending Phpld but it seems a bit outdated so I'm worried even if they offer any kind of support. Any ideas, suggestions?

Thank you so much.

I've done something that is similar to what I think you're talking about. I built it on wordpress because there's so much existing theme/plugin/tutorial to work with. I have back end knowledge and I definitely used it, but you could probably get away without doing much backend. Gravity Forms would be the gold standard for front end submission to me, and they have pretty okay docs for connecting a form submission to make a post. Outside of that your options get a little less reliable, which would be okay for a smaller site, but if you're going huge they might not be able to keep up. I tested phpld, but I got frustrated with the lack of features for my specific needs, and I couldn't make it look as good as I wanted it to.

I've had good success with gravity forms too. It's been some time but I still hear good things.

Thanks guys. That's exactly what I needed. I'll start doing some research and build.
Cheers!

Good luck and keep us updated!

Have a great future ahead and keep updating buddy

phpld should do the trick.
Wish you all the best...

Keep us updated, and let me know if you have more questions!