Directory hosting, refresh and export
The same questions come up every week from operators sizing up the directory builder: what does the monthly fee actually pay for, am I forced to refresh, and can I take the site to my own hosting? This page gives the straight answers, with the real numbers.
New to directories? Start with How to create a directory website. For the day-to-day dashboard, see How to manage your directory.
1What your subscription pays for
Your plan is not just hosting. Every live directory runs with the full operator stack switched on:
Lead capture
Every listing carries a quote form wired to your leads inbox and your email, attributed per listing, plus a site-wide quote funnel.
Click tracking
Calls, email clicks, WhatsApp taps and website clicks are all tracked, so you can show a business exactly what the directory sends it.
Visitor stats with location data
Where your visitors come from, down to city level, on a map per site.
The portfolio dashboard
All your sites in one place: leads, clicks, traffic sources, top pages.
Monthly credits
Included with the plan. Credits pay for building new directories and refreshing data; the subscription itself covers everything above.
A directory that just sits there costs nothing beyond its place in your plan. It stays online, keeps capturing leads, and keeps tracking clicks whether you touch it or not.
2Refresh runs on your schedule, not ours
You are not forced to refresh every month. Refresh is a per-directory setting with three modes: Monthly, Weekly, or Manual. Set a site to Manual and it stays online with no refresh cost at all. When you want fresh reviews, every 3 months, every 6 months, or never, you trigger it yourself and credits are only charged for that refresh.
The cost is 0.05 credits per listing, per refresh. A 100-listing directory is 5 credits a cycle; a 300-listing one is 15. The dashboard shows your exact per-cycle cost before you commit to a schedule.
One honest tip: do not skip refresh completely
Data freshness is one of the signals Google uses to rank directory sites. If reviews, ratings and business details sit untouched for a year, the site slowly reads as outdated and rankings suffer. A refresh every 2 to 3 months per site is the sensible floor: cheap in credits, and it keeps the freshness signal Google wants to see.
The full mechanics (what a refresh touches, why your edits survive it, what happens if credits run low) are in the manage guide’s refresh section.
3Can I export a directory and self-host it? No, and here is why
This is the most-asked question we get, so here is the full answer rather than a policy line.
A directory is not a static bundle of pages. The contact forms post to our lead capture service. The click tracking reports to your dashboard. The refresh engine that re-reads Google reviews, re-scores every business and rewrites the analysis runs on our side, and each directory’s configuration (the niche, the ranking methodology, your edits, your publisher identity) lives in our database.
An exported zip would be a dead site: forms stop working, tracking stops, the data can never refresh again, and the site disappears from your dashboard. We would rather not ship something broken, so directories stay on our hosting, where everything works. Hosting is included in your plan, and connecting your own domain is free, so the site is still yours to brand, monetize and sell against.
Single business websites are different
Sites from the main site builder are self-contained static sites, so those you can download, edit with your own AI tools, and re-import. See Edit source code with AI tools. The export question has a different answer for directories only because directories depend on live infrastructure.
4Scaling to 100 or 500 directories
Every plan includes a number of directories: 2 on Operator, 6 on Growth, 20 on Agency, 50 on Authority. On Growth and above you can add more for $2 a month each, up to 500 extra. Each directory holds up to 1,000 listings.
So a parked site is $2 a month with everything live and tracked. Building each new directory uses credits as it does today, and you control refresh per site. Two worked examples on Growth ($97 a month, 6 included):
| Total directories | The maths | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | $97 + 94 extra at $2 | $285 |
| 500 | $97 + 494 extra at $2 | $1,085 |
Slot billing details (pro-rating, reducing slots, what happens on a plan change) are in the manage guide’s slots section, and the full pricing table is on the directory builder page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I export a directory and host it myself?
No. The contact forms, click tracking, refresh engine and dashboard all run on LocusPilot infrastructure, and each directory's configuration lives in our database. An exported zip would be a dead site: forms stop working, tracking stops, and it disappears from your dashboard. Single business websites are different: those you can download and edit freely.
Can I build one directory with credits, then move it to my own hosting?
No, for the same reason as a straight export. The build produces a site that is wired into lead capture, tracking and the refresh engine from the first deploy. Moved off our hosting, all of that stops working and the ranking data can never update again.
What does my subscription pay for once a directory is live?
Hosting, lead capture wired to your inbox and email, click tracking on phone, email and WhatsApp links, visitor stats with location data, and the portfolio dashboard that shows all your sites in one place. Your plan also includes monthly credits, which pay for building new directories and refreshing data.
Am I forced to refresh every month?
No. Refresh is a per-directory setting: weekly, monthly, or manual. Set a site to manual and it stays online with no refresh cost; trigger a refresh yourself when you want fresh reviews, at 0.05 credits per listing. A refresh every 2 to 3 months per site is a sensible floor, because data freshness is a signal Google uses to rank directory sites.
How do I scale past my plan's included directories?
On Growth and above, add directory slots at $2 a month each, up to 500 extra. A parked site is $2 a month with everything live and tracked; you build with credits as usual and refresh only when you decide.
Does the Operator plan's 3 managed sites include directories?
No, the two are counted separately. Managed sites are single business websites enrolled for lead capture. Directories have their own allowance per plan: 2 on Operator, 6 on Growth, 20 on Agency, 50 on Authority.
Build one and see the stack running
Lead capture, click tracking and the dashboard are on from the first deploy. Pick a niche and a city you know and run the wizard.
Refresh stays off until you turn it on, so the running cost is yours to set.
Open your directories