Do you have any examples in your Showcase that are not super ugly

Hi @ostii,

Thanks for contacting me here.

Our showcase is filled with examples for BD users that have been voluntarily provided. We don’t control them and what is ugly to one person, is not necessarily so to another. The full showcase is here: https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/showcase/

If our plugin is not visually to your liking out of the box, we have several options for customizing the look of the directory.

1) As of 4.0, we now offer Directory Skins (it’s like a WP theme, BUT it only affects your directory and you can keep your existing WP theme with it!). This is the quickest and easiest way to change the look of your directory. These are available for purchase here: https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/premium-themes/

2) Next is custom CSS to do basic tweaks like fonts, spacing and colors. Here is an article about how to use custom CSS with Business Directory in a way that doesn’t get overwritten on upgrade of BD: https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/support-forum/faq/how-to-use-custom-styles-with-bd-2-1/

3) For the more adventurous and layout-based changes, you can override templates: https://docs.businessdirectoryplugin.com/themes/customization.html#how-to-implement-a-template-override And also do more with fields: https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/support-forum/faq/advanced-customization-of-the-list-and-detail-views-of-bd/

4) But if that’s not enough, you can go full-bore and customize anything in the plugin if you have the proper skill set: https://docs.businessdirectoryplugin.com/themes/customization.html

Very complete reply from the authors.

I’d just like to add from the user point of view that the Business Directory css is particularly easy to style since the directory elements are appropriately tagged with unique class names, so that’s option 2) above, easy to tweak with custom CSS even without creating any special skins or template overrides, so it’s a great product from the styling and layout point of view.

Well I don’t know if some samples are ugly, but out of the box, plugins should follow the style of your theme as far a possible.. then it’s up to you.
This one is not too ugly considering it was created with fairly minimal styling effort: https://www.inkston.com/community/directory/

By the way: who words their questions like this – to strangers who give them free software, no less?