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Compare · Directory builders
Open-source directory site template
MkDirs is the Apache-2.0 Next.js directory template you fork, fill and moderate yourself, with listings in Sanity. Ever Works researches the topic, writes the listings, generates the site from a template you own, and keeps the directory fresh on a schedule — content and code in your Git.
MkDirs is a complete Next.js directory template that went open source under Apache-2.0 in August 2026: fork the repository, fill in the environment variables, connect Sanity, Stripe and Resend, and you have a directory with listings, search, visitor accounts, free and paid submissions, moderation, a sponsor slot, a blog, a newsletter form and SEO — running on free tiers for little more than the cost of a domain, with a showcase of more than a hundred live directories built on it. What it does not do is research, write or refresh anything: the AI in the product is an optional autofill button on the submission form, listings live in Sanity rather than in Git, and every entry, description and update is yours to make by hand. Ever Works starts from a topic instead of a template — its agents research the niche, write the listings and their pages, generate the site from a template you own, deploy it, and then keep re-checking sources and discovering new entries on a schedule, with the content, the code and the Knowledge Base committed to your own Git. Its generated directory site covers the same ground as MkDirs (submissions with a review queue, plan-gated instant review, self-serve sponsor ads, newsletter capture, URL autofill) and adds passkeys, comparison pages, a map view and 21 locales. MkDirs wins on the launch itself — nothing to operate, no runtime, a blog inside the same site, a permissive licence — and Ever Works wins on what happens after launch, at the price of running or renting the runtime that does the work.
With MkDirs the directory is yours to fill: you find each listing, write its description, pick its category and tags, and publish it from Sanity Studio. The AI in the product is an optional button that pre-fills a submission form from a URL — off until you configure a provider key — and it generates no content of its own. Ever Works starts from the topic: its standard pipeline analyzes the domain, discovers entries through web search, extracts and deduplicates them, assigns categories and tags, validates each source, captures screenshots, then writes the descriptions, SEO metadata and item-vs-item comparison pages — and generates the site to present them. That pipeline is deepest for directory-style content, which is exactly this category; Blog, Website and Landing Page Works are wired end to end but ride the same items pipeline while dedicated post and landing-copy writers catch up.
A MkDirs site changes when you change it: there is no scheduler, no link checker and no background job, and staying current with the template means merging upstream by hand — the public repository has had no commits since the day it was published. Ever Works treats upkeep as the default state. Scheduled updates re-run the research pipeline on seven cadences from hourly to monthly, with a 15-minute retry and an automatic pause after repeated failures; source validation re-checks every listing’s URL for reachability and for whether it is still a good source, offering an AI-suggested replacement when it is not; community submissions that arrive as pull requests are processed every hour; and the website layer is compared with the upstream template hourly and updated for you. Around that loop sit spend caps enforced before each AI call, quality gates and a merge policy, so unattended work stays reviewable.
MkDirs is honestly open: the public repository is the whole application under Apache-2.0, which is more permissive than AGPL for anyone embedding or reselling it (the project’s own licence page and FAQ still describe the earlier paid-template terms, so treat the repository’s LICENSE as the source of truth). Your listings, though, live in a hosted Sanity dataset — exportable, but outside Git, with item counts that follow Sanity’s plan. Ever Works gives every Work three repositories in your own GitHub account — data, Markdown and website — so listings, taxonomy, comparisons, blog posts and the Knowledge Base are commits you can diff, review and revert, and the deployed site clones that data at start-up. The runtime is AGPLv3 with no feature behind a paid tier, self-hosts on Docker Compose or Kubernetes, runs on the AI provider you choose from 11 provider plugins — including local and self-hosted models through Ollama, LM Studio and vLLM — and exposes itself through an MCP server and a CLI.
Where the two products overlap, Ever Works’ generated directory site matches or exceeds MkDirs: a multi-step submit form with URL autofill, a pending queue an admin approves or rejects with notes, a member dashboard, plan-gated priority and instant review, self-serve sponsor ads that a member submits and an admin approves, newsletter capture in the footer, a popup and at sign-up, sign-in through Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Facebook and X plus passkeys, checkout through Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Polar or Solidgate, a map view, votes, reviews, favorites, surveys, CSV import and export, JSON-LD, RSS / Atom / JSON feeds, llms.txt, and 21 locales with right-to-left support — where MkDirs is English-only by design. MkDirs is one repository per directory; Ever Works is the model around it: a Mission keeps proposing Ideas, accepted Ideas become Works from prebuilt templates, named Agents with budgets, heartbeats and permission flags keep each Work moving, and Work Members with Manager, Editor and Viewer roles share the work. One topic can grow into many self-maintaining directories — and, on the roadmap, stores and whole companies.
Ever Works vs MkDirs, head to head.
| Feature | Ever Works | MkDirs |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt → working app/site | ✓ | Fork and configure |
| Researches the topic for you | ✓ | – |
| Writes the content (copy, posts, SEO) | Directory data today; posts rolling out | You write it; URL autofill per submission |
| Generated code from a template base | ✓ | The template is the code |
| Ongoing autonomous maintenance | Scheduled | Manual |
| Content version-controlled in Git | ✓ | Sanity dataset (exportable) |
| Code in your Git | ✓ | Your fork |
| Open source | AGPLv3 | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-hostable runtime | ✓ | Site on Vercel, Docker or Dokploy; content in Sanity |
| No vendor lock-in | ✓ | Code yes; content via Sanity export |
| Launch with nothing to operate | Needs the runtime (hosted by us or self-hosted) | Vercel + Sanity free tiers |
| Blog inside the directory site | Separate Blog Work (web template) | ✓ |
| Paid listings & sponsor ads | Fixed Free / Standard / Premium plans; self-serve sponsor ads | Free + paid PRO tier; one sponsor slot |
| Site languages | 21 locales, RTL | English only (by policy) |
Choose MkDirs when you want a finished directory site live this week with nothing to operate — you will find and write the listings yourself, you are happy to run them out of Sanity Studio and moderate submissions there, you want a blog inside the same site, a permissive Apache-2.0 licence and a bill of roughly a domain name on Vercel and Sanity free tiers, and you do not need research, scheduled refreshes or a site in more than one language.
Visit MkDirs ↗Give Ever Works a topic and its agents research the listings, write the descriptions, deploy the site, and keep the directory growing — all version-controlled in your own Git.