What Is the Difference Between a Marketplace and a Directory?

A marketplace owns the client relationship and charges for access to it. A directory lists providers and does nothing after that. A Living Network keeps provider data accurate, gives agencies visibility into their network health, and leaves the relationship where it belongs.

What a Marketplace Does

A marketplace sits between the provider and the client. The platform facilitates discovery, booking, and sometimes payment. In exchange, it takes a cut of each transaction, charges providers a monthly fee, or monetizes listing placement.

Psychology Today is the clearest example most people know. Providers pay around $30 per month to be listed. The platform earns additional revenue from advertising and promoted placement. In that model, the platform's interests and the provider's interests are not the same thing.

The deeper problem: the marketplace owns the client relationship. When a client books a session through a marketplace, they build a relationship with the platform first and the provider second. If the agency or provider leaves the platform, they leave the audience behind.

Who this works for: Platforms that want to own the transaction and the relationship. Not agencies trying to build or maintain their own branded provider network.

What a Static Directory Does

A directory is a list. A profile page with a name, credentials, specialty, phone number, and maybe a photo. The directory publishes it. Nobody is accountable for keeping it current.

This is where ghost networks come from. AMA research found that 33% of provider listings in major directories are inaccurate, have non-working phone numbers, or go unreturned. That number is not a rounding error. One in three listings fails the most basic test: can a client actually reach this provider?

A therapist on Reddit described searching Psychology Today for couples therapists. She sent inquiries to 10 providers. Fewer than half responded. Two of the providers who did respond said they don't actually do couples work, despite listing it as a specialty. She called the process "exhausting" and "unnecessarily difficult." That post got 181 upvotes from people who recognized exactly what she was describing.

That is a static directory working exactly as designed. It published the listings. It did not verify them. It has no mechanism to surface the problem until a client hits it.

Who this works for: Publishers who want to create a resource and walk away. Not agencies responsible for connecting real clients to real providers.

What a Living Network Does

A Living Network is a directory that has accountability built into it. Provider data is verified. Profiles are maintained. The agency has visibility into the health of their network at any point, not just at launch.

The word "living" is doing specific work here. A static directory is a snapshot. A Living Network is a system that stays current because someone is responsible for making it stay current, and the platform gives them the tools to do that.

In practical terms, this means:

• **Verification**: credentials, contact information, and specialties are confirmed before a provider goes live
• **Maintenance workflows**: agencies can flag stale profiles, prompt providers to update, and track what has been reviewed and when
• **Network health visibility**: agencies can see which listings are at risk of going stale before a client hits a dead end
• **Relationship ownership**: when a client finds a provider, that relationship belongs to the agency and the provider, not to a third-party platform

The agency does not lose the audience when a provider changes platforms. The client does not call a number that goes nowhere. The provider does not get inquiries for specialties they stopped offering two years ago.

The Relationship Question

The clearest way to distinguish these three models is to ask: who owns the provider relationship?

• **Marketplace**: the platform owns it. Providers pay to access the audience. The platform sets the terms.
• **Static directory**: nobody owns it. The listing exists, the relationship does not.
• **Living Network**: the agency owns it. The platform provides the infrastructure. The agency maintains the accountability.

This matters most when something goes wrong. In a marketplace, the platform decides how to resolve disputes, how to surface providers, and what happens when a provider's information changes. In a static directory, nothing happens. In a Living Network, the agency has the tools, the visibility, and the responsibility to fix it.

FAQ

Is a Living Network the same as a verified directory?

Verification is part of it, but not all of it. A verified directory confirms credentials at a point in time. A Living Network also provides ongoing maintenance workflows, network health visibility, and agency accountability over time. Verification without maintenance still produces ghost networks.

Why do directories go stale so quickly?

Because nobody is accountable for keeping them current. Providers have no incentive to log in and update a profile on a platform they pay for but do not control. Directories have no incentive to surface inaccuracy because their revenue model does not depend on accuracy. Living Networks solve this by giving agencies both the tools and the visibility to manage their network health before clients hit a dead end.

Can an agency use a marketplace and a Living Network at the same time?

Yes, but they serve different goals. A marketplace can generate volume and broad discovery. A Living Network builds the agency's owned asset: a branded, verified, maintained directory that the agency controls and the marketplace does not. Most agencies find that the Living Network becomes the asset they actually want to own long-term.

Hunhu is a Living Network platform built for agencies. If you are building or managing a provider directory, the goal is not just to publish listings. The goal is to keep the relationship, the accuracy, and the accountability inside your organization. [Learn how Hunhu works for agencies.](/help/getting-started-agencies)