A Yelp clone for the businesses of one city.
A Yelp clone is a business directory where people find local places, check opening hours and read reviews, and Yclas runs one on your own domain. Businesses claim their page and reply to reviews, and you earn from sponsored places, banners and deals.
Free for 15 days · No credit card · Plans from $19 a month
Yelp made reviews the reason to visit.
Yelp started in San Francisco in 2004 and made local reviews a habit: people looked up a restaurant or a plumber, read what others said, and added their own. Tripadvisor did the same for travel. A business directory like Yelp rests on four things.
Fill your Yelp clone before you open it.
An empty directory is worse than none. Import the businesses of your first categories from a CSV file, or from Google Places with your own Google key (up to 60 results per search, billed by Google, without photos). Then invite owners to claim their page with an email at their own website's domain.
Start with categories where reviews matter and people search often: restaurants and cafés, hairdressers, mechanics, dentists, plumbers. Add the rest when those are full.
| Part | Launch with it | Add it later |
|---|---|---|
| Listings | Imported pages with hours and a map pin | Branches: up to 20 locations per business |
| Reviews | Stars, replies and photos | Criteria, invitations, awards, AI summary |
| Owners | Claims by email at their domain | Licensed and Insured badges |
| Money | Free basic listings | Sponsored places, banners, deals, paid leads |
Reviews with replies, photos, criteria and awards.
Customers rate a business and the best rise to the top. Owners reply in public, reviewers add photos, and you choose up to five criteria per category, such as food, service and value, each rated on its own. Businesses invite customers by email or with a QR poster at the counter.
- Review guard: reviews that look like they come from the business itself, or from one network reviewing many places, wait for you. The star rating is never the reason.
- Best of awards each year for places with at least five reviews and 4.5 stars, in the top 10% of their category.
- AI summary of the reviews and Ask about this business, labelled as AI, on paid plans.
The summary in this screenshot is sample text written for the demo.
Open now, closed, and the hours for every holiday.
Every business shows its weekly hours with an Open now or Closed badge, special hours for up to 30 dates, and hours past midnight done properly. Visitors filter for places open right now, and for attributes such as wheelchair access, parking or free Wi-Fi.
Owners take over their page, and keep it current.
An owner proves the business is theirs with a six-digit code sent to an email at their website's domain. Unclaimed pages move to them at once; disputed ones go to your queue with a record of who decided and when. Owners then see calls, website visits, directions and messages over 7, 30 or 90 days.
Yelp and Tripadvisor features, on a Yclas directory.
Mapped one by one, with the gaps.
| The big review sites are known for | On Yclas |
|---|---|
| Business pages with hours and a map | Directory mode: address, hours, services, photos, map and branches. |
| Star reviews with photos | Reviews with photos, criteria, owner replies and awards. |
| Filtering suspicious reviews | Review guard holds suspect reviews for you to decide. |
| Claim your business | Claims by email at the business's own domain. |
| Ads for businesses | Sponsored places, banners you approve, deals, featured listings. |
| Questions about a place | Ask about this business, answered by AI from the page and its reviews, on paid plans. |
| Table reservations, food ordering, hotel prices | Not included. |
| A community of regular reviewers | Not included as a programme. You build it locally. |
Yelp is a trademark of its owner. Yclas is not affiliated with Yelp. This table uses public information; your site gets its own name, look and listings, not a copy of Yelp. Tripadvisor is a trademark of its owner, also not affiliated with Yclas.
How a business directory earns.
Visitors read free. Businesses pay to stand out next to their competitors.
Prices are examples: you set your own, in your currency. Yclas takes no commission on what you earn. All the ways to make money →
A launch plan for one city.
- Switch on directory modeChoose a directory in the wizard; hours, attributes and claims are set up.
- Import 300 businessesFrom a CSV or Google Places, in your first five categories.
- Write the first reviewsAsk friends who are real customers. Never write them for the businesses.
- Invite ownersEmail them to claim their page and print their QR review poster.
- Sell placementsOffer sponsored places once each category has dozens of pages.
Is it legal to build a Yelp clone?
Yes. A review directory is a legal business. Do not use Yelp's name, logo or design, and never copy reviews or photos from Yelp, Google or Tripadvisor: they belong to their writers and those sites.
Can I import businesses to start a Yelp clone?
Yes, from a CSV file, or from Google Places with your own Google key. Google bills the key owner, and photos are not imported.
How are fake reviews handled?
Review guard holds reviews that look like they come from the business, or from one network reviewing many places, until your team decides. Visitors can also report reviews.
Can businesses reply to reviews?
Yes. Once they claim their page, owners reply in public under each review.
How much does it cost?
Starter is $19 a month and Professional is $99. Directory mode is on every plan; the AI review summary needs a paid plan and the Nova theme.
Can I build a Tripadvisor clone for a region?
Yes. List hotels, restaurants, tours and attractions with reviews and criteria, in several languages from Professional. Price comparison and reservations are not included.
Can it show only businesses open now?
Yes. The Open now filter uses each business's weekly hours.
Related pages.
The parts of Yclas this leans on.
Your city's review directory, filled before it opens.
Switch on directory mode, import your first businesses and invite their owners. Free for 15 days.
Start my directory