Want your cannabis dispensary to stand out online? Getting listed on top directories is a game-changer. These platforms dominate search engine results and are often a customer’s first stop for discovering strains or products. The undisputed leaders in the cannabis directory space? Weedmaps and Leafly.

Both Weedmaps and Leafly can supercharge your cannabusiness, whether you’re selling in-store, online, or both. Together, they draw a jaw-dropping 10 million+ monthly visits. So, how do they compare? Which one’s the better fit—Weedmaps or Leafly? Here’s the breakdown of their features, pricing, and what sets them apart.

TL;DR: Is Weedmaps or Leafly Better?

Both Leafly and Weedmaps have their perks and pitfalls, and either can return hefty exposure for your brand. In reality, the two can be neck and neck when it comes to bang for your buck and the features they offer. Therefore, you could opt for either and see a steady stream of new customers. The end goal, however, should always be to convert these new customers into dedicated followers who begin to go directly to your website when they want to place an order. Therefore, any directory's primary purpose for a dispensary is greater visibility, and the two big players can easily be good for that purpose.

Before diving into the features and benefits of Weedmaps and Leafly, it’s also important to acknowledge the controversy both platforms often stir in the cannabis industry. You might have heard of issues like inflated pricing, inconsistent support, and opaque performance metrics. Dispensary owners and operators regularly voice their frustrations. Some complain about a pay-to-play environment where visibility is directly tied to spend, while others raise concerns over inaccurate menus or lack of control over their listings. 

Despite the criticism, these platforms still dominate the search landscape – and for many dispensaries, the potential exposure they offer is too significant to ignore. 

What is Weedmaps?

Weedmaps is a cornerstone of the cannabis community, founded in 2008 by Justin Hartfield and Keith Hoerling as a pioneering dispensary directory. Today, it’s a leading platform, offering a vast directory of dispensaries alongside over 2,000 strain descriptions—where users can browse products, buy directly, and share reviews—all backed by a robust community.

Beyond its consumer marketplace, Weedmaps provides powerful software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for cannabis businesses. These include point-of-sale (POS) systems, menu embeds, CRM tools, and advertising options, helping dispensaries manage operations and reach customers effectively. Now a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: MAPS), Weedmaps continues to evolve, blending tech and cannabis expertise.

Features of Weedmaps

When your dispensary is listed on Weedmaps, you can take advantage of the features of the site, such as:

• Sharing your dispensary menu

• Getting a map displayed to help visitors find your dispensary

• A full dispensary profile on Weedmaps

• An opportunity for dispensary visitors to share reviews of your dispensary and products

• Customer messaging capabilities

• Posting deals on Weedmaps for in-store specials

• Delivery services (if applicable in your area)

• Exposure via the WM mobile app

How much does Weedmaps cost?

Getting your dispensary brand's name listed on Weedmaps is free. However, if you want to open up all the features like a product menu, about page, and visitor reviews, you do have to pay per-month fees. Fees for the standard listing can be about $600. Featured listings on Weedmaps give dispensaries an even bigger presence on the directory, but the fees are performance-based. In other words, the better your listing performs, the higher the costs. Additionally, if you opt to use something like an iFrame-based menu on the Weedmaps marketplace, the costs will be substantially more.

What is Leafly?

Leafly is right on the heels of Weedmaps when it comes to the fastest-growing marijuana directories. Leafly started as a site geared specifically toward strain reviews, but once they added their dispensary directory, everything about Leafly exploded. Now, Leafly is almost just as sought-after as Weedmaps for cannabis and dispensary information. The site boasts 5,000 strains in the Leafly database, as well as over 4,600 listed retailers.

Leafly has a lot to offer cannabis brands, but their services are primarily focused on being listed in the directory and advertising. Leafly does offer the ability to use the platform to build a menu for your dispensary website.

Features of Leafly

Once your cannabusiness is listed on Leafly, you get:

• A customized business listing with photos

• Unlimited online orders right from Leafly

• The ability to receive and respond to customer reviews

• Pick-up and delivery support

• A mapped pin of your dispensary on the dispensary finder

• A limited ability to post deals on Leafly

• Extensive strain and product database

• Delivery services connection (if available)

• Exposure via the Leafly mobile app

How much does Leafly cost?

Leafly has different options for dispensaries as far as services and plans. The unique thing about Leafly's pricing, however, is that it varies based on geographic location, the exact type of business, and several other factors. Some dispensaries pay as much as $4,000 or more monthly for their plan and boosts to get their dispensary noticed. However, the basic listing plans tend to be more conservative at around $600 per month. Advertising campaign pricing is based on a cost-per-impression model.

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Weedmaps vs Leafly - A Comparison

Traffic

Weedmaps and Leafly are pretty much neck and neck when it comes to site traffic. Both directories get millions of visitors monthly, some who are looking for dispensary information and some who are looking for cannabis information. According to the latest stats, Weedmaps garners about 6 million visits a month, while Leafly garners around 5 million monthly visits.

It is important to note, Weedmaps and Leafly can vary in what geographic locations their traffic comes from. The two sites tend to have differing levels of popularity in different regions of the country. Likewise, sales conversions can be different from place to place. For instance, shoppers in New York ordered cannabis through WM more than half the time early in 2024, but the national average of sales conversion was less than 50%.

Pricing

Pricing between Weedmaps vs Leafly is relatively competitive. Weedmaps offers a free option that allows you to list your dispensary on the site. Even though Leafly's pricing is a little more ambiguous, many dispensary owners report similar pricing levels for standard directory and menu inclusion. With either Weedmaps or Leafly, you pay far more when you opt for coveted listing spots and boosts.

Features

When it comes to canna-marketing tech, Weedmaps and Leafly take different approaches, each with distinct strengths for dispensary owners. Weedmaps has evolved into a robust platform, layering features like CRM tools, logistics support, and delivery management alongside its core directory services. It excels at driving foot traffic, making it a top choice for helping customers locate your dispensary with ease. Leafly, by contrast, leans heavily into its advertising roots, offering a polished directory experience backed by a few standout tools tailored for visibility and customer education.

Both platforms provide menu builders, but integration tells a different story—Weedmaps syncs smoothly with most POS systems, while Leafly’s can be trickier to align, sometimes requiring extra setup. Leafly shines with its extensive, industry-leading database of strains and products, a go-to resource for customers researching their next purchase. Weedmaps counters with a broader service lineup and a massive user base, giving dispensaries more ways to engage and convert. Whether you prioritize discoverability or detailed product showcasing, each brings unique value to the table.

Other Sites Like Weedmaps and Leafly

While Weedmaps and Leafly may be the largest dispensary directories online, they are not the only two. A few others like Allbud and Jane have quite a bit of traction, although they definitely don't have all the same features or routes of exposure. On the plus side, their prices are lower when it comes to featured listings, which means they can be good for exposure early in the game if you don't have a ton of funds available for marketing. For example, you can pay a small monthly fee of $190 per month to have your dispensary with delivery featured on Allbud.

Ready to get your dispensary noticed?

Ready to grow your cannabusiness? Canna Planners can help you through every step of the process, including getting listed on Weedmaps or Leafly. While a directory listing is a big deal, the rest of your online presence is even more important for customer retention. Reach out to get the discussion started.