Definition
What is a DPM?
Directory & Provider Marketplace. A directory tells you a business exists. A marketplace lets you hire and pay them. A DPM is both in one place - real profiles you can browse and compare, and the ability to book, pay and review without leaving.
Directory vs marketplace
A directory mainly helps people find listed businesses. A marketplace helps people transact with them. A Directory and Provider Marketplace combines both: searchable provider profiles for discovery, plus tools for pricing, booking, messaging, payments, and reviews.
Why the category needed a name
A directory lists a business and leaves it there - a name, a number, a dead page. A lead marketplace makes businesses bid and pay to compete for the same enquiry, so the platform earns whether or not the provider does.
Neither describes what ServicePros is, so Namoota Technology named the thing it actually is: a term we coined for this shape of platform.
The three parts of the name
- 1
Directory - being findable
Category and city pages, search, real profiles instead of adverts.
- 2
Provider - the business itself
Services, gallery, verification, reviews, a dashboard they control.
- 3
Marketplace - the transaction
Booking, credits, payment, completion, reputation.
The rule that defines the category
The platform earns only when the provider earns.
Providers never pay to compete for leads; commission is charged only on completed, paid work.
Behind the name
Where the name comes from
The term started inside Namoota Technology as the name for a build tool - the DPM engine, short for Directory Provider Maker: a configurable codebase that deploys a complete directory and provider marketplace for a given industry.
Configure it for one kind of business and a full platform for that trade exists. ServicePros is the first platform deployed on it. The name outgrew the tool and became the name for the category of platform it produces.
DPM in practice
ServicePros shows the model live: one place to discover real providers, compare their work, book, pay, and build trust through completed jobs.
- 4354
- providers
- 19
- categories
- 8
- cities
See how ServicePros applies the model.
Reviewed by the ServicePros marketplace team. Last updated: 5 August 2026.