A List Black Business Directories, Marketplaces, Lists and Directory Apps
Updated December 21nd, 2020
Many readers want to know how they can help support Black Businesses. BEBN has collected all the known Black Business directories, websites and apps in one place.
There are 2.6 million Black business according to the 2015 census. They employ over 2.2 million people. The coronavirus has shut more than 40% of Black businesses as of April 2020, according to new reports. Protests have spot lighted the economic injustice faced by Blacks in the US.
If you want to help Black business; you must buy from Black business. To help find Black business near you, we have compiled a list of Black Business Directories.
The following websites are for general Black business listings. They may or may not be verified as Black owned and the entry may not be up to date. We do check each directory for basic information in several categories: Restaurants, Bakeries, Hair Care Products, Beauty Salon, Accountants and Web Design, but the real test is finding a Plumber.
Black Business Directories
When you put together a list like this, you get lots of interesting information about Black businesses.
- The top categories are: Health & Beauty, Restaurants and Clothing.
- Our favorite is the Paducah directory. If they can create a Black Business group on Facebook then anyone can do it.
- We also like Shoppe Black which comes out with curated category lists every month featuring products sold by Black businesses. During the height of the pandemic, they had a list Black owned face mask companies. Very useful.
Finally, if you want to see how good the lists are then try and look for a big dollar, hard to find category like: Cars, Furniture or Home Repair. Our favorite category to test a directory is Plumbers. It can be really tough find someone Black.
General Lists
Selective Lists (Curated)
In the Selective lists category, Beyonce’s list is hard to beat. It has a lot of vendors already.
| Name | Type or Category |
| Black Parade Route | Beyonce |
| Shoppe Black | Customized Black business lists in many categories |
| Black Owned Brooklyn | Brooklyn |
| NY Magazine | New York City |
| Afro Bella Black Business Directory | National |
| Experience Black Harlem | Harlem |
| Curious Uptowner | Black Businesses in Harlem |
| Forbes Magazine | National |
| Bold XChange | Curated |
| Buy From a Black Woman | Black Women Business |
| Etsy — Gifts from Black Owned Businesses | Etsy |
Black Restaurant Lists
| Name | Location |
| EatOkra | National (App) |
| Hungry Hungry Hooker | Good List of List compiled from Instagram — National by City |
| Bon Appetit | Another Good List of Black Restaurant Lists — National by City |
| Black Owned Restaurants | Bay Area, CA |
| Black Owned Restaurants (SF Chronicle) | Bay Area, CA |
| In support of Black Owned Eateries (1000 Listings) | OC, Seattle, Portland, LA, NYC, NJ, Boston, Bay Area |
Black Marketplaces
| Name | Products |
| We Buy Black | Household Products, Health and Beauty |
| Our BOM (Black Owned Market) | Beauty |
| BLK + GRN (Black and Green) | Beauty(Green) |
Black Business Directory Apps
| Application | Description |
| EatOkra | Restaurants |
| BAOBOB | Bay Area Black Businesses |
| Melanoid Exchange | Online Shopping Mall |
| BlackCoin | Black Spending App |
| Black Nation | Find Black Businesses |
Old / Expired / Under Construction / Unverified / Non-Black
These directories are no longer active or could not be verified
| Name | Location |
| http://www.sflblackbusinessdirectory.com/ | South Florida |
| Maggie’s List | Chicago |
| US African American Business Directory | NY |
| Black Trade Lines | National |
| http://www.blackownedbiz.com/ | National |
| Black Pages | National |
One business opportunity would be to create a national business directory in a standard format. We are wondering why there is not national update Black business listing or at least a way for all these websites to work together and standardize the list. When we were growing up, we had “Black Guides” for all the major cities, now there is no national list.
Version 23 as of November 22nd, 2020