Directory component - pay per profile

Yes, but Cobalt v8 is only supported by J!3+

AFAIK, the subscription extension Emerald (v9) is under development. I am sure this will take some time. Maybe "Sergey" can answer this more precisely.

If you want and need to go with J!2.5 (obviously, it is the current longtime supported release) ...

you have to choose Cobalt7 and Emerald8.

You might choose another subscription/payment extension, but Emerald is integrated with Cobalt down to the field level. I guess, this is an advantage.

Note that there is no profile system in Cobalt. Cobalt is CCK and not profiling extension. For user profiles you wil need Community Builder or JomSocial. And only Emerald to restrict profile access.

Justin i'm building a directory listing as well but with Cobalt8 (J3.0).

But you will be able to do the same thing with C7.

1 - Create 2 sections (free and paid)

Section1 (free listing)

Create a type (form) with all the free fields

Section2

Create a type with all the fields

2 - Create a menu link to the user insert the listing linked to a Joomla article. Inside the article you insert two links for each section so that the user may choose.

You can turn personalization on Section2 so that the user record turns something into a user homepage where he can access other information inserted by the user.

Emerald can control what fields are displayed per each section.

If this is something you look for, it's possible.