Melway initially faced skepticism toward its market potential due to its selling price of $2.50, nearly twice that of its nearest competitor.

[3][12] While primarily a street directory, Melway editions also contain details on public transport (train, tram, and bus routes, tickets and prices), bicycle paths, suburb and postcode details, public parks and reserves, landmarks (such as commercial buildings, telephone boxes, pubs and restaurants), attractions, and also boat mooring details in recognised docks.

Many versions of the street directory are obtainable, usually in standard or large-print editions, wall-charts, or an online catalogue.

It has held off several cartographic features, including a more logical overall tiling of pages across the entire metropolitan area (which do appear in the Sydway and Brisway).

[citation needed] One of the distinguishing differences of a Melway-style map from other Australian street directories is in the rendering of roads.

This allows for much more detail to fit into the same size map, as well as showing dual carriageways, slip lanes, service roads, speed bumps, roundabouts, and other useful information.

UBD has copied this difference in their Melbourne directory,[15] in a bid to capitalise on the familiarity of Melway.

Melway has spawned an umbrella company known as Ausway, which started producing directories for other cities and towns from the early 1990s onwards.