The best WordPress maintenance mode plugin makes it possible for a WordPress website to perform updates, maintenance and development by showing a customized “Coming Soon” or “Under Maintenance” message to users.
In this article, we cover why you need a WordPress maintenance mode plugin and the best WordPress maintenance mode plugins available so you can find a plugin that suits your needs. Let’s get started!
What is a WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugin?
A WordPress maintenance mode plugin prevents website visitors from entering your website and instead displays a temporary page or message so they know to come back later.Website downtime can greatly impact visitor experience, so a WordPress maintenance mode plugin allows you to inform users while website maintenance, updates, and development are taking place.
A WordPress maintenance mode message is usually something like:
- “Under Construction”
- “Coming Soon”
- “Down for Planned Maintenance”
- “New Site Coming”
A WordPress maintenance mode plugin allows your WordPress site to technically stay online, and your visitors to understand what’s going on, which helps ensure they continue to enjoy a friendly user experience.
Many WordPress maintenance mode plugins also display actions to take to reach you during scheduled maintenance or prior to a new site launching, such as send an email, follow on social, etc.
When Do I Need a WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugin?
A WordPress maintenance mode plugin is useful for situations when you are making updates or edits to your website that would otherwise take your site offline or greatly diminish the functionality of pages on your website.
Examples of times when you may need a WordPress maintenance mode plugin include:
- When you’re switching plugins that handle important functionality (like switching e-commerce plugins, for example). This process can often include the migration of data for your store, products or customers that may result in downtime.
- Temporarily, while a website redesign is taking place.
- While you’re building a new website on a new domain
- If you’re changing themes and need to test how everything looks
- While you fix broken pages or errors after a failed theme or plugin update
- If you’re rolling out a new homepage
- You’re hoping to build buzz about a new product launch
- If you are in the midst of a process to move a WordPress website to a new web host or server
- Similarily, while you move a WordPress website to a new domain
How WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugins Work
The best WordPress maintenance mode plugins are also simple to implement, which means you don’t have to be proficient in web code to benefit from the feature.
Instead, you simply use a built-in feature to set “maintenance mode” for your website. With a maintenance mode plugin, “maintenance mode” will automatically go into effect while the site is under construction and can then be disabled once the maintenance is complete. Most WordPress maintenance mode plugins double up as coming soon pages, which we’ll explore in more detail further into the article.
Many maintenance mode plugins also enable you to customize your maintenance page, including the background, theme color, text color, headings, and more, so your visitors still enjoy a great looking page while your site is offline. In addition, many plugins offer premium features for greater customization of your page.
Just like WordPress caching, WordPress backups and WordPress security, WordPress maintenance mode plugins are something you’d want to look into regardless of what your WordPress site does.
Perhaps the thought of rebuilding or performing regular service on your website has you putting it off. You might think that maintaining your website means your site will be offline for a while, which can cause you to miss out on valuable leads. But not upgrading or servicing your website as needed can cause visitors to have a negative user experience, which can also cost you valuable leads, as well as your SEO ranking.
But rather than just risking your visitors encountering a glitchy site or simply being too worried to do it yourself, you can use a WordPress maintenance mode plugin to keep your site up to date.
What to Look for in a WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugins
When it comes to selecting the best WordPress maintenance mode plugin, you’ll want to look for these plugin features:
- Role-based access
- Subscription signup
- SEO considerations
- Customization
Role-Based Access
Any good WordPress maintenance mode plugin will allow you to define role-based user access which works with the standard WordPress user role system.
This means that for instance, a subscriber role may just see the maintenance mode page you’ve created.
And yet an editor role or above may be able to see the website as if the maintenance mode plugin wasn’t even activated.
Without such functionality, it can be hard to collaborate with others as you don’t want to give everyone admin access just so they can check what the website looks like.
Subscription Signup
WordPress maintenance mode plugins often can double up as a coming-soon plugin allowing you to build up hype for your new website or product.
But what use is building hype if you can’t capitalize on the interest once your website is live? That’s where subscription forms come into play to allow visitors to signup for your newsletter list so you can then update your subscribers on updates and progress and even send them an initial launch offer to convert them into a paid subscriber.
If you don’t have a subscription form setup then your visitors are going nowhere and may never return, so don’t miss out on potential future revenue.
SEO Considerations
While using a WordPress maintenance mode plugin won’t make you rank #1 in Google, they can help keep your SEO rankings intact.
There are two aspects to SEO when using a maintenance mode plugin:
- Minimizing 404 pages – If you have an existing website and suddenly make changes and redirect visitors to non-existent pages as you’re working on them, and don’t have a maintenance mode plugin activated, then you could impact your SEO rankings. Using a WordPress maintenance mode plugin will ensure that the correct HTTP status code is set so that search engines know the page is under maintenance and will be live again soon.
- Indexing a new site – On the other hand, if you’re using the maintenance mode plugin as more of a “Coming Soon” plugin, this can allow Google to index your site and get it appearing in search engines before you go live.
Customization
Most WordPress maintenance mode plugins let you easily customize your coming soon and maintenance mode pages with colors, background images, typography, and more.
Some even integrate directly with page builders and the block editor allowing you to build truly customized pages that can have any content you want.
Make sure though that the maintenance mode plugin you pick actually works with the page builder you use though. For example, it’s no good picking one that works with Elementor if you use Beaver Builder.
Analytics
Various WordPress maintenance mode plugins also include analytics, such as Google Analytics, that enable users to track their visitors’ activities on their site, including traffic, which can then be used to further improve pages.
Social Media
Allowing your visitors to still be able to connect with you via your social media page during website maintenance is a great way to spread the word about the launch of your new site or to simply ensure visitors continue to interact with your business. Check to see if the WordPress maintenance mode plugin you choose allows you to enable social connections as part of their features.
Best WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugins
Without further delay, here are a few of the best WordPress maintenance mode plugins.
Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode, and Landing Pages by SeedProd
Apart from the rather long-winded name, the Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode, and Landing Pages plugin is actually known as “SeedProd.” The long name is likely geared toward better keyword ranking on WordPress.org.
SeedProd was originally founded by John Turner and then had more than 800,000+ active installs when John applied for the AwesomeMotive accelerator fund. After discussions with Syed, a full acquisition was decided upon and in 2018, SeedProd became a part of the AwesomeMotive family.
In case the name sounds familiar, AwesomeMotive is the company behind popular WordPress plugins such as WPForms, OptinMonster and more.
Today, SeedProd has more than 1 million+ active installs and in excess of 3,700+ 5-star ratings.
Pros of the Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode & Landing Pages Plugin by SeedProd
One of the main pros of SeedProd is that it’s incredibly feature-rich. It isn’t just a coming soon page plugin neither is it just a maintenance mode plugi; in fact, it can even be used to create landing pages. While this does bring a certain more degree of complexity, it does save you from installing 3 plugins to do the same thing when one plugin can do them all.
SeedProd released an update that made it a full-blown page builder with the following blocks in the free version.
- Headline Block
- Text Block
- List Block
- Button Block
- Image Block
- Video Block
- Divider Block
- Spacer Block
- Column Block
- Giveaway Block
- Contact Form Block
And that means that SeedProd can be used to build any type of page you want, including:
- Landing Pages
- Sales Pages
- Opt-In Pages
- Lead Pages
- Squeeze Pages
- Coming Soon Pages
- Maintenance Mode Pages
- Webinar Pages
- Thank You Pages
- 404 Pages
All with an easy-to-use drag and drop builder. SeedProd supports any WordPress theme and works great on WordPress multisite installs too.
The Coming Soon Landing Page and Maintenance Mode WordPress plugin also allows you to direct visitors to your social media page, which helps ensure your visitors stay in the know concerning your page and the exciting updates to expect.
It also allows you to choose your own background color or image of your own, as well as the icons’ color and background color, and it also includes your option of two countdown layouts for added customization.
Some other features include:
- Includes over 7 social media icons
- Superior email subscription plans
- Mobile responsive ready
- Translation ready
Some pro features include Google Map Integration, Footer credits, video and slider options, and more.
Cons of the Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode & Landing Pages Plugin by SeedProd
There are no real cons to SeedProd. The only minor downside (which can also be considered an upside) is that there’s too much functionality you simply may not need.
As SeedProd moves into the page builder market more, you may prefer to keep to more specific coming soon and maintenance mode plugins that only do what you need without all the extra stuff.
The only other downside is that newsletter integration only comes with the premium version of the plugin and not the free version.
Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode & Landing Pages by SeedProd Pricing
There’s the free version of SeedProd available on WordPress.org and then there’s the premium version of SeedPro available via their website.
For the premium version, there are 4 tiers which consist of:
- Basic ($79) — A single site license with plugin updates and support for one year.
- Plus ($199) — A three site license with plugin updates and support for one year.
- Pro ($399) — A five site license with plugin updates and support for one year.
- Elite ($599) — An unlimited site license with plugin updates and support for one year.
Unlike most AwesomeMotive plugins, the plans include mostly the same feature set with the expectation of domain mapping which is restricted to the Pro and Elite licenses.
And like most AwesomeMotive plugins you can often find a good discount of at least 30% off. At the time of writing this article, SeedProd is running a 50% off sale which makes it a great value proposition especially for agencies with the unlimited license.
Our Opinion on Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode & Landing Pages by SeedProd
SeedProd is a great plugin and has always been the best maintenance mode plugin for WordPress.
With the advent of more WordPress page builder functionality, SeedProd definitely brings more to the table even though it is slightly at the expense of ease of use.
Overall, SeedProd is one of our favorite coming soon and maintenance mode plugins for WordPress.
WP Maintenance Mode
About the WP Maintenance Mode plugin
The WP Maintenance Mode plugin was developed by DesignModo has long been one of the most popular maintenance mode plugins for WordPress.
It’s always been a fan favorite due to its free nature and expanding feature set that makes it the perfect maintenance mode/coming soon page plugin. (Technically, it’s a maintenance mode plugin although it works equally as well as a coming soon plugin.)
Boasting more than 700,000+ active installs and over 180+ 5-star ratings on WordPress.org: is it that good? The short answer? Yes. Read on to find out more.
Pros of the WP Maintenance Mode Plugin
With the WP Maintenance Mode plugin, you can display a Coming Soon page alerting visitors to your fresh, new website or simply add a Maintenance Mode page to let them know that your site is being serviced, and it also works with all WordPress themes.
The main positive of WP Maintenance Mode plugin is that it has everything you need in a maintenance mode plugin and doesn’t cost anything.
For instance, this plugin has the following functionality:
- Fully customizable (change colors, texts and backgrounds);
- Subscription form (export emails to .csv file);
- Countdown timer (remaining time);
- Contact form (receive emails from visitors);
- Coming soon page;
- Landing page templates;
- WordPress multisite Support;
- Responsive design;
- Social media icons;
- Works with any WordPress theme;
- SEO options;
- Exclude URLs from maintenance;
- Bot functionality to collect the emails in a friendly and efficient way.
- GDPR Ready
Meanwhile, use your social media icons to connect your visitors to your social media platform, where they can learn more specific details concerning your site. The plugin also includes a contact form to receive emails from visitors as well as subscription forms to export emails to help you stay in touch.
There’s no premium version but you don’t even need it as everything you need is here. The team is also receptive to feedback and regularly responds to support tickets in the WordPress.org forums which is rare for a free plugin with no premium version.
Cons of the WP Maintenance Mode Plugin
There aren’t any real cons to the WP Maintenance Mode plugin. If we were going to be picky, then it’s a shame that the subscription form doesn’t integrate with email service providers, meaning that you have to manually export the emails and then import them into your ESP.
However, that’s a small price to pay when the price of the plugin is zero.
WP Maintenance Mode Pricing
As we’ve already mentioned, WP Maintenance Mode is entirely free and is available from WordPress.org. There is no premium version which makes selecting which version to go with incredibly easy.
Our Opinion on WP Maintenance Mode
WP Maintenance Mode is a feature-rich WordPress maintenance mode plugin that offers everything you need and nothing you don’t.
As it’s entirely free if you’re on a budget then it makes sense to give it a spin. Even if you aren’t on a budget, it still is a great plugin that works well and should be on your list.
Maintenance
About the Maintenance Plugin
The Maintenance plugin is a simple WordPress plugin to enable a maintenance mode on your WordPress website created by WebFactory.
And with WebFactory you know you’re in good hands, they have some of the most popular plugins on the WordPress.org repository and have more than 21 plugins in total.
At the time of writing, Maintenance has more than 500,000+ active installs and over 440 5-star ratings.
Pros of the Maintenance Plugin
The Maintenance plugin is a “back to basics” plugin that only includes the maintenance portion. There’s no ability to create a coming soon page or landing pages.
This plugin simply sets the correct 503 status code when you enable maintenance mode that tells search engines that the website is undergoing temporary maintenance and will be available again soon.
Apart from that, the Maintenance plugin includes the following functionality:
- Retina ready HTML/CSS layout
- Full-screen background (Backstretch)
- Blur background effect
- Upload your own logo
- Configurable colors: fonts, icons, background
- Customize title, headline, text
- User login on the frontend
- Admin bar status
- 503 error on/off
- Google analytics support
- Exclude selected pages from Maintenance mode
- Support for all popular caching plugins
Cons of the Maintenance Plugin
Because of its relatively simple nature, there’s no advanced functionality like contact forms, or email subscription support.
And as we mentioned, there’s no coming soon page support. However, if you want a two-in-one solution, then WebFactory has a separate plugin called Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode – Coming Soon Page which offers both solutions in one.
Maintenance Plugin Pricing
While some WebFactory plugins do have a premium version available, the standard Maintenance plugin doesn’t have a premium version and as such is entirely free, making it a great option for those on a budget.
Our Opinion on the Maintenance Plugin
Maintenance is a great, easy-to-use plugin that, while light on features, does exactly what it sets out to do. If you are on a budget and don’t need anything fancy, the Maintenance Plugin is worth a look.
Want something more advanced? Then both SeedProd and WP Maintenance Mode are great alternatives.
Additional WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugins
Here are a few additional WordPress maintenance mode plugins we thought we should mention.
Fancy Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode
The Fancy Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode plugin allows users to easily switch their site to maintenance mode, using one of three beautiful themes that are also responsive, MailChimp compatible, and include various social media buttons.
Some other features include:
- Quick and easy to set up
- Works with any WordPress theme
- Includes custom background and custom logo
- Includes countdown timer custom logo, custom background
- Email buttons
Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode by Colorlib
Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode by Colorlib includes over 13 eye-catching templates to display your maintenance mode or coming soon message, along with social media buttons, including Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, and a subscription form for visitor interaction, and it also works with all modern WordPress themes.
Some other features include:
- Mobile ready design
- Custom CSS area
- Timer countdown option
- Opening date
- MailChimp Integration
Rocket Maintenance Mode & Coming Soon Page
The Rocket Maintenance Mode & Coming Soon Page is a simple to use interface that enables both techies and the non tech alike to create stunning Maintenance Mode and Coming Soon pages on their site, and it also includes a list of social icons as well as favicons to choose from.
Some other features include:
- Search engine optimized
- Countdown timer and progress bar to let visitors track your website launch
- Change content using a visual editor
- Upload your own logo
- Your choice of background and text colors
- Hundreds of fonts to choose from
Minimal Coming Soon and Maintenance Mode
The Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode – Coming Soon Page plugin enables both novice and experienced users to easily set up a Landing page for their site, which can be used to gather visitor information, as well as a Maintenance Mode page and Coming Soon page that can be modified in almost every aspect to suit your needs, and it also includes both SEO preview and analysis tools in the pro version to track your progress once you’re done.
Some other features include:
- Compatible with any WordPress theme
- Fully responsive
- 26 Instagram filters
- Gathers email using MailChimp
- Preview maintenance page or coming soon page before it launching it
- Over 800 fonts available
- Add custom CSS or HTML
The Minimal Coming Soon and Maintenance Mode plugin also includes a pro version with various exciting features, including more than 100 themes, over 40 content animations for Coming Soon pages, more than 100,000 premium images, and more.
Coming Soon by Supsystic
This Coming Soon by Supsystic plugin offers a completely customizable Coming Soon page, including fonts, background logo, and launch page, using Drag & Drop Builder, to let your visitors know in the most professional manner that your site is under construction, along with Google Analytics tracking to examine your responses. It also includes a subscription option and easily enables you to add your own CSS and HTML code.
Some other features include:
- Coming Soon live preview
- Responsive design
- Countdown timer
- Works with any WordPress theme
- Multisite support
Under Construction
This free Under Construction plugin enables users to construct a Coming Soon or Under Construction page is most commonly used when you expect your site to be in maintenance mode for a while.
With this Under Construction mode, not only do you get to select from a wide selection of professional-looking templates to display your Maintenance Mode page, but you can also write a few lines explaining why your page is offline, or use a video or picture instead, which also helps your SEO rankings.
It also includes over 15 social media buttons, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Skype, and WhatsApp, as well as MailChimp integration, for staying connected with your visitors while your site is down.
Some other features include:
- Page description for SEO
- If you want, you can allow specific users access to the regular site, which means they won’t be affected by the maintenance page that you are creating. Instead, they will be able to work with the site as usual, according to their Whitelist user role.
- You can also add icons to display your contact information, such as telephone numbers or email addresses, etc.
- You can also use custom CSS to adjust any part of your page as needed
- Google Analytics Tracking ID to enable tracking using Google Analytics
- When you are done with the maintenance page, you can disable it with a single button
- You can also select an end date and time, using the auto function, and it will automatically disable the mode on the set date
Meanwhile, the pro version includes over 50 features and options, including advanced access control, for even greater customization and convenience.
Elementator Page Builder
Although Elementor is widely known as a WordPress page builder, Elementor’s WordPress Maintenance Mode has a feature that counts as being a WordPress maintenance mode plugin because it is packed with features, including drag and drop design functionality to create your page.
Some other features include:
- Compatible with most WordPress themes
- Responsive
- Assign roles that will be able to access the site during the maintenance
- Templates make processing quick and easy
- Allows you to display additional information via your coming soon or maintenance page
- Maintenance mode tells search engines that your site is temporarily down
- Includes many pre-made widgets
This plugin also includes a pro version for more advanced features.
Smart Maintenance Mode
Smart Maintenance Mode is a free WordPress plugin that enables users to easily display a Coming Soon page during site maintenance, while the Smart Maintenance Mode enables you to define and create ranges and IP ranges that allow developers to see the actual site.
It also enables you to add a countdown to your page, so visitors can time the launch of your site.
Some other features include:
- Add custom HTML content
- Add custom messages for Maintenance mode page
- Add custom images for Maintenance mode page
- Enable/disable maintenance mode
- Allow user roles to access site when in maintenance mode
IgniteUp-Coming Soon and Maintenance Mode
With IgniteUp’s Coming Soon and Maintenance mode plugin, users can create Maintenance Mode, Under Construction, or Coming Soon pages, using highly customizable templates that generate great-looking Maintenance Mode pages that are also mobile responsive by Twitter Bootstrap.
Some other features include:
- Compatible with just about any WordPress theme
- Mailchimp API v2 Integration
- Contact Form Support
- Email subscription forms
- 503 Response to notify search engines that your site is down for maintenance
- Show the website for visitors with whitelisted IP address
- Features or Services Section
- Translation ready
- YouTube video for Desktop page backgrounds
Slim Maintenance Mode
With the Slim Maintenance Mode plugin, only administrators can see the website once the mode is active, and no additional settings are needed to perform the maintenance. Then, once the work is completed, simply deactivate the mode to display your upgraded website.
Some other features include:
- Works with any theme
- Alert message in the backend, when the plugin is active
- Sends HTTP response status code 503 Service Unavailable
- Supports Super Cache, WP Rocket, Cachify, WP Fastest Cache and W3 Total Cache
Choosing the Best WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugin for You
In the end, if you need to temporarily take your WordPress site offline to upgrade it or to perform routine maintenance, any one of the listed WordPress maintenance mode plugins can let your users know what’s going on during the reconstruction of your current site or the creation of your new one.
Otherwise, simply disabling your site without any explanation puts you at risk of losing valuable visitors, as well as your SEO rankings, which can cut into your bottom line.
When choosing the best WordPress maintenance mode page for you, simply think about the goal for your page.
For instance, during your site maintenance, is it important that you still maintain visitor interaction, or are you looking to still capture potential customers to purchase your services or products once your site is restored? Considering the goals for your maintenance page beforehand will assist you in knowing what features to look for in your maintenance page plugin for optimum results.
For best results, or when in doubt about the best WordPress maintenance mode plugin to choose, simply test out a few options to determine the one that best meets your goals.
Wrapping Up: The Best WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugins
A WordPress maintenance mode plugin is useful for any WordPress website and hopefully by reading this guide you’ve found one that’ll work for you.
Do you currently use a WordPress maintenance mode plugin? Or have we missed your favorite maintenance mode plugin for WordPress? Let us know in the comments below.
Kristen has been writing tutorials to help WordPress users since 2011. As marketing director here at iThemes, she’s dedicated to helping you find the best ways to build, manage, and maintain effective WordPress websites. Kristen also enjoys journaling (check out her side project, The Transformation Year!), hiking and camping, step aerobics, cooking, and daily adventures with her family, hoping to live a more present life.
