WordPress maintenance plugins allow you to create custom pages to display when your website is undergoing maintenance.
So if you're updating your home page, or customizing a new theme, putting your site into Maintence Mode is the way to let your visitors know that your site is still in action. It's just not able to be used at that moment in time. Most of the plugins listed below also allow you to create coming soon and/or under construction pages as well.
- Coming Soon Page, Under Construction & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd (https://wordpress.org/plugins/coming-soon/) – This WordPress plugin does more than just allow you to create a simple maintenance page; you can create custom coming soon pages and under construction pages. You have the ability to change the font type, colors and add custom CSS to further customize the page to match the website’s branding. By upgrading to the pro version, you can choose from any of their premade layouts or stock images. This is my go-to maintance mode plugin.
- Maintenance (https://wordpress.org/plugins/maintenance/) – The Maintenance plugin gives the site administrator the ability to set up an Under Maintenance page and issues a “503 Service temporarily unavailable” HTML status code. The plugin allows you to add a background image, integrates with Google Analytics, and even allows you to embed an email optin, when used with the compatible optin plugin. With an additional cost, you can choose premade layouts.
- WP Maintenance Mode (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-maintenance-mode/) – This WordPress maintenance plugin works with multisite installs and allows you to exclude specific registered users from viewing the maintenance page. The plugin allows you to modify the fonts, colors, and graphics, embed a countdown timer or contact form and is even GDPR Ready.
- Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode (https://wordpress.org/plugins/minimal-coming-soon-maintenance-mode/) – This plugin allows you to create coming soon and/or maintenance page as well as landing pages and product launch pages. You can also add an optin form to the page using MailChimp without installing a separate plugin. It is also fully GDPR compliant.
- Maintenance Redirect (https://wordpress.org/plugins/jf3-maintenance-mode/) – The Maintenance Redirect plugin is a little different from the other plugins listed. With this plugin, you can create a page in the plugin settings telling users the website is in maintenance mode, display a custom HTML page, or redirect the user to a static webpage. You can also give special users a special Access Key to allow them to view the website instead of the maintenance message.
All the WordPress maintenance plugins listed above will be a great tool to keep in your back pocket. They are great to use when updating a website’s theme, re-branding or doing a major upgrade. You never want your website visitors to see your incomplete transformation.