You are about to push a theme update on a live site. For the next twenty minutes visitors could hit a half-broken layout, and Google could crawl it. A maintenance mode plugin is what stands in the gap.
Maintenance and coming soon pages do two different jobs. A maintenance page tells existing visitors the site is temporarily down. A coming soon page builds interest before a site is public. Most plugins do both, but they differ sharply on one detail that decides whether the outage costs you rankings: the HTTP response code they send to search engines.
We compared the five plugins below on live WordPress.org data, on what each one documents about that response code, and on what they actually cost.
Short answer: Maintenance by WebFactory is the safest default, with 1,000,000 active installs, testing against WordPress 7.0.2, and an explicit 503 toggle. Pick LightStart if you want a full coming soon page with a countdown and email capture for free. Pick CMP for the best-looking page and the most complete control of the response code, accepting that it is the one plugin here still tested only against WordPress 6.9.5. Pick Minimal Coming Soon for pre-launch email capture with a large template library. If your site already runs Nexter, Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode is a paid module inside Nexter Extension Pro.
How We Picked These Maintenance Mode Plugins
Every number in this post was pulled on 3 August 2026, not carried over from the previous version of this article:
- Active installs, current version, last-updated date and the WordPress version each plugin is tested up to came from the WordPress.org plugin API.
- What each plugin does about the HTTP response code came from its own readme, not from a feature grid.
- Prices came from each vendor’s own pricing page.
Four things that check turned up, all of which changed this list:
- Response code control is rare. Only Maintenance and CMP document control over whether visitors and crawlers get a 200 or a 503. That is the single most important setting here, so it moved both plugins up.
- One pick is ageing. CMP was last updated on 7 April 2026 and is tested only to WordPress 6.9.5. The other three are all tested to 7.0.2, and LightStart shipped on 29 July 2026. CMP is still the highest rated of the group, so it stays, with the caveat stated.
- Two prices were wrong in the previous version of this post. It listed the two WebFactory plugins as “$79/year” and “$59/year”. Both are one-time lifetime licences, not annual subscriptions. Corrected below.
- Our own entry was wrong too. This post used to rank Nexter first and call its maintenance mode “Free”. Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode is a Pro module of Nexter Extension. It is now listed last, and priced honestly.
What is a Maintenance or Under Construction Page?
A maintenance or under-construction page is a temporary page shown to visitors while a site is being updated, repaired or rebuilt. It replaces the normal front end for everyone except the users you choose to let through.
Its purpose is to tell visitors the site is temporarily unavailable rather than letting them hit errors or a half-rendered layout. Most are deliberately minimal: a short message, a logo, an estimate of when the site returns, and a way to get in touch.
When do you need Maintenance or Under Construction Mode?
Use it whenever a change could be visible to the public while it is half-done: theme or plugin updates, a redesign, a database migration, or debugging a live problem. It protects both the visitor experience and your credibility.
If an update goes wrong and the site gets stuck behind that page, our guide on how to fix WordPress stuck in maintenance mode walks through the fix.
What is a Coming Soon Page?
A coming soon page is a marketing page shown before a site or product is public. Unlike a maintenance page, it is meant to be found: it can be indexed, it can rank, and it can collect email addresses before launch.
It works as a teaser: what is coming, when, and why someone should care. Many pair it with a countdown timer and a signup form, which is why a coming soon page is often the first real page a new site publishes.
When do you need a Coming Soon Page?
Before launch, while the site is still being built. Because this page can be indexed, it is worth treating as a proper landing page rather than a placeholder. Our guides on how to create a landing page in WordPress and high converting landing page examples apply directly.
What is the Difference between Coming Soon and Maintenance Page in WordPress?
| Feature | Coming Soon Pages | Maintenance Pages |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Build excitement and generate interest before the site launch | Inform visitors that the site is temporarily unavailable due to updates or repairs |
| Audience | Potential visitors and users | Current visitors |
| Content | Information about the upcoming launch, countdown timer, sign-up form | Information about the site being down, estimated time for its return |
| Timing | Before site launch | When the site is undergoing updates or repairs |
| User Experience | Create a positive and exciting first impression | Minimize frustration and provide helpful information. |
| Visibility | Default landing page for all visitors until launch | Triggered by setting or plugin, only visible during maintenance |
The response code is the part that affects your SEO
This is where these plugins genuinely differ, and it is usually left out of roundups. A maintenance page and a coming soon page should not send search engines the same signal:
- A maintenance page should return 503 Service Unavailable. That tells a crawler the outage is temporary and to come back later, instead of indexing your “we will be right back” message as the page itself.
- A coming soon page should return 200 OK, because you want it indexed as a real landing page.
Two of the five plugins here document that control explicitly. The Maintenance readme describes an option to enable “503 Service temporarily unavailable”, and its FAQ is blunt about the consequence: “The site will not be visible to search engines only if 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable option is enabled.” CMP goes further and lets you choose, in its own words, to “Set response code to search engines (200 OK, 503 Maintenance)”.
LightStart’s readme lists “SEO options” without specifying response code control, and Minimal Coming Soon puts its SEO preview and analysis tools in the Pro version. If getting this right matters to you, check the setting yourself after activating, whichever plugin you choose. If you are curious how other status codes behave, we cover 400 bad request errors and 408 request timeout errors separately.
Also Read: How to put WordPress in maintenance mode covers the manual method, including the .htaccess and functions.php routes, if you would rather not add a plugin.
Best WordPress Maintenance Mode and Coming Soon Plugins Compared
All five put your site behind a temporary page. They differ on how much design control you get, whether the useful parts are free, and whether you can set the response code.
| Plugin | Type | Best for | Price | Active installs | Last updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintenance | Maintenance first | The safest default on a live site | Free; Pro $59 one-time | 1,000,000 | 13 Jul 2026 |
| LightStart | Both, fully free | A free coming soon page with countdown and signup | Free | 400,000 | 29 Jul 2026 |
| CMP | Both, design led | Best looking page and full 200/503 control | Free; themes $15–$39 | 200,000 | 7 Apr 2026 |
| Minimal Coming Soon | Coming soon first | Pre-launch email capture, large template library | Free; Pro $79 one-time | 100,000 | 18 Jun 2026 |
| Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode | Pro module in Nexter Extension | Sites already running Nexter | Paid; Nexter plans from $39/yr | Bundled with Nexter | n/a |
1. Maintenance by WebFactory
Maintenance is the most widely installed plugin here by a wide margin: 1,000,000 active installs, version 4.32, last updated 13 July 2026 and tested to WordPress 7.0.2. It rates 88 out of 100 across 858 ratings.
It does one job properly. You close the site, set a message, a logo and a background, and decide who gets through. The reason it leads this list is the 503 toggle described above: it is the difference between a temporary outage and an indexed placeholder.
Features of Maintenance
- A retina-ready layout for high-resolution displays.
- Full-screen background images using the Backstretch library.
- An option to enable or disable the 503 error page, which controls whether search engines see the site as temporarily unavailable.
- Front-end user login, so logged-in users can keep working on the live site.
- Exclude selected pages from maintenance mode, and support for the popular caching plugins.
It also uses Bunny Fonts rather than loading fonts from Google, which helps if you are working through EU GDPR requirements.
Cost of Maintenance
The plugin on WordPress.org is free. Pro is sold as a one-time lifetime licence, not a subscription: $59 for one site, $69 for five and $119 for one hundred, each with lifetime updates and support. The previous version of this post described this as “$59/year”, which overstated the cost of owning it.
Best for the safest default maintenance page on a live site: Maintenance by WebFactory. Biggest install base, current WordPress support, and an explicit 503 toggle.
2. LightStart, Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder
LightStart, from Themeisle and formerly called WP Maintenance Mode, has 400,000 active installs, version 2.6.23, and was last updated on 29 July 2026, making it the most recently maintained plugin in this comparison. It is tested to WordPress 7.0.2 and rates 86 out of 100 across 872 ratings.
It is the most generous free option. Activating it puts the site into maintenance mode with only permitted roles able to see the front end, and the same plugin builds a coming soon page with a countdown, a subscribe form and a contact form. It also works on WordPress Multisite.
Features of LightStart
- Fully customisable colours, text and backgrounds.
- A subscription form that exports collected emails to a .csv file.
- A countdown timer showing the remaining time until launch.
- A contact form so visitors can still reach you while the site is down.
- Landing page templates as a starting point, plus social media icons.
- Exclude URLs from maintenance mode, Multisite support and a GDPR-ready setup.
If you want the countdown to be the centrepiece, our roundup of the best countdown timer plugins for WordPress covers dedicated options, and the best WordPress form builder plugins go further than the built-in subscribe form.
Cost of LightStart
Free. Themeisle does not advertise a Pro tier for it, and the feature list above is what you get at no cost. The one caveat is the readme lists “SEO options” without documenting response code control, so verify that setting yourself if a 503 matters to you.
Best for a free coming soon page with a countdown and email capture: LightStart. The most complete free feature set here, and the most recently updated.
3. CMP, Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes
CMP is the best-rated plugin in this comparison: 94 out of 100 across 327 ratings, with 200,000 active installs on version 4.1.17. NiteoThemes states plainly that the plugin “has all premium features you ever wished for, and it is free”.
It is also the most complete on the point that matters most. CMP lets you set the response code sent to search engines, choosing between 200 OK and 503 Maintenance, alongside configurable SEO meta tags, search engine visibility and no-cache headers.
Worth knowing: CMP was last updated on 7 April 2026 and is tested only to WordPress 6.9.5, while the other three plugins here are tested to 7.0.2. It is a long-standing, well-rated plugin, not an abandoned one, but check it has caught up with your WordPress version before you rely on it.
Features of CMP
- Preview the live site behind the page using a Bypass URL.
- Three free themes plus paid themes, with new releases monthly.
- Works with any theme and is fully responsive.
- Collect emails with a subscribe form storing to a local database or MailChimp.
- Full-screen background media: video, images, an image slider or patterns.
- Built-in Unsplash search across more than one million free photos.
- Whitelist and blacklist to enable CMP only on specific pages, user role management, custom URL bypass and a countdown with a configurable end action.
Cost of CMP
The plugin itself is free, with all of its features included. NiteoThemes sells optional themes and bundles separately, mostly around $15 with some between $29 and $39, so you only pay if you want their prebuilt designs.
Best for the best-looking page with full response code control: CMP. Highest rated of the group, and the only one that lets you pick 200 or 503 outright.
Also Read: The best WordPress cache plugins matters here, because an aggressive page cache is the usual reason visitors still see the old site after you enable maintenance mode.
4. Minimal Coming Soon, Coming Soon Page
Note the name. This plugin was listed in the previous version of this post as “Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode”. On WordPress.org it is now Minimal Coming Soon, Coming Soon Page, on version 2.45 with 100,000 active installs, last updated 18 June 2026 and tested to WordPress 7.0.2. It rates 88 out of 100 across 280 ratings. Same publisher as Maintenance above, WebFactory.
As the name now suggests, it leans towards pre-launch rather than maintenance. The draw is the template library and the launch email list, so it suits a site that has not gone public yet more than one that needs a quick outage page.
Features of Minimal Coming Soon
- A large library of prebuilt templates for the coming soon page.
- A built-in free image library to use as backgrounds.
- Client access to the site behind the page using a secret link.
- Collect an email list so you can announce the launch.
- Preview the page before you activate it, and rearrange the page elements.
Worth knowing: the SEO preview and analysis tools are in the Pro version, by WebFactory’s own description, so the free tier is thinner than the template count suggests.
Cost of Minimal Coming Soon
Free on WordPress.org, with Pro sold as a one-time lifetime licence: $79 for one site, $99 for five and $139 for one hundred. As with Maintenance, the previous version of this post described this as “$79/year”. It is a single payment, not annual.
Best for pre-launch email capture with a big template library: Minimal Coming Soon. A coming soon specialist rather than a maintenance tool.
5. Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode in Nexter Extension
We build this one, so here is the honest version. Nexter Extension includes a Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode module, described on our own product page as a way to “let visitors know you will be back soon with a professional maintenance or coming soon page”. It is listed among the Pro modules, so it is not a free theme feature. An earlier version of this article said it was free and ranked it first. Both were wrong.
What it is genuinely good at is design. Instead of configuring a page inside a plugin settings screen, you assign a template you have already built, so the maintenance page can use the same blocks and styling as the rest of the site. Paired with Nexter Blocks you get countdowns, form styling and layout control that a settings panel cannot match.
For context on the rest of the stack, the free Nexter Blocks plugin has 10,000 active installs on version 5.0.2 and the Nexter theme is on version 4.2.17, both updated in July 2026.
Features of Nexter Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode
- Assign any template you have designed as the maintenance or coming soon page.
- Build that template in the block editor or Elementor rather than a plugin settings screen.
- Control who sees the page based on user role.
- Pair with Nexter Blocks for countdowns and styled forms.
- No extra plugin needed if you already run Nexter Extension.
Cost of Nexter Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode
This is a paid module. Nexter plans start at $39 per year, with lifetime options available, and you should check the pricing page for which plan includes this module before buying for it specifically. If you are not already a Nexter user, one of the four free plugins above is the more sensible choice for maintenance mode alone.
Best for sites already running Nexter: Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode. The best design control of the five, at a price, and only worth it as part of the wider Nexter Extension toolkit.
Which Maintenance or Coming Soon Mode Plugin Should You Use?
Start from the job rather than the feature list.
- You need to take a live site down for an hour. Maintenance by WebFactory. Turn on the 503 option so the outage stays temporary in Google’s eyes.
- You are launching something and want a real page. LightStart, or Minimal Coming Soon if you care most about templates. Keep this page at 200 so it can be indexed.
- You want the page to look designed, not generic. CMP if you want it free and are comfortable with its WordPress 6.9.5 testing gap, or Nexter Extension if you are already paying for Nexter and want to build the page in your own blocks.
One practical warning that applies to all five: if you enable maintenance mode and still see your normal site, it is almost always caching. Clear it before you assume the plugin failed, using our guide on how to clear WordPress cache.
It is also worth taking a backup before any update that needs maintenance mode in the first place. Our comparison of the best WordPress backup plugins covers the options.
Also Read: The best WordPress security plugins is worth a look if the reason you are taking the site down is a security incident rather than a planned update.
Suggested Reading
- How to put WordPress in maintenance mode, including the methods that need no plugin at all.
- How to fix WordPress stuck in maintenance mode when an update leaves the site behind the page.
- Best countdown timer plugins for WordPress for launch pages that need a real countdown.
- How to create a landing page in WordPress, since a coming soon page is a landing page.
- Best WordPress cache plugins to understand why maintenance mode sometimes appears not to work.
FAQs on Maintenance & Coming Soon Mode Plugins
1. What are the must have features in Coming Soon Mode WordPress Plugins?
Essential features in a Coming Soon Mode WordPress plugin typically include customization options, a countdown timer, a contact form, a subscription form, and integration with email marketing services and login access to bypass the Coming Soon page.
2. Does the Coming Soon Plugin Affect my Website SEO?
A coming soon mode on a website may affect its SEO temporarily, as search engines may not crawl the site until it is fully launched. However, some coming soon plugins offer search engine optimization options to minimize this impact.
3. How to Turn off Coming Soon Mode in WordPress?
To turn off the coming soon mode in WordPress, you need to access the plugin settings and deactivate or remove the plugin. The exact steps will depend on the specific plugin you are using.
4. Why do I still see my Website Landing page after activating Coming Soon mode?
If you are still able to see the landing page after activating the coming soon mode, it could be due to one of several reasons, including not properly activating the plugin, incorrect user role settings, or being on the Whitelist of users who can view the site or Cache conflicts, make sure to clear your global website cache after activating this. You may need to check the plugin settings or consult the plugin documentation for more information.
