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Free Plugin by helderk v3.2.1

Maintenance Mode

This plugin is intended primarily for developers who need to allow clients to preview sites before public launch, or temporarily hide a WordPress site …

Maintenance Mode

The facts

Rating
4.6★ from 14
Active installs
7k+
Price
Free
Last updated
3 Aug 2026
Added
Nov 2020
Requires WP
6.2
Tested up to
WP 7.0.4
Requires PHP
7.4
Downloads
138,462

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Maintenance Mode is a WordPress plugin that allows you to place your site into maintenance mode, displaying a custom message or redirecting users to a different page. It disables the WordPress REST API while active, ensuring site data remains inaccessible during maintenance periods.

The plugin is suitable for site administrators who need to manage access during updates or maintenance. It offers various presentation options, including a native WordPress message, a themed page, or a custom HTML page, along with the ability to exclude specific pages from maintenance mode.

Best for: This plugin is best for WordPress site administrators needing to manage site access during maintenance periods.

What it does well

  • Disables WordPress REST API during maintenance mode
  • Supports exclusion of specific pages from maintenance mode
  • Offers multiple presentation options for maintenance experience
  • Allows IP addresses to bypass maintenance mode
  • Enables access keys for user authentication

Where it falls short

  • No information on additional features or support
  • May negatively affect search engine visibility if used for long periods

Verdict

Maintenance Mode provides essential functionality for managing site maintenance, though details on support and additional features are limited.

From the developer

helderk's own description of Maintenance Mode, lightly tidied.

This plugin lets you place a WordPress site into maintenance mode and display a custom message, HTML page, or redirect users to a static page or external URL.

It also disables the WordPress REST API while maintenance mode is active, helping keep site data inaccessible during maintenance.

Any logged-in user with administrator privileges can be allowed to view the site, and the required capability can be changed through a filter hook. See the FAQ section for details.

The maintenance mode behavior can be enabled or disabled at any time without losing the configured settings. However, deactivating the plugin is still recommended when maintenance mode is not needed.

The plugin also supports excluding specific pages from maintenance mode so only selected pages remain visible.

When maintenance mode is active, the plugin sends no-cache headers to help prevent caching plugins, CDNs, or browsers from storing responses that would bypass the maintenance page.

When redirect mode is enabled, the plugin can send two different response codes. “200 OK” is suitable for development environments, while “503 Service Temporarily Unavailable” is better when the site is temporarily taken offline. If used for long periods, 503 may negatively affect search engine visibility.

A list of IP addresses can be configured to bypass maintenance mode completely. This is useful for allowing an entire office or client team to access the site without managing individual access keys.

Access keys work by creating a key on the user’s computer that is checked while maintenance mode is active. When a new key is created, a link to store the access key cookie is sent to the email address provided. Access can then be revoked by disabling or deleting the key.

This plugin offers four ways to present the maintenance experience:

  1. A message rendered with WordPress’s wp_die() function, making the experience feel native to WordPress.
  2. A page styled with the active theme’s template.
  3. A custom HTML page.
  4. A redirect to a static page or external URL.

Read the full description on the official page →

Tagged as

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