Many developers create offline sandboxes for testing, but once you push the updates to your live site, it’s good practice to take the site offline for a brief moment. This is also true with new domains where your site isn’t quite ready to launch, but you want to have something online – a coming soon page – to show potential users, visitors, or buyers.
Maintenance Mode
I’ve used the Maintenance Mode plugin countless times and with great success. It’s probably the oldest plugin in this collection but is regularly updated and does come with many useful functions, so it does merit its place here.
If you are looking for something simple and easy to work with, start with Maintenance Mode. It’s got years of experience behind it, so you know it’ll work right out of the box.
WP Maintenance
Another coming soon alternative is the WP Maintenance plugin. It comes with a great range of features, like a custom logo upload, extra languages, a countdown timer, and a shortcode area for adding an email opt-in field or contact form.
When you are updating your site, you may be doing so for only a few moments, but other times, you may be resolving time-consuming server issues. Or you might not even have a site online yet, and you want to have a “stay tuned” message. WP Maintenance can handle all of these situations with just one simple plugin.
Coming Soon Page
For a more focused resource, you might like to take a look at the Coming Soon Page plugin created by SeedProd. The plugin is pretty standard with a typical “check back soon” message and an optin field for gathering email addresses. The page is fully responsive and built with CSS transitions to create a nice fading animation.
You can edit the template code manually, but you’ll need to know your way around HTML. The whole thing is easy to set up with a few clicks and it supports most languages, multi-site setups, and WordPress add-ons like BuddyPress.
Coming Soon by Supsystic
If you’re looking for even more features, then you should take a look at the Coming Soon plugin built by Supsystic. It comes with a fantastic drag & drop system so you can rearrange the page to fit your needs very easily.
Other features include countdown timers, auto-embed videos, social sharing buttons, custom logos and backgrounds, and will also directly connect to most email service providers, like MailChimp and Aweber.
Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode
This plugin combines a “sorry we’re closed” message alongside an “opening soon” message. It’s called Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode and has been created by the team at WebFactory.
If you have multiple authors on your site, you can set permissions for who sees the initial maintenance page before going live, allowing you to define who has access to the site when it is being worked on, all at the click of a button.
Under Construction
The Under Construction plugin is an excellent choice if you need to make regular theme edits, restore database entries, or test new features.
The default templates are surprisingly nice, so you might start with them if you don’t want to (or know how to) restyle a page on your own.
Maintenance
Simplicity is at the core of this plugin, and it’s probably the best choice for web admins who want to set it and forget it. Maintenance is completely free and comes with all the basic features you need.
You won’t find a congested admin panel or many features to dig through. They’re all pretty simple, like changing the background, logo, or header text on the page. Anyone can use this plugin, and I think it would be perfect for non-technical site owners.
CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin
CMP promises plenty of “premium” features for a great price (free). Out of the box, it comes bundled with three themes and offers more than 20 additional themes via download.
There’s also plenty of room for customization. Add your logo, choose your favorite Google Fonts, and add photos via Unsplash. The included mailing list subscription form will save entries locally or tie in with Mailchimp.
