How to create coming soon and maintenance pages in WordPress
You can create a simple coming soon page by publishing a landing page and assigning it as your static homepage. That does not hide the rest of your site, so use a maintenance plugin or server-level access control when every URL must be blocked.
- 01Choose the page type
- 02Create the holding page
- 03Set it as the homepage
- 04Block the whole site when needed
- 05Check access and search settings
- 06Publish the fast route
What you need
- A self-hosted WordPress site
- Administrator access
- Your logo, message and launch or maintenance details
- A backup before changing visibility settings
Choose the page type
Use a coming soon page while a new site is being built. Use a maintenance page for a short outage while you update WordPress, a theme, plugins or site content.
Write a useful message rather than leaving visitors with a vague error. Include what is happening, when you expect to return, and an email address or social profile if visitors need to contact you.
Create the holding page
Go to Pages and add a new page. Add your logo, a short explanation, a launch date if it is reliable, and one clear call to action such as an email sign-up or contact link.
Keep the layout lightweight. A large background video, external fonts and several tracking scripts can make a simple holding page slow, especially when the rest of the site is being rebuilt.
Set it as the homepage
Publish the page, then open Settings → Reading. Under the homepage display setting, choose a static page and select your new holding page as the homepage. WordPress documents this as the standard way to replace the posts feed with a chosen front page.
This manual route is fine for a basic launch screen, but it changes the front page only. Visitors may still reach posts, old landing pages, author archives or other URLs unless you restrict those separately.
Block the whole site when needed
If every public URL must show the message, use a maintenance or coming soon plugin, or configure access control at the web-server level. WordPress core does not provide a permanent, design-focused maintenance switch for normal site work.
Do not rely on the root .maintenance file for this job. WordPress creates it temporarily during updates, considers maintenance active for up to ten minutes, and removes it when the update finishes. A failed update can leave the site stuck until the file is removed through hosting tools or FTP.
Check access and search settings
Test the page in a private browser window while logged out. Check the homepage, an old post URL, a media attachment and the login page. Confirm that administrators can still log in and preview the real site if your chosen tool supports that.
Do not let a temporary holding page remain indexable as if it were the finished site. Review your SEO plugin and visibility settings, use a clear title and description, and remove or disable the page as soon as the site is ready.
Publish the fast route
For a full-site gate with less manual setup, use a dedicated plugin such as SeedProd Coming Soon Pro. Its drag-and-drop builder is designed for branded coming soon and maintenance pages, with options such as email capture, countdowns, social links, responsive templates and SEO controls.
Install and activate it from your WordPress dashboard, create the page in its builder, enable the relevant coming soon or maintenance mode, and test the logged-out view. Before launch, disable the mode and check that your normal homepage, navigation and cached pages are visible again.
Let SeedProd Coming Soon Pro do it
Drag-and-drop coming soon pages with email capture and countdowns; ideal for launches or maintenance without coding.
Sources
- wordpress.org /documentation/article/create-a-static-front-page/?utm_sourc…
- developer.wordpress.org /reference/functions/wp_is_maintenance_mode/?utm_source=open…
- wordpress.org /documentation/article/updating-wordpress/?utm_source=openai
Questions
- Can I create a coming soon page without a plugin?
- Yes, you can create a page and assign it as the static homepage under Settings → Reading. This is suitable when you only need to replace the front page, but it does not automatically hide posts, pages or other URLs. For a true whole-site gate, use a plugin or configure access control on the server.
- What is the difference between coming soon and maintenance mode?
- Coming soon mode is for a site that has not launched yet, while maintenance mode is for a live site that is temporarily unavailable during work. A coming soon page often includes a launch message and sign-up form. A maintenance page should explain the outage briefly and avoid promising a date you cannot meet.
- Why can visitors still open other pages after I set a holding page?
- Visitors can still open other pages because assigning a static homepage changes the front page, not the whole WordPress request. Old posts, landing pages, feeds and direct URLs can remain public. If those URLs must be hidden, enable a plugin's full-site mode or use server-level authentication rather than changing only the homepage setting.
- Why is my WordPress site stuck in maintenance mode?
- A site is often stuck because an update failed to remove the hidden <code>.maintenance</code> file from the WordPress root directory. Confirm that no update is still running, then remove that file using your hosting file manager or FTP and reload the site. Take care not to delete unrelated WordPress files.
- Will a coming soon page stop search engines indexing my site?
- Not automatically. A holding page can still be crawled if your visibility and SEO settings allow it, and a homepage-only solution may leave other URLs accessible. Review your SEO settings, avoid exposing unfinished content, and disable the page promptly when the site launches. For a temporary outage, keep the message and indexing behaviour appropriate to the length of the maintenance period.