Sometimes you need to take your site out of public view for a short while — perhaps you are reworking your content, preparing a launch, or pausing while you decide on changes. Maintenance mode lets you do exactly that: it shows visitors a maintenance page instead of your normal site, without deleting anything.
What maintenance mode does
When you turn maintenance mode on, anyone who visits your site sees a simple maintenance page rather than your usual pages. Importantly, your site is not removed or destroyed:
- Your content, design, and settings all stay exactly as they are.
- Your subdomain or custom domain keeps working.
- You can switch back to the live site whenever you are ready.
Think of it as drawing the curtains rather than taking down the building. Nothing is lost — the public simply cannot see inside until you reopen.
When to use it
Maintenance mode is handy in several situations:
- You are making a series of edits and would rather visitors did not see a half-finished version.
- You want to pause public access temporarily without giving up your address.
- You are getting ready for a relaunch and want to flip the site back on at the right moment.
Turning it on
You control maintenance mode from your site's settings:
- Open your dashboard and select the site you want to pause.
- Go to that site's settings.
- Turn on maintenance mode and save.
From that point, visitors see the maintenance page instead of your live content.
Turning it off
When you are ready to go public again, the process is just as simple:
- Return to the same site's settings.
- Turn maintenance mode off.
- Save your changes.
Your site is immediately visible to visitors again, exactly as it was before.
A few things to keep in mind
Maintenance mode is a presentation choice, not a delete. It does not affect your plan, your regeneration limits, or any plugins and add-ons you have enabled — those all stay in place and resume as normal once you switch the site back on. If you want to make substantial changes while you are paused, this is a good time to edit your content and regenerate, then turn maintenance mode off once you are happy with the result.
If the maintenance page is not appearing, or your site is not coming back after you switch it off, open a ticket from your support page and we will help you sort it out.