LightStart - Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon, and Landing Page Builder Documentation

The LightStart - Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon, and Landing Page Builder plugin is a perfect tool for any website that lets visitors know your site is down for maintenance or add a coming soon page. These pages can be displayed for certain backend or frontend roles and can be easily adapted to your needs.

• ✨ fully customizable
• 🗂 wide palette of designs

📩 Download and Install

To download and install the  LightStart - Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon, and Landing Page Builder plugin, make sure you follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the WordPress  Dashboard > Plugins.

2. Click the Add New button and type in the Search Bar "LightStart - Maintenance Mode".

3. When the plugin appears, click on the Install button, and then,  Activate the plugin, to start using it.

🧰 Using the plugin

To open the plugin settings, navigate to Dashboard > LightStart, then you will be able to see the configuration tabs.

📝 Note: The templates include integration with Otter Blocks, which means you should install the plugin. If you deactivate the Otter plugin, the page will be broken.

There you will see five panels with customizations for your website:

General	Design	Modules	Manage Bot

General

The general tab allows you to configure the common settings of the website while it's under construction. One important thing to note is that the maintenance mode has to be manually activated and deactivated from this tab:

• Status - decide if the plugin is Activated / Deactivated.
• Bypass for Search Bots - you can allow search bots to bypass the maintenance mode.
• Backend Role - opens a dropdown with the roles that can access the backend website.
• Frontend Role - opens a dropdown with the roles that can access the frontend website.
• Robots Meta Tag
• Redirection - you can add an URL for the users to be redirected during the period when the website is down.
• Exclude - add slugs /IP to be excluded from the maintenance mode so that certain pages will still work.
• Notice - accept / reject seeing notices during the maintenance mode.

⚠️ Important: Always set Status to Deactivated and click Save Settings before deactivating the plugin. If you deactivate LightStart without first turning off maintenance mode, your homepage will remain in maintenance mode for visitors even after the plugin is gone.

Don't forget to save the settings!

📝 Note: Please note that if a user enters one of the pages that you added inside the Exclude area, its content will be visible, but if he tries to switch to a different page, the maintenance mode will appear.

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Design

The Design tab is the one that allows you to customize the appearance of the page, set up a maintenance page, and import templates:

If you  hover over the templates, the Import button will appear. After clicking on it, you will be notified that the previous import ( if you have done this ) will be replaced, and then you will be able to add your own customizations to the template by clicking on the Go to page button.

From this point, the page will be opened in the editor, and you can customize it as a regular page.

To  reaccess the page, navigate to Pages and select the Maintenance Page from there.

📝 Note: Use the Otter Blocks to obtain even more outstanding results. Here is a dedicated doc.

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Modules

This panel ensures your website's engagement by allowing you to configure multiple popularity tools integrations:

• Subscribe - in this area, you will be able to track the subscribers, export that file as CSV, or empty the list.
• Google Analytics - be on track with the traffic on your website during the maintenance mode, using the Google Analytics options.

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Manage Bot

This panel allows you to configure a bot that simulates visitors' conversations. You can set up the conversation steps, pick a name for the bot, and upload an avatar to boost confidence.

📝 Note: If you leave any field empty, it will not appear on the front end anymore.

💡 Result - adding a bot to engage the visitor

📝 Note: Please note that the countdown timer that you configure on the maintenance mode will not deactivate it once the time is gone. However, you can use its properties to pick a different end action, such as redirecting to a link or hiding it.

🎥 Video - How to put your website in Maintenance Mode

🛠️ Advanced Customization with Hooks

LightStart provides the wpmm_head action hook, which lets you inject custom content — such as JavaScript — into the <head> section of your maintenance mode page. This is useful when you need to add tracking scripts, custom analytics, or any other JavaScript that isn't covered by the built-in plugin settings.

📝 Note: The wpmm_head hook only fires when maintenance mode is active. Code added through this hook will not run on regular pages or when the plugin is deactivated.

Adding an Inline Script

To add a custom inline JavaScript snippet to your maintenance page, paste the following code into your theme's functions.php file or use a code snippets plugin:

add_action( 'wpmm_head', function() {
    ?>
    <script>
        // Your custom JavaScript here
        console.log( 'Maintenance mode is active.' );
    </script>
    <?php
} );

Replace the console.log line with your own JavaScript code.

Adding an External Script

To load an external JavaScript file on the maintenance mode page, use wp_enqueue_script inside the wpmm_head hook:

add_action( 'wpmm_head', function() {
    wp_enqueue_script(
        'my-custom-script',
        'https://example.com/path/to/your-script.js',
        array(),
        '1.0.0',
        false
    );
    wp_scripts()->do_items( 'my-custom-script' );
} );

Replace 'https://example.com/path/to/your-script.js' with the full URL to your script file.

💡 Tip: If you prefer not to edit functions.php directly, you can use a plugin like Woody Code Snippets to add these PHP snippets safely without modifying theme files. This also ensures your customizations are not lost when you switch or update your theme.

🔧 Troubleshooting

Homepage Remains in Maintenance Mode After Deactivation

If your homepage still shows the maintenance mode page after you have deactivated the LightStart plugin, the plugin was likely deactivated without first setting Status to Deactivated in the General tab. Because LightStart saves its active state to the database, simply deactivating the plugin does not automatically turn off maintenance mode.

To fix this, follow the steps below:

1. Reactivate the LightStart plugin from Plugins in the WordPress dashboard.
2. Navigate to Dashboard > LightStart and open the General tab.
3. Set Status to Deactivated and click Save Settings.
4. Return to Plugins and deactivate or delete the LightStart plugin.
5. Clear any caching plugins or server-side caches so visitors see the live site.