Maintenance Mode vs Maintenance Redirect — WordPress

Maintenance Mode vs Maintenance Redirect

Name: Maintenance Mode
Rating: 4.6 (14 reviews)

Side-by-side comparison · 24 data points

Maintenance Mode

4.6·14reviews·7,000+installs

wordpress

Change

1. Listing metadata

Field-level data

	Maintenance Mode	Maintenance Redirect
Tagline	—	—
Description	2039 / 5000 chars41% used	2246 / 5000 chars45% used
Screenshots	—	—
Languages
Platforms	WordPress	WordPress
Developer	helderk	Peter Hardy-vanDoorn
Listed	—	—
Last updated	—	—

2. Categories & rankings

Shared categories on the same row · in-category position inline

Maintenance Mode

Maintenance Redirect

Shared

At a glance

4 metrics · auto-computed

Feature comparison between Maintenance Mode and Maintenance Redirect
Metric	Maintenance Mode	Maintenance Redirect
Rating	4.6 ★	★ 4.9 ★
Total reviews	14	★ 24
Active installs	7,000+	10,000+
Free plan	—	—

Keyword	Maintenance Mode	Maintenance Redirect
faq	#581	#98

5. App details

Long-form description · keyword frequency

Maintenance Mode

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

Top keywords

maintenance11×3.34%
mode9×2.74%
maintenance mode8×2.43%
page6×1.82%
access5×1.52%
site5×1.52%
active4×1.22%
key4×1.22%
wordpress4×1.22%
mode is active3×0.91%
redirect3×0.91%
while3×0.91%

Maintenance Redirect

This plugin is intended primarily for designers / developers that need to allow clients to preview sites before being available to the general public or to temporarily hide your WordPress site while undergoing major updates. Any logged in user with WordPress administrator privileges will be allowed to view the site regardless of the settings in the plugin. The exact privilege can be set using a filter hook – see FAQs. The behaviour of this plugin can be enabled or disabled at any time without losing any of the settings configured in its settings pane. However, deactivating the plugin is recommended versus having it activated while disabled. When redirect is enabled it can send 2 different header types. “200 OK” is best used for when the site is under development and “503 Service Temporarily Unavailable” is best for when the site is temporarily taken offline for small amendments. If used for a long period of time, 503 can damage your Google ranking. A list of IP addresses can be set up to completely bypass maintenance mode. This option is useful when needing to allow a client’s entire office to access the site while in maintenance mode without needing to maintain individual access keys. See FAQ below about working through a proxy. Access keys work by creating a cookie on the user’s computer that will be checked for when maintenance mode is active. When a new key is created, a link to create the access key cookie will be emailed to the email address provided. Access can then be revoked either by disabling or deleting the key. This plugin allows three methods of notifying users that a site is undergoing maintenance: They can be presented with a simple message. They can be presented with a custom HMTL page. They can be redirected to a static HTML page. This static page will need to be uploaded to the server via FTP or some other method. This plugin DOES NOT include any way to upload the static page file. Any URL can be used here, and it doesn’t need to be on the same server (so you could redirect back to the client’s current site if you’re working on a dev site, for example). However, it should NOT be the URL of a WordPress page or post on the same site as this will result in an infinite redirect loop.

Top keywords

site9×2.26%
access5×1.25%
page5×1.25%
maintenance

Frequently asked

Common questions about this comparison

Which has better reviews, Maintenance Mode or Maintenance Redirect?

Maintenance Redirect has the higher average rating (4.9★ from 24 reviews) compared to Maintenance Mode (4.6★ from 14 reviews). Both are tracked daily by AppRanks, so the figures here update each refresh cycle.

Should I choose Maintenance Mode or Maintenance Redirect?

Maintenance Redirect holds the higher average rating (4.9★ vs 4.6★). That is the one dimension AppRanks can separate them on here — read both apps' detail pages for the feature breakdown and recent listing changes.

Which is faster to set up, Maintenance Mode or Maintenance Redirect?

Both apps are one-click installs from the WordPress Plugin Directory. Maintenance Redirect has the deeper published review base (24 vs 14), which often — though not always — accompanies better-tested setup docs. AppRanks doesn't measure setup time directly: read the recent reviews on each app's detail page for user-reported install experience.

Which works better for small vs large WordPress Plugin Directory site owners?

Maintenance Mode typically suits early-stage and growth-mode teams based on its published review base (14 reviews). Maintenance Redirect typically suits early-stage and growth-mode teams based on its published review base (24 reviews). A larger review base generally means the app has been exercised at scale — relevant if you are processing high volume or handling enterprise compliance requirements.

Can I migrate data between Maintenance Mode and Maintenance Redirect?

Migration support varies by app and category. Maintenance Mode and Maintenance Redirect both publish their export options on their marketplace listing pages (or in their support docs); some apps offer one-click import from competitors, others require CSV. The fastest check: search "import from Maintenance Mode" in each app's help center. AppRanks does not track migration tooling directly — this is a category-specific capability worth verifying before commitment.

Maintenance Mode vs Maintenance Redirect

Maintenance Mode

1. Listing metadata

2. Categories & rankings

Maintenance Redirect

At a glance

AppRanks verdict

3. Search rankings

4. Activity in the last 90 days

Maintenance Mode · 2 changes

Maintenance Redirect · 0 changes

5. App details

Frequently asked

Which has better reviews, Maintenance Mode or Maintenance Redirect?

Should I choose Maintenance Mode or Maintenance Redirect?

Which is faster to set up, Maintenance Mode or Maintenance Redirect?

Which works better for small vs large WordPress Plugin Directory site owners?

Can I migrate data between Maintenance Mode and Maintenance Redirect?

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