What does the plugin do?

The plugin allows you to add a maintenance page, a coming soon page, or a landing page to your website. It also provides full access to the front end for users with admin rights.

What are the features of the plugin?

The plugin offers various features including customization options, a subscription form, a countdown timer, a contact form, responsive design, social media icons, compatibility with WordPress Multisite, SEO options, and more.

Where can I provide feedback or report bugs?

You can provide feedback, contribute, and report technical bugs on the GitHub Repo of the plugin.

Who developed the plugin?

The plugin was developed by Themeisle.

What other projects are available from Themeisle?

Themeisle offers other projects such as Optimole, WPShout, Revive Social, CodeinWP, and DomainWheel.

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LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder

Easy Drag & Drop Page Builder that adds a splash page to your site that it's perfect for a coming soon page, maintenance or landing page.

Rating:

4.3

Active Installations:

500000+

Last Updated:

Jul 11, 2025

WordPress Version:

4.7 or higher

Tested up to:

6.8.1

Features Download’s trend Changelog Reviews

Easy Maintenance Setup

Quickly add a maintenance page to your blog or website with customizable colors, texts, and backgrounds.

Exclusive Access for Admins

Only registered users with admin rights can view the front end, ensuring privacy during maintenance.

Countdown and Subscription

Engage visitors with a countdown timer and collect their emails through a subscription form.

Compatibility with WordPress Multisite

Each blog in the network can have its own maintenance settings, making it perfect for multisite installs.

Author’s Site

Version 2.6.19 (2025-07-11)

Improved onboarding wizard

Version 2.6.18 (2025-05-27)

Updated dependencies

Version 2.6.17 (2025-04-16)

Updated dependencies

Version 2.6.16 (2025-01-10)

Fixed compatibility issue with WordPress 6.7
Fixed broken onboarding layout

Version 2.6.15 (2024-12-04)

Codebase changes.

Version 2.6.14 (2024-11-11)

Fixed conflict with WPForms
Updated dependencies

Version 2.6.13 (2024-10-14)

Codebase updates.

Version 2.6.12 (2024-09-17)

Bug Fixes

Compatibility with Elementor: Fixes a compatibility issue with Elementor.
Fixes Checkbox Styles: Fixes a styling issue with Checkbox in the wizard that makes it almost invisible on screen.

Version 2.6.11 (2024-04-18)

Improvements

- Updated internal dependencies: Enhanced performance and security.

Version 2.6.10 (2024-02-28)

Fixes

Updated dependencies

Version 2.6.9 (2023-12-22)

Bug Fixes

Fixed compatibility issue with WP 6.4
Fixed broken templates layout issue on the Safari browser
Enhanced security
Fixed compatibility issue with WP-Optimize

Version 2.6.8 (2023-06-07)

Fix the Save button Module tab not working
Codebase updates

Version 2.6.7 (2023-04-01)

Bug fix: Addressed an unnecessary ‘no maintenance page’ error occurrence.

Version 2.6.6 (2023-03-31)

Remove error notice for users that use an overriding custom template
Update dependencies

Version 2.6.5 (2023-03-01)

Update dependencies

Version 2.6.4 (2023-02-24)

Add the option to manage maintenance status on all sites from the network dashboard
Update dependencies

Version 2.6.3 (2023-02-06)

Update dependencies

Version 2.6.2 (2022-12-16)

Add the option in the wizard to skip importing a template and installing Otter
Improve the quality of the template screenshots
Fix the template overriding issue

Version 2.6.1 (2022-11-03)

Add a notice to announce the rebrand of the plugin

Version 2.6.0 (2022-11-02)

Adds Landing pages templates
Adds more Coming soon and Maintenance mode templates
Rebrand the plugin into LightStart

Version 2.5.4 (2022-10-10)

Fix subscribers entry export for legacy forms.
Fix PHP notice showing up on edge cases new installs.

Version 2.5.3 (2022-09-28)

Fix wrong template loaded when the current post template is empty.

Version 2.5.2 (2022-09-27)

Fix maintenance mode issue for previously logged users #321
Allow comments into exclude textarea so that you can comment on the IP addresses for location, props @joostdekeijzer
Fix PHP notice errors on specific scenarios #324
Fix Otter for saving subscriber entry

Version 2.5.1 (2022-09-08)

Fixes a bug which was causing error on some instances

Version 2.5.0 (2022-09-08)

New Feature: Adds compatibility with Block Editor or any page builder for building the maintenance mode page.
New Feature: Adds coming soon and maintenance mode starting templates.

Version 2.4.7 (2022-08-08)

Fixes

Fix login form display
Fix email collecting by the bot
Improve accessibility of the maintenance page thanks to @SophieWeb

Version 2.4.6 (2022-06-15)

Improve data sanitizations for custom css and contact module

Version 2.4.5 (2022-06-15)

Harden security and improve release process

Version 2.4.4 (2022-02-10)

Update dependencies

Version 2.4.3 (2022-01-27)

Change ownership to Themeisle

2.4.2 (18/01/2022)

Misc: 900 000 Active Installs Celebrations!
Misc: WordPress 5.9 compatibility
Fix: jQuery UI CSS theme reference from jQuery CDN
Misc: Text fixes in the dashboard

2.4.1 (20/07/2021)

Misc: WordPress 5.8 compatibility

2.4.0 (13/05/2021)

Design: add “Custom CSS” setting; Finally! 🙂
Design: add “Footer links” color setting
Design: add a list of available shortcodes under the “Text” editor
Bot: make {visitor_name} placeholder work in all messages after the visitor types his name
Misc: add [embed] shortcode for responsive video embeds; Compatible with YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion.
Misc: make the exclude mechanism work with Cyrillic characters
Misc: add wpmm_maintenance_template filter; It works the same way as the wpmm_contact_template filter, but for the maintenance template.
Misc: now you can override the contact email template too; Check /views/contact.php for more details.
Misc: better compatibility with translation plugins like Loco Translate
Misc: the image uploaders (from the dashboard) are now translatable
Misc: improve uninstall routine
Misc: add wpmm_delete_cache action; It is called after each setting change.
Misc: add support for cache plugins like WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache, Endurance Page Cache, Swift Performance Lite, Cache Enabler, SG Optimizer, LiteSpeed Cache, Nginx Helper;
Misc: remove wpmm_count_where helper function
Misc: code improvements

2.3.0 (07/12/2020)

Modules: add support for Google Analytics 4 measurement ID
Design: enable media buttons on wp_editor (now you can add images from the editor)
Bot: fix translation issue
Misc: add filters for capabilities wpmm_settings_capability, wpmm_subscribers_capability, and wpmm_all_actions_capability (the last one can be used to override all capabilities)
Misc: fix [loginform] shortcode redirect attribute
Misc: a few CSS & Javascript improvements
Misc: bump “Tested up to” version to 5.6

2.2.4 (20/05/2019)

bump “Tested up to” to 5.2.0
fix typo in Italian translation (it_IT)
Bot: add a note about how you can export the list of subscribers #195
Bot: add client-side sanitization to the input fields #176

2.2.3 (20/02/2019)

bump “Tested up to” version to 5.1.0
replace “wpmu_new_blog” action with “wp_initialize_site” action for WP 5.1.0 users because the first one is deprecated in the new version
small improvement to “check_exclude” method from “WP_Maintenance_Mode” class

2.2.2 (27/11/2018)

Google Analytics module: migrate from analytics.js to gtag.js + add ip anonymization #178
GDPR module: accept links inside texareas + add policy link target #188
add charset meta tag #200
fix PHP Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_USER_AGENT
add plural and single form translation for subscribers number (settings page)

Earlier versions

For the changelog of earlier versions, please refer to the full changelog.

Bloatware/Adware - Installs multiple plugins without permission.

By KingDingbat on June 30, 2025

I'm shocked that anyone would be OK with a plugin that installs and activates multiple other plugins without permission, and even when declined. On top of that, it's pretty spammy with ads within the UI.

LightStart installs (at least) Optimole, OtterBlocks (also by themeisle) and Social Icons Widget (by WPZoom) all without disclosing, and all without permission. I actually declined the prompt for templates and Optimole and it still installed anyway. At the time of this writing, the other two are not disclosed or prompted anywhere. This needs to at least be clearly outlined on the plugin page that installing this plugin comes with at least 3 other plugins. Better yet, just dont.

This behavior is gross and it is insane that this is allowed, let alone well reviewed. Stop it.

Great coming soon add-on

By patrezp on May 5, 2025

I've tried multiple coming soon add-ons, but this one fits my needs the best. I can use my own prepared coming soon page

The best cooming soon

By arielavila on April 24, 2025

I like how it work

Good plugin

By KS (karl19) on March 26, 2025

I like this plugin and have used it on a number of sites recently. It's uncomplicated and works quickly without much modification.

I share the complaints of many other reviewers about installation of additional plugins though. It's fine to offer the installation of other plugins, but this should not be pre-selected or forced on the user without information. If I install a maintenance plugin, I don't expect a lot of other plugins to be installed.

Misleading

By df5000 (DigitalFormula) on March 20, 2025

Sick of these plugins that don't provide all functionality in the plugin they're actually advertising. This one installs "Otter" and there is absolutely no mention of it doing this this anywhere on the plugin page. I don't care if the plugin has cool stuff like "GDPR Ready" (which all plugins should be) - if you install stuff I didn't ask for, that's an instant 1 star review. Removed.

Great, But!

By you4eea on March 11, 2025

works great, but just be sure to look for the image optimizer if you don't need one.

merci

By valérie (texaverie) on March 7, 2025

une aide précieuse

Never use again this Plugin ever

By SimpleSmart (simplesmart88) on February 25, 2025

Redirect URL doesn't work well.

Great and useful addition

By best4wpdevelopers on February 22, 2025

As a web designer I used this plugin on all my sites during the design phase, I think it's a great and lightweight plugin on the site. I encourage them to add more diverse templates in the free version, but you can always use any custom page you have and that was enough for me.

Installs other plugins upon activation

By Valerio Vaz (vvaz) on February 22, 2025

When you activate this plugin, you get redirected to a config page, where they have a pre-selected checkbox that will install Optinmole on your website.

If you just trying to get away from this page as soon as possible, you will end up with another plugin on your website, that conflicts with other images optimization plugins you have already set up.

That opinion by the authors of the plugin, made me do this 1 star review. I didn't test other features, but I don't want to be misguided.

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