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  4. LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming…
LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder icon

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.

By Themeisle·Admin·Free
4.3(860 reviews)
·500K+ active installs·Updated 2 weeks ago
DownloadCompare

As of April 2026, LightStart is a WordPress admin plugin with 500K+ active installations and a 4.3/5 rating from 860 reviews. It has been downloaded 19M+ times in total. Requires WordPress 4.7+ and PHP 7.1+. Available on WordPress.org since 2010. Actively maintained — updated within the last month. Download volume is stable this week. Support resolution rate: 50%. Top alternative: Redux Framework.

4.3/5860 reviews
500K+active installs
50%resolved
16 yearssince 2010

Overview

Add a maintenance page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance, add a coming soon page for a new website or create a landing page for an existing site. User with admin rights gets full access to the blog including the front end.

Activate the plugin and your blog is in maintenance-mode, works and only registered users with enough rights can see the front end. You can use a date with a countdown timer for visitor information or set a value and unit for information.

Also works with WordPress Multisite installs (each blog from the network has its own maintenance settings).

Features

  • Fully customizable (change colors, texts and backgrounds).
  • Subscription form (export emails to .csv file).
  • Countdown timer (remaining time).
  • Contact form (receive emails from visitor…
Read full description on WordPress.org

Screenshots

Ratings & Reviews

4.3860 reviews
5 ★
661
4 ★
38
3 ★
31
2 ★
18
1 ★
112

Recent Reviews

Not for the faint hearted or newbies
by Lisa K·6 days ago

My isssue (which I’m currently waiting for help with)- is that it broke my Woocommerce/Divi Shop. The Maintenance Mode is still active on my Homepage even after deactivating Lightstart.
I’m sure it will work for you once you study the documentation. It isn’t easy for beginners.

Not fond of having another Plugin added automatically, but I deleted that.
I may change my review if I ever get help or a solution.

Installed Unwanted Plugins
by Chris·1 month ago·1 reply

The actual plugin I wanted to use worked fine but it installed two other plugins – an image optimization plugin and some other plugin called Otter. No prompts, notification or nothing. Very sketch.

Excellent Lightweight Easy to use
by shashiks26·1 month ago·1 reply

LightStart is a great addition to any WordPress site if you’re looking for a lightweight, reliable, and easy-to-use solution. It installs quickly, works smoothly without slowing down performance, and offers practical customization options that are simple to configure even for non-technical users. I particularly appreciate how clean and efficient it is — no unnecessary bloat, no conflicts with themes or plugins, and consistent performance throughout. It’s a dependable plugin that delivers exactly what it promises and is ideal for anyone who values speed, simplicity, and stability in their WordPress setup.

Very helpful
by srup·1 month ago·1 reply

Very helpful.

forced plugin installs
by asylumforart·2 months ago·1 reply

I was checking out maintenance plugins and tried this one. Forced install of a page builder and image optimizer without asking. Who knows what else it has done without asking.

Download Trends

Today: 1KYesterday: 1KThis week: 7KPeriod total: 1.5M

Compatibility

WordPress4.7+ requiredTested up to 6.9.4
PHP7.1+ required

Version Adoption

v2.6
73.7%
v2.4
9.6%
Other
8.4%
v2.2
8.3%

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Frequently Asked Questions

Changelog

Version 2.6.20 (2025-09-04)

  • Updated dependencies

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

…and 35 more changes

View full changelog on WordPress.org

Contributors

ThemeisleThemeisle
Plugin Info
Version
2.6.20
Last Updated
Mar 16, 2026
WP Requires
4.7+
Tested Up To
6.9.4
PHP Requires
7.1+
Active Installs
500K+
Downloads
19M+
Added
Feb 26, 2010
Business
Free

Tags

admincoming soonunavailableadministrationmaintenance mode

Developer

T
Themeisle
26 plugins2.0M+ total installs
View all plugins →

Quick Compare

LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming… vs Redux Framework→LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming… vs Loginizer→LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming… vs Admin Menu Editor→

Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.