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Maintenance Redirect

By Peter Hardy-vanDoorn

Site Administration & Utilities / Maintenance Mode

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Maintenance Redirect Review - In-Depth Analysis

Display a maintenance mode page and allow invited visitors to preview the site. Ideal for developers and designers.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.95/10

User Rating

4.9/5 (based on 24+ reviews)

Active Installations

10,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

5 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin is intended primarily for designers and 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.

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 two 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.

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, a custom HTML page, or redirected to a static HTML page.

Comparing to Alternatives

Maintenance Redirect stands out in the maintenance mode plugin category with several viable alternatives available, offering users a range of options depending on their needs.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Lightweight and easy to use with no unnecessary features
No premium upsells, providing full functionality for free
Quick updates and compatibility with latest PHP versions
Useful link generation feature for client previews
Highly rated by users for reliability and simplicity

Weaknesses

Had a medium severity security vulnerability fixed only in version 2.1.0
Lacks advanced customization features like a built-in code editor for maintenance page HTML
No pro version means no premium support or additional features
Security risk score is moderate, requiring users to keep plugin updated

User Sentiment Analysis

With a near-perfect rating of 4.9 out of 5 from 24 reviews, users overwhelmingly praise the plugin for its simplicity, reliability, and lack of upsells. No negative reviews were recorded, indicating strong user satisfaction.

Positive highlights

"This is perfect" - pinkeyegraphics appreciates the plugin's ease of use and lightweight nature
"Very useful, no nonsense plugin" - Bence Fodor highlights the quick fixes and useful link generation
"A lifesaver! Lightweight, no cruft plugin." - Anne-Mieke Bovelett values the plugin as a perfect solution without premium nags
"Amazing job" - veetihsu recommends it confidently
"Works perfectly" - crdunst finds it easy to use and effective

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Security vulnerability related to IP spoofing was present before version 2.1.0
Limited customization options such as lack of a code editor for maintenance page HTML
No premium version means fewer advanced features and support options

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a straightforward, lightweight maintenance mode plugin without premium upsells, especially those who want a simple way to show clients a pre-launch site or protect a site during development.

Not ideal for

Users needing advanced customization features, built-in code editing for maintenance pages, or those concerned about security vulnerabilities without frequent updates may want to consider alternatives or more feature-rich plugins.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers full maintenance mode functionality without any premium upsells, including link generation and easy setup.

Final Verdict

Maintenance Redirect is a highly rated and well-regarded plugin that excels in simplicity and ease of use, making it an excellent choice for users who want a no-frills maintenance mode solution. Its free-only model and lack of upsells are appreciated by users who prefer straightforward tools without distractions.

However, users should be aware of a past security vulnerability that has been fixed and the plugin's limited customization options. Those needing advanced features or enhanced security might consider alternatives, but for many, Maintenance Redirect offers great value and reliability.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Maintenance Redirect plugin.

maintenance mode

site preview

maintenance redirect

Screenshots

FAQ

This plugin is designed to block only the normal display of pages in the web browser. It will not effect any other calls to WordPress, such as the Rest API.

This means that services such as the PayPal and Stripe integrations in WooCommerce, for example, are still able to function for testing WooCommerce stores.

It also means that all of the usual WordPress REST endpoints are active. If you wish to completely lock down your site’s data then you will need to find an additional solution to block those calls.

There is a filter which allows you to programatically bypass the redirection block:

wpjf3_matches

This allows you to run pretty much any test you like, although be aware that the whole redirection thing runs before the $post global is set up, so WordPress conditionals such as is_post() and is_tax() are not available.

This example looks in the $_SERVER global to see if any part of the URL contains “demo”

function my_wpjf3_matches( $wpjf3_matches ) {     if ( stristr( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'demo' ) )          $wpjf3_matches[] = "<!-- Demo -->";     return $wpjf3_matches; } add_filter( "wpjf3_matches", "my_wpjf3_matches" );

Props to @brianhenryie for this!

By default, Maintenance Redirect uses the manage_options capability, but that is normally only applied to administrators. As it stands, a user with a lesser permissions level, such as editor, is able to view the admin side of the site, but not the front end. You can change this using this filter:

wpjf3_user_can

This filter is used to pass a different WordPress capability to check if the logged-in user has permission to view the site and thus bypass the redirection, such as edit_posts. Note that this is run before $post is set up, so WordPress conditionals such as is_post() and is_tax() are not available. However, it’s not really meant for programatically determining whether a user should have access, but rather just changing the default capability to be tested, so you don’t really need to do anything other than the example below.

function my_wpjf3_user_can( $capability ) {     return "edit_posts"; } add_filter( "wpjf3_user_can", "my_wpjf3_user_can" );

Contributors and developers

“Maintenance Redirect” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Peter Hardy-vanDoorn

jfinch3

Free Version

WPS

6.95

Average

Ratings

4.9 out of 5 | 24

Version

2.2.1

Last updated

4 months ago

Active installations

10,000+

WordPress version

6.9.10 or higher

PHP version

7.4 or higher

Languages

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Maintenance Redirect Review - In-Depth Analysis

Performance Overview

What It Does

Comparing to Alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

Who Should Use This?

Pricing & Value

Final Verdict

Other Notable Features

Screenshots

FAQ

Contributors and developers

Ratings

Reviews (24)

Sort by:

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

Security Status

Secure

No Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Known Vulnerabilities (1)

Previous Versions

WPS

6.95

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