HF PanelDocsv1.0.0

Maintenance mode

Show visitors a "back soon" page while you work on a website, preview the real site with a private link, and schedule it.

Maintenance mode shows visitors a "back soon" page while you work on a website. You keep seeing the real site through your private preview link. You can switch it on now, or schedule it to switch on and off by itself.

Where: Control Panel › Websites › Maintenance mode

Maintenance mode screen

Each website has its own maintenance mode. Click a website in the picker at the top. A website in maintenance mode shows an on pill in the picker.

Switch on maintenance mode

  1. Choose the website in the picker.
  2. Fill in the page (see the table below).
  3. Click Switch on maintenance mode.

Visitors now see your "back soon" page. The card's pill changes from Open to visitors to Maintenance mode is on.

Field What it does
Title the page's heading, up to 120 characters. Default: "We'll be back soon".
Message (optional) the text under the heading, up to 2,000 characters. Empty = "We are making a few improvements. Thanks for your patience — please check back shortly."
Back by (optional) when you expect to be back, up to 60 characters, for example "Monday at 9:00"

To change the page while maintenance mode is on, edit the fields and click Save the page.

Note: visitors get the page with code 503, which tells search engines to come back later — your search ranking is not affected. Certificate renewals keep working.

Preview the real site

While maintenance mode is on, the Preview card shows a private link. Open it to see the real website on your device for 24 hours. You can share it with anyone who should see the site.

  • Copy copies the link.
  • Open the real site opens the link in a new tab.
  • See what visitors see opens the website's normal address, where you see the "back soon" page.

Switch off maintenance mode

Click Switch off — open the site. The website is open to visitors again, and any schedule is cleared.

Schedule maintenance mode

Use a schedule to switch maintenance mode on and off by itself — for example overnight while a new version goes live. The times are in your own time zone (the time zone of your browser).

  1. In Schedule, choose when it Starts and, optionally, when it Ends.
  2. Click Save the schedule.

The schedule shows as a pill, for example Starts 24 Oct 22:00 · Ends 25 Oct 06:00. To remove it, click Clear.

Rule Message if broken
Choose a start, an end, or both "Choose when maintenance mode starts, ends, or both."
The start can't be in the past "The start is in the past — switch it on now instead."
The end must be after the start, and in the future "The end must be after the start and in the future."
At most 30 days "Schedule at most 30 days of maintenance."
An end only works when maintenance mode is already on "Maintenance mode is off — choose a start too."

Tip: to switch off maintenance mode at a set time, switch it on now and save a schedule with only an Ends time.