Maintenance GENIUS Technical Documentation — Full Plugin Reference
The detailed reference guide: how every setting, every tab, every feature works — for those who want to understand it all in depth.
Maintenance GENIUS turns your maintenance page into a polished experience for your visitors, and into a controlled operation for you. During maintenance, the plugin suspends the cache plugins it supports and empties their caches, then checks with a real request that HTTP 503 is actually served.
This documentation covers installation, configuring each tab, access control by password and tokens, SEO protection, the 8-point diagnostic and troubleshooting.
Maintenance GENIUS installs like any WordPress plugin in under 2 minutes. Download the .zip file from the Downloads page, upload it in your WordPress admin and activate the plugin. No server configuration or third-party extension needed — the Maintenance GENIUS menu appears immediately in your sidebar.
How do I install Maintenance GENIUS?
Go to WordPress Admin → Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Choose the downloaded .zip file and click 'Install Now'. Activate the plugin. The 'Maintenance GENIUS' menu appears in the admin sidebar.
What are the requirements?
WordPress 6.4 or later and PHP 7.4 or later. The plugin is tested up to WordPress 7.1. No third-party plugin is required.
Do I need a license to use the plugin?
No. The plugin is entirely free with no site limit: no key, no watermark, no time limit. The PRO add-on is a separate add-on installed alongside the free plugin, without replacing it.
⚙️ Configuration
Maintenance GENIUS is configured entirely from the WordPress admin, in clearly organized tabs. Turn on maintenance mode in one click, customize the design with presets or your own colors and fonts, set up automatic HTTP 503 SEO and add the email notification form for your visitors.
How do I activate maintenance?
Click the “Maintenance Mode” switch at the top of the plugin page. The site immediately shows the maintenance page to every visitor except administrators (unless their IP address or user agent is blacklisted) and the people you allow in the Access tab.
How do I customize the design?
Appearance tab → choose a complete theme or a preset (one click applies it), or set things yourself: logo, colours (5 pickers), fonts (10 fonts bundled with the plugin), entrance animations. The floating Preview button opens the page in a new tab.
How do I configure SEO?
Advanced tab (shown in Expert mode) → "SEO & Search Engines" section. HTTP 503 and the Retry-After header (24 hours by default, adjustable from 1 to 168 hours) are on by default, as is the noindex, nofollow tag.
How do I configure email notifications?
General tab → "Email Notifications" section. Turn on the "Notify me" form. Customize the button text and the confirmation message. Visitors leave their email address and automatically receive an email when maintenance ends.
🚀 Coming Soon Mode
Maintenance GENIUS is two plugins in one: Maintenance mode (HTTP 503) for existing sites under work, and Coming Soon mode (HTTP 200 + noindex) for pre-launch sites. Coming Soon mode includes the dedicated Horizon theme, a launch countdown, and "Notify me" email collection — build your audience before you even open.
What's the difference between Maintenance and Coming Soon?
Maintenance mode returns an HTTP 503 code: it tells search engines "site temporarily unavailable, come back later" — the recommended signal for a short outage. Keep it short: a 503 that lasts for days can affect indexing. Coming Soon mode returns HTTP 200 with noindex: the page is served normally but not yet indexed — the correct behaviour for a site that hasn't launched yet.
How do I activate Coming Soon mode?
General tab → "Maintenance / Coming Soon" mode selector → choose Coming Soon, then turn on the main switch. On the plugin page, the header shows "COMING SOON MODE" to confirm the active mode. The Horizon theme, designed for launches, appears first in the theme grid.
How do I collect emails before launch?
General tab → Email notifications → enable the "Notify me" form. Curious visitors leave their address. On launch day, simply turn off the mode: every subscriber automatically gets a notification email — your opening already has an audience.
Can I show a launch countdown?
Yes — the 3-style countdown (free) works in both modes. Set your opening date in the Countdown accordion: it displays on the Coming Soon page and disables itself automatically on expiry. Tip: the Launch complete theme enables the countdown automatically.
🔐 Access Control
Control precisely who can see your site during maintenance: hashed visitor password with a SHA-256 signed cookie; named access tokens with individual expiry; whitelist by role, IP, user agent or URL; blacklist by IP or user agent. Everything is included in the free version.
How do I share password access?
Access Tab → Visitor password access section. Set a password and share it. The visitor enters the password on the maintenance page and gets temporary access (24h default, configurable). You can revoke all accesses in one click.
How do I create an access token?
Access Tab → Custom access tokens section. Name the token (e.g.: 'Client ABC'), choose the expiration duration, and click 'Create'. A unique link is generated — share it with your client. Each token is independent and revocable.
How do I configure the whitelist/blacklist?
Access tab (shown in Expert mode) → Whitelist and Blacklist sections. The whitelist accepts roles, IP addresses, user agents and URLs; the blacklist, IP addresses and user agents. IP addresses accept the wildcard (*) and CIDR ranges. The blacklist also applies outside maintenance, to pages generated by WordPress; a page served directly by a page cache does not go through it.
⭐ The PRO add-on
The free plugin covers the maintenance page and the update window, without restriction: cache plugins suspended, 503 verified, key pages compared before and after. The PRO extension, in preparation, will be a separate add-on installed alongside it, for what follows a failed update: file rollback and verification before going back online.
What's the difference between Free and PRO?
Everything about the maintenance page and the update window is free, with no site limit: cache plugin suspension, verification of the 503 visitors receive, comparison of key pages before and after the update, all presets and themes, the design studio, background image and video, Lottie, parallax, countdown, scheduling, visitor password, access tokens, whitelist and blacklist, Turnstile, statistics, export and import, the 8-point diagnostic and GDPR mode. The PRO add-on, in preparation, plans a snapshot before the update, rollback of files and verification before going back online.
Does PRO replace the free plugin?
No. It will be a separate add-on: the free plugin will stay installed and active, and PRO will install alongside it. If you deactivate PRO, the free plugin will keep working normally.
How much will PRO cost?
Prices planned at launch — Solo: $79 CAD per year for 5 sites. Agency: $199 CAD per year for unlimited sites. Annual subscription only. All prices are in Canadian dollars.
💬 Support & Troubleshooting
Need help? The "Request assistance" form in the Diagnostic tab attaches a technical report of your installation to your request, which you can read before sending. Human support replies in French and English within 24 to 48 business hours; you can also write to [email protected]. This section covers the most common problems: maintenance page not showing, emails not sent, settings export and import, and cache conflicts.
The maintenance page is not displaying
Verify that maintenance mode is enabled (toggle ON). If you're logged in as admin, you'll always see the normal site — test in private browsing or log out. Clear the cache of your cache plugin (LiteSpeed, WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache) and CDN cache if applicable.
Notify Me emails are not sending
Run the Diagnostic tab or the "Send test" button: a real test email goes through your server. If wp_mail() fails, set up an SMTP plugin (WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP) or ask your host to enable outgoing mail. Sending to subscribers when maintenance ends is included in the free version.
How do I contact support?
Diagnostic tab → "Request assistance": the plugin attaches a technical report of your installation to your request. Replies in French or English from Montréal.
How do I export/import my settings?
Support tab, “Backup & Migration” section. Click “Export All Settings” to download a backup of all your settings. On the new site, install the plugin, then use “Import Settings” with that file: the current settings are replaced and statistics are kept.