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Closed for the winter? Rebuilding and don’t want visitors on the old site? You don’t have to delete it. Take offline stops visitors reaching the site and keeps everything: files, pictures, domains and settings. Bring online puts it back as it was. This guide takes a test site offline and brings it back. Each environment, such as Development or Production, is taken offline on its own.

Take the site offline

1

Open Hosting

Click Websites in the left rail, then ⋮ on the site’s card, then Hosting. Click the tab of the environment to pause: Production is your live site.
2

Click Take offline

Under Publish state, click Take offline. A card says what will happen. Click Take offline in the card to confirm.
Publish state Published, with Take offline outlined and Unpublish; the card Take this site offline: Visitors stop reaching the site, usually within a minute and at most 15. Everything is kept: files, assets, domains, settings. Bring online restores it. Two technical names, blurred, and Take offline, outlined, with Cancel

Taking it offline

Within a minute or so, visitors can’t reach the site. The tab is marked Offline, and deploys to it wait until it’s back.
Publish state Offline, with Bring online, outlined, and Unpublish; and The site is offline. Deploys are refused until you bring it online or republish., outlined

Offline

Bring it back

Click Bring online, then Bring online in the card. The site is back as it was, usually within a minute and at most 15.
Publish state Offline; the card Bring this site back online: serving resumes usually within a minute and at most 15; two technical names, blurred; and Bring online, outlined, with Cancel

Bringing it back

Our test site was loading again three minutes after Bring online.

Good to know

  • Offline or unpublished? Take offline is the quick pause. Unpublish removes the site from the web completely; Republish later rebuilds it from your files, which takes a few minutes. A site with your own domain attached can’t be unpublished until the domain is removed.
  • Changes while you’re closed. Keep editing in the builder as usual. Bring the site online, then publish your changes.
  • For good? See Rename or Delete a Site.