Free and premium coming soon WordPress themes and plugins have a vital role for any new site. They can help you build anticipation for the launch of your project, and will also help you to garner traffic, attention, and hype. As such, dedicated themes and plugins should be on any new or revamped site’s shortlist.
For this post, we’ll look at free and premium coming soon WordPress themes and plugins. First off, we’ll discuss how to choose from the many available options. From there, we’ll look at a number of solutions. Towards the end, we’ll also provide a quick summary of which ones you should look to next.
How to Choose From the Best Free and Premium Coming Soon WordPress Themes and Plugins
Choosing your solutions won’t be easy, thanks to the proliferation of available options that incorporate both themes and plugins. This will be subjective, as your needs will dictate the right option.
While there will be cross-over or outlying cases, in short:
- Choose a theme where you’ll want a longer-term solution. This is because, in part, it will be tougher to swap out a theme fast. It’s arguable, but a theme can give you better quality visuals than a plugin can.
- Speaking of which, choose a plugin if you need a fast way to set up a coming soon page. You should be able to turn it on and off when you need in a flash. However, you may have less flexibility with design when it comes to a theme.
Of course, our niche-agnostic advice on how to choose good plugins and themes also applies: user ratings need to be high, updates need to be regular, security has to be your priority, and the feature set of the solution has to be suitable for your needs.
Speaking of which, you should look at least look for the ability to set either a countdown timer or a signup form. These are key aspects of a coming soon page. However, what you include on the page itself is largely up to you – as long as you build excitement!
8 Free and Premium Coming Soon WordPress Themes and Plugins
Next, we have the complete list of eight free and premium coming soon WordPress themes and plugins. While we encourage you to read them all, here’s a quick list in case you want to jump to particular tool:
The list here isn’t in any order. However, check out our summary later in order to find out which themes and plugins we like the most.
1. Divi
First off, we have an ‘S-tier’ WordPress theme regardless of the application. However, Divi is absolutely suitable for a coming soon page thanks to its functionality and other inclusions.
Elegant Themes is a feature across the WPKube blog. In fact, we have a whole review of Divi elsewhere. As such, we don’t need to give you too much here. However, the theme has layouts for coming soon pages among its 2,000-plus choices. Couple this with its crammed feature set and you have one excellent multipurpose WordPress theme.
Best for: Divi will be ideal if you don’t like the idea of using multiple themes or plugins for your site’s design. You’ll be able to set up a complete coming soon page with Divi, then transition to your full site design without missing a beat.
Price: Divi comes in a package with all of Elegant Themes’ other products. This costs $89 per year, or $249 for a lifetime license.
💰 Don’t forget to use our exclusive Elegant Themes coupon to get 10% OFF.
2. Thrive Architect
Conversions will be important for your coming soon page. As such, Thrive Architect could be your choice here. It’s a page builder plugin at its core, with functionality that lets you capture more users through your designs.
Again, this is another solution we cover in detail with a dedicated review. We implore you to read that for the full scope on what the plugin gives you. Even so, you have coming soon templates to choose from, and even the Smart Landing Pages feature. This lets you automate styling options, customizations, and more to create a coming soon page in mere minutes.
Best for: Thrive Architect will be the option for you if you need to convert visitors. Given that it includes dedicated coming soon templates and pre-built conversion elements, the plugin could be near ideal for many use cases.
Price: The plugin costs $99 per year, although there are bundles with other products for a higher price.
3. SeedProd
Fun fact: this author used SeedProd for years to not only create coming soon pages, but maintenance pages too. As such, this option has the flexibility to stick around in your setup.
At heart, SeedProd is essentially a page builder plugin with a specific focus on landing pages, sales funnels, coming soon pages, and more. It comes with over 200 templates, and it’s a breeze to use, activate, and deactivate when you need. In fact, we have a full tutorial on how to use SeedProd for your own projects!
Best for: Flexible landing page creation that includes coming soon pages and maintenance pages. It’s also arguably the best plugin available for the job.
Price: SeedProd has a free version available, but the premium edition starts from $79 per year.
4. Launch
Let’s get a little closer to home now, with out own solution for a coming soon page WordPress theme – Launch. This is a quick, simple, and customizable option that comes as both a theme and plugin.
We know that capturing users is a key aspect of any coming soon page. As such, Launch will let you set up a Mailchimp form and send those email addresses straight to your lists. You have plenty of customization options, and the theme uses the familiar WordPress interface for all of them.
Best for: Straightforward, simple, speedy, and fast to setup coming soon pages. If you need to capture users and add them to a Mailchimp list, this is the theme for you.
Price: Launch’s theme and plugin flavors are completely free to download and use!
5. Elementor
What list of WordPress solutions would it be without Elementor? It’s a chameleon when it comes to site design, which includes coming soon pages too.
Part of this is down to the page builder plugin’s flexibility. It even features on our list of best free WordPress themes! As per many other options on this list, we have a full review of Elementor elsewhere too. The plugin is adept at building coming soon and maintenance pages, complete with the typical functionality you’d expect. Regardless of the site you want to build, Elementor should be a consideration.
Best for: As with Divi, Elementor will suit those who want to stick with one theme or page builder plugin for the site. It also helps that much of the functionality you need for your coming soon page lives within Elementor too.
Price: There’s a free version of Elementor, but the premium version starts from a cheap $59 per year.
6. Oaknut
Anders Norén is a champion of simple, free WordPress themes that look fantastic. With Oaknut, the focus is on super-simple presentation for your coming soon page.
Oaknut has a Linktree-esque vibe, which means it’s great for all of your links to other profiles. However, the theme is also good for coming soon pages, as you can tailor those links to Mailchimp lists (or other email marketing platforms). For quick and dirty implementation, Oaknut locks things down.
Best for: Uber fast deployment of a coming soon page, in a different format to typical examples. If you have lots of other profile or sites links, Oaknut may suit you too.
Price: Oaknut is 100 percent free to download.
7. Minimal Coming Soon
We’re almost at the end of the post, we’re only now showcasing our first dedicated coming soon plugin (although SeedProd is close). Minimal Coming Soon could be a top choice for you based on its flexible, adaptable approach to coming soon and maintenance pages.
The idea is straightforward: install the plugin, choose a theme, customize it, and display it on your site. The templates are fantastic, and come with a wide range of use cases. For some, you can even add video backgrounds. There are also millions of stock images to help make sure your coming soon pages look slick.
Best for: If you want a dedicated coming soon page plugin for WordPress, this option will be one of the best. It’s great for quick, yet professional results.
Price: Minimal Coming Soon is free, but there’s also a premium version available for $39 per year.
8. CMP – Coming Soon and Maintenance Plugin
The final option on our list is another dedicated one: Coming Soon and Maintenance Plugin (CMP). This is much the same as Minimal Coming Soon, in that it lets you build a page fast, with excellent results.
You have all of the functionality you need here: media backgrounds, countdown sections, typography options, Mailchimp subscribe forms, and much more. What’s more, there is a whole marketplace of free and premium coming soon themes to choose from. This means you could find the right theme, install it, and get to work on the rest of your site in no time.
Best for: CMP will suit sites that need a quick coming soon page, but with the functionality to capture, convert, and hype up visitors.
Price: CMP is free to download, but some of the themes will have a price attached.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
If you still have questions about our list of free and premium coming soon WordPress themes and plugins, have no fear! Here are a number of questions and answers to help you decide on the right tools for the job.
This is a specific job for a theme or plugin in that it helps you build anticipation for a new site or product launch. You can display a countdown timer, newsletter signup forms, and much more. It’s one of the key facets of building ‘hype’ for your site.
In most cases, no. You’ll still want to bring in the best free and premium coming soon WordPress themes and plugins at your disposal. However, you’ll likely only stick with them until you launch, at which point you’ll change to your long-term solutions.
When it comes to free and premium coming soon WordPress themes and plugins, choosing the pricing model will depend on format. For instance, in most cases, free plugins will give you all of the functionality you need. In contrast, premium themes are almost always a better option. You can also opt for a premium plugin to leverage better support, and free themes in a pinch too.
In some cases, yes. Maintenance vs coming soon niches are different in a number of ways, although they both are ‘holding pages’ of sorts. If the theme or plugin specifically offers maintenance-centric features and functionality, you’ll obviously be able to use the product.
Which Free and Premium Coming Soon WordPress Themes and Plugins You Should Choose
While we may offer eight solutions on this list, choosing the right ones could still be tough. While we’re confident you can get great results with any combination, here’s our take on which ones are the most essential:
| Theme/Plugin | Price (From) | Free Version? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🏅 | SeedProd | $79 per year | Yes |
| 🥈 | Launch | Free | Yes |
| 🥉 | Thrive Architect | $99 per year | No |
| 4 | Minimal Coming Soon | $39 per year | Yes |
| 5 | CMP | Free | Yes |
| 6 | Elementor | $59 per year | Yes |
| 7 | Divi | $89 per year | No |
| 8 | Oaknut | Free | Yes |
On the whole, SeedProd will give you the functionality you need that is on par or better than every other option available. Even better, this comes as a plugin. If you want a theme for your coming soon page, our own Launch should fit the bill. With your choice of page builder plugin on hand, you’ll also be able to customize Launch to suit your exact needs.
Wrapping Up
A new site needs attention, traffic, and activity. One piece of this puzzle is using both free and premium coming soon WordPress themes and plugins. In fact, using the right solutions in tandem could give your site a ‘leg up’ when it comes to building anticipation for your project’s launch.
In our opinion, any of the solutions on this list cuts the mustard – especially SeedProd. However, our own Launch provides a theme and plugin to help give your site a countdown to launch. What’s more, either option is completely free to download and use.
Which of the free and premium coming soon WordPress themes and plugins do you like the look of? Let us know in the comments section below!
