How to Create an Elementor Coming Soon Page (Free, No Pro Needed)

You are building a new site. The domain is pointed, WordPress is installed, but the actual site is days or weeks away. Visitors and Google should not be landing on a broken half-finished homepage in the meantime. They should see an Elementor coming soon page that tells people something is on the way, captures early interest through email or social follows, and keeps search engines from indexing an incomplete site.

This tutorial builds a full coming soon page using the free version of Elementor, the free version of Master Addons for Elementor, and a built-in WordPress setting to make it the front page. No Elementor Pro license, no dedicated coming-soon plugin, no monthly fee. You get a countdown timer, a custom background, title and description, social links, and optional email signup.

By the end, you will have a branded launch page sitting at your domain root, rendering cleanly on mobile. When your real site is ready, flipping it off is a single setting change.

Why You Need a Coming Soon Page

A new domain with a half-built site is a bad first impression. Visitors who land early either bounce or remember a broken experience. An Elementor coming soon page solves a handful of practical problems at once:

• Stops the bad first impression. Instead of default WordPress pages or a broken Elementor draft, visitors see a polished launch page.
• Builds a pre-launch list. Adding an email signup captures interest from early traffic, so you have subscribers ready when you actually launch.
• Signals the launch date. A countdown timer creates urgency and tells visitors when to come back.
• Protects SEO. A minimal page with one clear purpose is easier for Google to understand than a site full of placeholder content.
• Earns early social follows. Social media icons let people follow you now and find out about the launch through their feed later.

If you are rebranding an existing site instead of launching a new one, the same setup works as an Elementor maintenance mode page. Swap the countdown for a short explanation and you are done.

What You Will Build

The end result is a single full-screen page. Background image or color, your logo or brand name, a short message about what is coming, a live countdown timer to launch day, social media links, and (optionally) an email signup form. Plus one WordPress setting that pins this page to the front of your site until you switch it off.

Prerequisites (Plugins You Need)

Three pieces. All free:

• WordPress. Assumed installed already.
• Elementor (free). Grab the free version from WordPress.org or your WordPress admin’s plugin directory.
• Master Addons for Elementor (free). Adds the Countdown Timer widget, Social Media Icons widget, and other conversion-focused elements. Install from WordPress.org, or see the installing Master Addons doc for a walkthrough.

You do not need Elementor Pro for this tutorial. Elementor Pro does include a built-in maintenance/coming-soon mode, but the free approach below gives you more design control and does not lock you into a subscription.

How to Build the Coming Soon Page (Step-by-Step)

Eight steps from blank page to working launch page. Follow in order.

Step 1: Create a New Page in WordPress

In WordPress admin, go to Pages → Add New. Name it “Coming Soon” (or anything you remember). Click “Edit with Elementor” to open the page in the Elementor editor.

Step 2: Set the Elementor Canvas Page Template

Before you add any content, click the settings gear at the bottom-left of the Elementor panel and change the Page Layout to Elementor Canvas. Canvas strips out your theme’s header and footer and gives you a blank slate. That matters for a launch page, because the last thing you want is your half-finished menu sitting above the countdown.

Step 3: Add a Section With Fit to Screen Height

Click the pink “+” button to add a new section. Pick any column structure (one column is easiest). Open the section’s Layout settings and set Height to Fit to Screen. This locks the section at 100% of the viewport height, so the coming soon content fills the whole screen with no scroll.

Step 4: Add a Background (Image or Color)

Still in the section’s settings, switch to the Style tab and open Background. You have two options that both work well:

• Background image. Upload a high-resolution photo that represents your brand. Set Position: Center Center, Attachment: Fixed (for a subtle parallax on scroll), and Size: Cover. Add a dark overlay in the Background Overlay section so your text stays readable.
• Background color or gradient. A solid color or linear gradient keeps the page load fast and looks clean on mobile. Good for minimalist brands.

For the color-only approach, the Background Type gives you Color and Gradient options. A two-stop gradient (your brand color fading to a darker shade) reads modern without needing a photo.

For more background techniques (animated gradients, particles, video), see our Elementor page background guide.

Step 5: Add Title and Description

Drag a Heading widget into the section. Type your brand name or a short headline like “Something is coming.” Below it, drag a Text Editor widget for a one-sentence description explaining what is launching.

Keep the headline to 4–7 words. Keep the description to one sentence. The whole point of a coming soon page is intrigue, not a full marketing pitch. If you want something more eye-catching than a static heading, the Animated Headline widget from Master Addons rotates words or adds typed-text effects.

Step 6: Add the Countdown Timer

This is where Master Addons earns its spot. In the widget panel, search for “Countdown Timer” and drag the MA Countdown Timer into the section below your description.

In the widget settings, set the Due Date to your launch date and time. Pick the timer layout (card-style blocks look good on dark backgrounds, inline text suits minimalist designs), label the units (Days, Hours, Minutes, Seconds), and set what happens when the timer hits zero: redirect to your real site, hide the widget, or show a message. The full settings are covered in the Countdown Timer documentation.

Step 7: Add Social Media Links

Below the countdown, drag in a Social Icons widget (Elementor’s default works, or use Master Addons’ version for more icon library options). Add each platform you are active on and link to your profile. Match icon colors to your overall palette so they feel like part of the design, not pasted-in logos.

Step 8: Add an Email Signup Form (Optional)

If you want to capture emails from pre-launch traffic, drag the MA Mailchimp widget into the section. Connect it to your Mailchimp audience through the API key field, label the input “Email address,” and change the button text to “Notify me” or “Get updates.”

Pro tip: If you do not use Mailchimp, the built-in Elementor Form widget (free tier) also works. Connect it to any email service through webhooks, or just email yourself the submissions for now and import them into your real ESP later.

Click Publish. The page exists now but is not yet the site’s front page. That is the next step.

How to Activate the Coming Soon Page

This is the part most tutorials skip. Building the page is half the job. Making it the actual front page of your site is the other half.

In WordPress admin, go to Settings → Reading. Under Your homepage displays, select A static page. In the Homepage dropdown, pick the coming soon page you just built. Save.

Now when anyone visits your domain root (yoursite.com), they see the coming soon page. Other pages still exist and are accessible if you link to them directly, but nobody browses to them from the homepage. When you are ready to launch, come back to the same Reading setting and switch Homepage back to “Your latest posts” or a proper homepage.

Extra step for SEO: Until you are ready to launch, add a noindex tag to the coming soon page (or the whole site). Install a free SEO plugin like Rank Math or Yoast and toggle “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” under Settings → Reading. Remember to turn it off when you launch, or Google will keep ignoring your real pages.

Design Tips That Make the Coming Soon Page Convert

A coming soon page that earns signups and social follows looks more like a piece of branding than a notice. Patterns that work:

• One clear action. Either “leave your email” or “follow us.” Not both prominently. Pick the one you will use most and make it the largest element after the headline.
• High-contrast text over any background image. A 60–70% dark overlay makes light text readable on busy photos. White text on a solid purple gradient is just as effective and loads faster.
• Real brand assets. Your actual logo, your actual font, your actual brand color. A placeholder that looks generic signals the site itself will look generic.
• Mobile-first typography. Test the headline and countdown timer on a phone. If the countdown is tiny or wraps awkwardly, drop its font size or switch to a stacked layout for mobile.
• Working social links. If the social icons point to empty profiles, visitors bounce. Post at least once on each platform before linking to them.
• A promise of what is coming. “Something great” is weak. “The new home of [your product]” is specific. “A better way to [solve the problem]” gives visitors a reason to subscribe.

For more conversion-focused widgets to add later, the Elementor marketing widgets guide covers the ones that pay off on landing pages.

Free vs Pro: What You Get

Everything in this tutorial works in the free version of Master Addons. Pro unlocks other widgets and the broader feature set, not the specific widgets you need here.

If you want a head start, Master Addons Template Kits (Pro) include pre-built launch page designs you can import and edit. For a broader comparison of addon packs, see our 100 best Elementor addons roundup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Wrapping Up

A good Elementor coming soon page is more than a placeholder. It keeps early traffic engaged, builds a pre-launch email list, and sets the tone for the brand behind it. The combination of free Elementor, free Master Addons, and WordPress’s static-homepage setting covers all of that without a paid plugin or an Elementor Pro license.

When launch day comes, flip the homepage setting in Settings → Reading and your real site takes over. The coming soon page stays in your pages list for the next launch or a future rebrand. For related landing-page work, see our create a blog page with Elementor tutorial and sticky header guide.

Related reading: Elementor animation effects | Best popup builder plugins | Elementor marketing widgets