Nice and quick tutorial about how to put a WordPress-powered web site into maintenance mode via two ways — either via .htaccess or a plugin. If you can take the time, go the .htaccess route. Plugins add overhead, and offer no learning opportunities.
I’m not saying plugins never make sense (hey Advanced Custom Fields!), but often times, getting into the PHP (or .htaccess in this case) of WordPress, will garner you a little more knowledge of how the content management works. I guess this is true of plugins in general — even JS ones: plugins keep you from reinventing the wheel and offer a quick fix that’s likely to work quickly, but it shields you from some of the learning experience.
