# Site Settings

Source: https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/site-settings

The Settings tab holds the small number of site-wide switches that do not belong to any other tab: whether HTTPS is forced, whether the site is showing a maintenance page, which file is served when someone opens a folder, and the button that deletes the site permanently.

## Where Site Settings Live

Open **Websites**, click the site, open the **Settings** group in the site's left menu, and choose **Settings**. The page is titled **Settings** and is split into three labelled sections: **Behavior**, **Serving**, and a red **Danger Zone**.

![The Settings page for a site in KPanel, with the Behavior, Serving and Danger Zone sections](https://support.kapsulehost.com/help/screenshots/site-settings.926016b7.webp)

> **Note:** Everything on this page needs the **sites:write** permission. Read-only team members can see the current values but the toggles are locked and the Danger Zone is hidden entirely.

## Force HTTPS

The **Force HTTPS** switch redirects every plain HTTP request to the HTTPS version of the same URL. The panel recommends leaving it on, and there is almost no reason to turn it off on a live site.

With it on, a visitor who types your domain without a scheme, or follows an old `http://` link from somewhere, lands on the secure version rather than being served over plain text. Browsers show the padlock, mixed-content warnings go away, and anything that depends on a secure context, such as service workers, works.

Turn it off only while you are diagnosing a redirect loop, and turn it back on afterwards.

> **Warning:** Do not switch Force HTTPS on before the site has a working certificate. If the certificate has not been issued yet, forcing HTTPS sends visitors to a page their browser refuses to load. Confirm the certificate first: see [SSL Certificates](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/ssl-certificates).

If you turn it on and the site starts redirecting endlessly, the usual cause is a second redirect defined inside the application, for example in `.htaccess` or in WordPress, doing the same job. Remove one of the two. [Fixing Mixed Content Warnings](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/ssl-mixed-content) covers the related case where the page loads but the padlock does not appear.

## Maintenance Mode

**Maintenance mode** shows a maintenance page to all visitors. The description on the page is deliberately blunt: your site will be inaccessible until you disable it.

Switching it on reveals an optional **Maintenance message** field. Fill it in. The default suggestion is short and reasonable, but a specific message is far better for anyone who lands on it: say what is happening and roughly when you expect to be back.

Click **Save Changes** to apply. The button confirms with a tick when the change has been stored.

Use maintenance mode when you are doing something that would look broken mid-flight: a large content import, a theme swap on a live site, a database migration. Do not leave it on longer than you need to.

> **Important:** Maintenance mode applies to everyone, including you. There is no bypass in this panel, so plan to do the work through KPanel, SFTP or the WordPress admin rather than through the public site. Search engines that crawl during the window see the maintenance page rather than your content, which is another reason to keep the window short.

## Directory Index

The **Serving** section controls the default document: the file served when a visitor opens a folder rather than naming a file. Files are tried in the order you list them, and the first that exists wins.

The platform default is `index.php index.html`, which is right for WordPress and for any PHP application. The field shows a **Custom** pill once you have changed it, so you can always tell whether you are on the default.

Three presets are offered as one-click chips:

| Preset | Use when |
|---|---|
| `index.html index.php` | A static front page sits in front of a PHP application |
| `index.php index.html` | The platform default, correct for WordPress and PHP apps |
| `index.html` | A purely static site, with no PHP fallback wanted |

Type your own list if you need something else: separate the filenames with spaces. Click **Save** to apply, or **Reset** to go back to the default.

The most common reason to change this is a static landing page that must win over an application's own front controller. If your site suddenly starts serving the wrong page after a deploy that added an `index.html`, this setting is why.

## Deleting a Site

The **Danger Zone** at the bottom holds a single action. The warning text is explicit about the scope: deleting permanently removes the site, and all files, databases, SSL certificates and backups go with it. This cannot be undone.

The flow is two steps on purpose. Click **Delete Site**, then confirm with **Confirm Delete**, or click **Cancel** to back out. Once confirmed, you are returned to the Websites list and the site is gone.

> **Important:** Deleting removes the backups too, so the usual safety net does not apply. Download anything you want to keep before you start: the files over SFTP, and the database as a dump. See [Uploading Files With SFTP](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/sftp-access) and [Connecting To Your Database Over an SSH Tunnel](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/database-ssh-tunnel).

If you are removing a site because you no longer need the hosting, deleting the site is not the same thing as cancelling the plan. The subscription keeps billing until you cancel it: see [Cancelling a Service](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/billing-cancellation).

If you are moving a site elsewhere and want to keep the domain, remove the domain from the site first so it is free to point somewhere new: see [Site Domains Tab](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/site-domains-tab).

## What Is Not on This Page

A lot of site configuration lives elsewhere in the site's left menu, and the fastest way to lose time here is to look for it in Settings:

- **PHP version and limits**: **Settings**, then **PHP**.
- **Redirects and error pages**: **Settings**, then **Redirects** or **Error pages**.
- **Password protection and IP blocking**: **Settings**, then **Password protection**.
- **Backups and point-in-time recovery**: the **Backups** group.
- **Caching**: the **WordPress** group, on WordPress and WooCommerce sites. **The CDN**: the **Performance** group.
- **Domains and DNS**: **Settings**, then **Domains** or **DNS**.

## Troubleshooting

**Save Changes does nothing visible.** The button briefly shows a tick. If it shows an error toast instead, the save was rejected; reload the page and check whether your role still has write access.

**Maintenance mode is off but visitors still see the maintenance page.** Their browser or a proxy has cached the page. Hard-refresh, and if the site is behind the CDN, purge the cache: see [Purging the CDN Cache](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/cdn-cache-purge).

**The directory index change had no effect.** An application-level rewrite rule is taking priority. Check `.htaccess`: see [Editing .htaccess](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/wordpress-htaccess).

## Where to Go Next

- [Site Domains Tab](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/site-domains-tab) for the domains attached to this site.
- [Site Activity Log](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/site-activity-log), which records every change made here.
- [Taking a Backup](https://support.kapsulehost.com/en-nz/taking-a-backup) before anything in the Danger Zone.