Differences between Deleting, Inactivating, and Taking a Website Offline

Your reasons for making a website inaccessible should determine whether you delete, inactivate, or take it offline for maintenance. The following table describes the differences:

Offline Website

Inactive Website

Deleted Website

Purpose

Takes website offline temporarily for maintenance

Inactivates website permanently (reactivation is possible with restrictions)

Removes website permanently and irrecoverably

Feasibility

No restrictions.

Possible only if there are no dependent records.

Website record

Retains website record together with all internal references.

Retains the website record and all internal references.

Deletes website record.

Cache (CDN and internal cache)

Retains the cache.

Deletes the cache.

Search index

Retains the search index.

Deletes the search index.

Alternative page

Displays custom maintenance page or default maintenance message.

Displays Site not found error.

Site license

Uses a site license.

Doesn't use a site license.

Displayed in lists

Displayed in website lists, dropdowns etc.

Not displayed in most website lists, dropdowns etc.

Not displayed in any website lists, dropdowns, etc.

Search results and reports

Included

Included. Can be filtered out.

Not included.

Reactivation

You can bring it back online at any time.

You can reactivate it, but there are some restrictions:

A site license must be available.
The search index must be rebuilt before the website is accessible to visitors. The process takes longer with more items to index.
You must set the Web Site Scope to either Information and Catalog or Information Only if SuiteTax is enabled (only for Site Builder sites).

You can't reactivate it.

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