How to Install WordPress

Before you start

• Hosting that meets WordPress's requirements. WordPress currently recommends PHP 8.3 or newer and MySQL 8.0 or newer (or MariaDB 10.11 or newer), with HTTPS support.
• A domain pointed at your hosting. Install on the real domain rather than a temporary address, so you do not have to move the site later.
• Ten minutes. The install itself takes a few; the rest is the first settings below.

Install WordPress in cPanel (Softaculous or WP Toolkit)

Most cPanel hosting includes one or both of these installers. They create the database, download WordPress and set it up for you.

With Softaculous:

1. In cPanel, open Softaculous, choose WordPress and click Install.
2. Choose the installation URL: https://, your domain, and leave the directory empty to put the site at the root of the domain.
3. Set the admin username, a strong password and the admin email — not admin as the username.
4. Pick the site language and click Install. The last screen links to your site and to the dashboard.

With WP Toolkit: in cPanel, open WP Toolkit and click Install. The quick install uses safe defaults; the custom one lets you choose the folder, site title, admin account and language. WP Toolkit also gives you one-click login to the dashboard, backups and update management for every site in the account.

Install WordPress manually

If there is no installer, the official manual install still takes only a few minutes:

1. Create a database and a database user with all privileges on it — in cPanel, under Manage My Databases.
2. Download WordPress from wordpress.org and upload the files to your site's folder with the file manager or FTP.
3. Open your domain in the browser. The installer asks for the database name, user, password and host (usually localhost) and writes wp-config.php for you.
4. Finish the install: site title, admin username, password and email.

If the installer cannot write the file, rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and fill in DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD and DB_HOST yourself. An "Error establishing a database connection" almost always means one of those four values is wrong.

The first settings to change

1. Settings > General — site title and tagline, the timezone and the site language.
2. Settings > Reading — make sure Discourage search engines from indexing this site is not ticked on a live site. Left on, it asks Google not to index you.
3. Settings > Permalinks — choose Post name, so addresses read /my-first-post/ instead of dates or numbers.
4. Delete the sample content — the "Hello world!" post, its sample comment and the "Sample Page".
5. Remove what you do not use — inactive themes and plugins are still code that needs updating.

HTTPS, updates and backups

• HTTPS. cPanel's AutoSSL issues a free certificate for your domain. Once it is active, set both WordPress Address and Site Address in Settings > General to https://. If a wrong value locks you out, the same two addresses can be set in wp-config.php with WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL.
• Updates. WordPress installs minor and security releases by itself. Plugin and theme updates are not automatic unless you switch them on, per plugin or theme — do that for the ones you trust, and check the rest weekly.
• Backups. Take one before every major update. Your host's backups are a safety net; a plugin or WP Toolkit backup before a big change is a quicker way back.

WordPress on HytHost web hosting

Every HytHost web hosting plan is cPanel hosting ready for WordPress:

• Softaculous and WP Toolkit for the install and day-to-day management.
• PHP 8.1 to 8.5, selectable per domain, and MySQL 8.0 with phpMyAdmin.
• Free SSL on every domain and subdomain, renewed automatically.
• Daily backups, kept for ten days, which you can download or restore files from yourself.
• One free website migration if your WordPress site lives somewhere else today.

Small hosts up to 3 sites on 2 GB of SSD; the larger plans add space and sites. New to the control panel? What is cPanel walks through it, and how to create a business email sets up mail on the same domain.