WordPress is known as the most popular blogging platform and content management system. New users are often surprised when we tell them that WordPress is also well known for its ease of installation. All best WordPress web hosting companies allow you to install WordPress within few clicks. In most circumstances, installing WordPress is a simple process that takes less than five minutes to complete. In this WordPress installation tutorial, our goal is to offer a comprehensive WordPress installation tutorial for beginners and advanced users alike. We will show you how to install WordPress using Fantastico, Softaculous, and SimpleScripts for beginners. We will explain how to install WordPress manually for our intermediate users. Lastly for our beginner developer and designers, we will show you how to install WordPress on a local computer (Windows, Mac, and Linux).
Things You Need Before Installing WordPress
Before you install WordPress, first you will need a domain name and a good web hosting company that knows WordPress.
We highly recommend that you use BlueHost because they will give you a free domain and 50% off their hosting plan (special for WPBeginner users). Bluehost is also an officially recommended hosting provider of WordPress.
Since this is a very long and detailed tutorial, please use the navigation below to get to the appropriate section.
- How to Install WordPress Using MOJO Marketplace
- How to Install WordPress using Softaculous
- How to Install WordPress using QuickInstall
- How to Install WordPress using Fantastico
- How to Install WordPress using FTP
- How to Install WordPress in your Computer
- How to Install WordPress in your Language
- How to Install a WordPress Multisite Network
- Things to do After Installing WordPress
How to Install WordPress using MOJO Marketplace
MOJO Marketplace provides a simple WordPress installer tool. Several hosting companies use this to provide a 1-click WordPress install experience. This installer is integrated into their cPanel dashboard.
For this tutorial, we will be showing you the BlueHost cPanel. Simply login to your hosting account and then on your cPanel dashboard scroll down to the website section.
Click on Install WordPress icon or 1-click Install. They will both take you to the MOJO Marketplace where you will see an overview about WordPress with a Install button. You need to click on the install button to continue.
MOJO Marketplace will now ask you where you want to install WordPress. Simply select your domain name from the dropdown menu and click on the check domain button.
The installer will now check that everything is in order and will show the final step. You can check the box next to Show Advanced Options to expand it.
You will notice that MOJO Marketplace has already given your site a title ‘My Site’. It will be using your email address as the username and entered a random strong password. You can change all these settings. You also need to check the terms and conditions checkbox.
Once you are done, you can click on the Install Now button.
Your installation will begin, and you will be able to see a progress bar. It will take only a few minutes. You need to wait on this page for it to finish.
Once the installation is finished, you will see a success message with a view credentials button.
You have successfully installed WordPress. Click on the View Credentials button to go to MOJO Marketplace dashboard and scroll down to the notification center.
There you will see the status of your WordPress install with a link to view credentials.
This will display the installation status and success notice. You will also find links to your site and WordPress admin area along with the username and password you will need to login.
How to Install WordPress using Softaculous
Softaculous is a popular auto-installer script. It allows you to easily install popular web applications like WordPress with just a few clicks. Hosting companies likeSiteGround and InMotion Hosting use Softaculous in their control panel.
Simply login to your cPanel account and look for Softaculous icon or WordPress installer icon. You will find them under Auto Installers section.
Clicking on any of these icons will launch Softaculous auto-installer for WordPress. First you will see an overview of WordPress. You need to click on the Install tab to continue.
Softaculous will now ask you where you want to install WordPress. You need to choose
http:// or http://www. as protocol.
After that, you need to choose the domain name where you want to install WordPress. Most users want to install WordPress in their domain’s root directory, like example.com. In that case, you need to make sure that the ‘In Directory’ field is blank.
Scroll down a little, and you will see the site settings section.
Under this section, first you need to provide a title and description for your WordPress site. Don’t worry you can easily change them from your WordPressadmin area after installation.
Next, you need to choose an admin username, password, and email address. Softaculous will automatically fill in the username and password fields for you. It will use a non-dictionary word for username and a strong password.
You can change them if you want so that they are easy to remember for you. However, we strongly urge you to always use a strong password. See our guide on the best way to manage passwords for WordPress beginners to learn how you can manage strong passwords easily.
Make sure that you enter correct email address in the admin email field. This is where WordPress will send notifications and password reset link if you ever forgot your password.
Rest of the options on the screen are optional. You can now click on the install button to run the installer.
Softaculous will run the installer using the settings you provided. You will see a progress bar with installation status. It will take a couple of minutes, do not close the window until the progress bar reaches 100% otherwise this may affect your WordPress installation.
You will see a success message after the installation is finished. It will also show you a link to your website and another link to your WordPress admin area.
How to Install WordPress using QuickInstall
QuickInstall is another popular auto-installer used by many hosting companies likeHostGator and others. We will be using HostGator’s cPanel dashboard in the screenshots here, but it wouldn’t be much different if you are using some other host that has QuickInstall.
First you need to login to your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard. Scroll down to the Software and Services section and then click on the QuickInstall icon.
This will take you to the 1-Click Installers page on QuickInstall. You will see that it offers installations for most popular web applications including WordPress. You need to click on WordPress to launch the WordPress installer.
This will take you to the WordPress installer where you will see an overview of the software. Simply click on the ‘Install WordPress’ button to continue.
This will bring you to setup your WordPress install settings.
First you need to choose the domain name. If you want to install WordPress in a sub-directory like example.com/blog then you need to enter blog in the install path field. Leave it blank if you want to install WordPress in the root directory, like example.com.
You need to provide a title for your site, this could be anything and you can always change it later. Next, you need to provide a username, password, and email address for the admin account. You will also need to enter first and last name for the admin user.
Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on Install WordPress button to begin the installation.
QuickInstall will now install WordPress for you. You will see a progress bar and later success message when it is done.
Click on the drop down icon next to view credentials button in the success message. A fly down menu will appear with login credentials and a link to the admin area of your newly installed WordPress site.
How to Install WordPress using Fantastico
Fantastico is a common auto-installer script used by some WordPress hosting providers. It is similar to the other installer scripts in the list, and offers an easy way to quickly install WordPress.
First you need to login to your cPanel dashboard. Scroll down to software and services section, and there you will find the Fantastico icon.
Clicking on Fantastico icon will launch the auto-installer script.
Some hosting providers are still using an older version of Fantastico. In this tutorial we will be showing you screenshots from Fantastico F3 version. If Fantastico on your host looks different, then don’t worry. Basic installation steps are the same, and you should be able to easily follow them.
On the main Fantastico screen you will see a list of web applications on your left. You need to click on Blogs, and there you will find WordPress listed among many other applications.
Clicking on WordPress will show you an overview of the application with a Install button.
Simply click on the ‘Click here to install WordPress’ button to continue.
Fantastico auto-installer for WordPress will now ask you to fill in your installation settings. First you need to choose the domain where you want to install WordPress.
If you want to install WordPress in a sub-directory then you can enter the sub-directory name in the field below. Otherwise, make sure that this field is empty.
Under Administrator Details section, you need to provide admin user account information. Enter a username, password, and email address for your WordPress admin account.
Click on the Submit button to continue.
Fantastico will now install WordPress for you. You will be able to see the installation progress. Once it has finished installing WordPress you will see a success message.
How to Install WordPress using FTP
Manually installing WordPress is also known as the famous 5 minute install. However, manual installation has a few added steps, and you will need an FTP clientfor that. Take a look at our beginner’s guide on how to use FTP to upload WordPress files.
First thing you need to do is download the latest version of WordPress. Unzip the file, and use the FTP software to upload the files into your web host directory of your choice.
If you want to install WordPress on your root domain name (like example.com), then you need to upload WordPress files to your website’s root directory. Usually this directory is called /public_html/.
On the other hand, If you want to install WordPress in a subfolder (like example.com/blog), then upload it in a folder /public_html/blog/.
Once you are done uploading WordPress, go to your hosting control panel to create a database. We are using cPanel web hosting, so our screenshots will be of cPanel. In your cPanel, find the icon like this:
You will see a field to create a new database. Enter your database name, and click “Create Database”.
Now that you have created your database, MySQL still needs a username. This username will have access to perform actions on the database.
On the MySQL Databases page in your cPanel account, scroll down to MySQL Users section. Simply provide a username and password for your new user and click on the ‘Create a user’ button.
This new user still does not have access to the database you created earlier. For that you will need to add the user to the database and give them permissions to perform all actions.
On the same MySQL Databases page in your cPanel account, scroll down to ‘Add User to a Database’ section. Select the database user you created from the dropdown menu next to user, then select database, and click on the add button.
You will be now asked for the privileges you want to allow this user. Select all privileges and click on the Make changes button.
Your MySQL database and user are now ready, and it is time to run the WordPress install.
Simply go to to the URL where you uploaded WordPress. If it is in the main domain, then enter your domain name in the browser window, like yoursite.com or www.yoursite.com.
You will see the language selection page. You can choose a language here so that rest of the installation is displayed in your own language. You can also use English for now and then later change the language.
Click on the continue button to proceed.
You will now see some installation instructions. Basically WordPress will now tell you that it will need your database name, password, and mysql host information.
Click on the ‘Let’s go’ button to continue.
WordPress will now show you a form. You need to enter the name of the database you created earlier.
Fill in the information and then click on submit button. WordPress will now connect to your database and will show you a success message.
Click on ‘Run the Install’ button to continue.
WordPress will now create tables in your database and then send you to the next step of the installation.
Now you need to provide some information for WordPress to setup your site. This includes site title, username, password, and admin email address.
If you do not want your website to be visible to search engines, then you can check the box next to search engine visibility. Later when you are ready you can change this from WordPress settings. If you are unsure about what to do, then simply leave it unchecked.
Click on the Install WordPress button to continue. WordPress will setup your website and finish the installation.
You will see a success message showing your username. You can now click on the Log in button to sign in to your WordPress site.
How to Install WordPress in your Computer
Many of our beginner level users often ask us if they could try WordPress on their computer? The answer is yes, but most beginners should not do that.
The reason why some folks install WordPress in a local server environment is to build themes, plugins, or to test things out.
If you want to run a blog for other people to see, then you do not need to install WordPress in your computer. If you install WordPress locally in your computer, then the only person who can see the site is you.
If you want to make your WordPress site available to the internet (rest of the world), then you need to get a web hosting account and install WordPress by using one of the methods we showed above.
Having that said, if you are really interested in installing WordPress locally on your computer to learn more about theme development, test plugins etc, then we highly encourage you to do so.
If you are using a Windows computer, then we recommend that you download and setup WAMP. If you are using a Mac, then you need to download and setup Mamp.
We also have a tutorial on how to move WordPress from local server to a live site.
How to Install WordPress in your Language
Just like Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android, you can use WordPress in your own language.
WordPress is available in many languages including English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Korean, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese (Han), Portuguese, and many others.
You can choose a language during the WordPress installation or change it by visitingSettings » General page in WordPress admin area.
You can even have your WordPress site in multiple languages.
We have written a tutorial on how to install WordPress in other languages.
How to Install a WordPress Multisite Network
WordPress comes with multisite functionality built-in. The multisite network allows you to create multiple WordPress sites using the same WordPress install. It can automatically create new sites on sub-domains or in sub-folders.
This makes sense for businesses, non-profits, governments with sub-sites for different locations or regions. Many educational institutes also use WordPress multisite network to allow students to create their own blogs.
The setup for a multisite is a bit complex, but we have created a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to install and setup WordPress multisite network.
Things to do After Installing WordPress
Now that you have successfully installed WordPress, here are a few things to get started with your new WordPress site.
Choosing a Theme
The visual appearance of your WordPress powered website is controlled by Themes. There are thousands of WordPress themes available for you to choose from. With so many choices, it can become a little confusing for beginners. This is why we have put together a guide on selecting the perfect theme for WordPress.
We regularly publish lists of WordPress themes that we like in our Showcasesection.
Installing and Using WordPress Plugins
The real power of WordPress comes from the massive collection of plugins. These plugins allow you to extend your WordPress site by adding new functionalities and features.
There are more than 40,000 free plugins available in the WordPress plugin directory alone. More plugins are available from third party websites as paid plugins.
If you are wondering which plugins to install, then take a look at our WordPress plugins section. You may also want to check out the plugins we are using on this site by looking at our WPBeginner’s blueprint.
We have a beginner’s step by step guide on how to install WordPress plugins.
Start Learning WordPress
WordPress is the most easy to use CMS in the market. Millions of people from all over the world use it every day. However, from time to time you may need a little help.
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