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Install WordPress ​

Step-by-step wizard to install WordPress on any of your domains. Available from the client panel sidebar under Install WordPress.

The WordPress installation wizard on its first step, showing the five step headers across the top

Overview ​

URL: /client/wordpress-installer

The wizard walks you through five steps:

  1. Domain & Path - choose where to install
  2. Site Configuration - title, description, search engine visibility
  3. Admin Account - username, email, password
  4. Advanced Options - debug mode, clean existing files, language, timezone
  5. Review & Install - final summary before installation starts

Some fields are filled in for you when the wizard opens: a placeholder site title, the username admin, an email address built from your account, and a freshly generated password. Change anything you do not want before you reach the last step.

Before you start ​

  • The domain must already exist on your account. Add it under Domains first - the wizard only lists domains that belong to you.
  • Each installation needs its own directory. Installing two sites into the same directory is not supported.
  • Your hosting plan needs one free database, since the installer creates a database for the site. When the plan's database limit is already reached, the installation stops before anything is changed and says: "This hosting plan's database limit has been reached, so no database could be created for WordPress." Delete a database you no longer use under Databases, or ask your hosting provider to raise the plan's database limit, then run the installation again.
  • One installation runs on a domain at a time. Starting another on the same domain, including in another folder of it, stops with "Another WordPress installation on this domain is in progress." Wait for the first to finish, check the directory, then try again.
  • An existing .htaccess in the target directory is kept. The installer adds its own WordPress blocks to it and leaves the rest of the file as it is. A .htaccess larger than 1 MB is refused before anything is changed; make it smaller, then run the installation again.

Step 1: Domain & Path ​

Choose where WordPress will live.

Step 1 of the wizard with the Select Domain dropdown and the Installation Path field

  • Select Domain (required) - pick one of your domains from the dropdown. The list is searchable, which helps when the account holds many domains.
  • Installation Path - leave empty to install in the domain root, or type a subdirectory such as blog, wp or store. Only letters, digits, underscores, hyphens and slashes are allowed - no dots and no other special characters. Maximum 255 characters.

Since panel 1.9.4, the wizard checks the directory as soon as you pick the domain and leave the Installation Path field, and warns you on this step when files there would stop the installation. See Checked before you install.

Opening the dropdown shows every domain on the account:

The Select Domain dropdown expanded, listing the domains available on the account

The Cancel button next to Next discards what you have entered and reloads an empty wizard.

Step 2: Site Configuration ​

Set how the site introduces itself.

Step 2 of the wizard with the Site Title, Site Description and search engine toggle

  • Site Title (required) - shown in the browser title and across the site. Maximum 255 characters.
  • Site Description - an optional tagline. Maximum 500 characters.
  • Allow search engines to index this site - on by default. Turn it off while the site is still being built; you can change it later in WordPress under Settings → Reading.

Step 3: Admin Account ​

Create the WordPress administrator. These credentials are for WordPress itself, not for the hosting panel.

Step 3 of the wizard with the Admin Username, Admin Email and Admin Password fields

  • Admin Username (required) - letters, digits, underscores, hyphens and dots only. Maximum 60 characters.
  • Admin Email (required) - where WordPress sends its notifications, including password resets. Maximum 100 characters.
  • Admin Password (required) - at least 8 characters, without line breaks or other control characters. The field is masked; use the reveal button at its end to check what you typed before moving on.

WARNING

Write the password down before you continue. The panel does not show it again after the installation finishes.

Step 4: Advanced Options ​

Step 4 of the wizard with the debug and cleanup toggles, the language selector and the timezone selector

  • Enable Debug Mode - off by default. Turns on WordPress WP_DEBUG, which is useful while developing and noisy on a live site.
  • Clean existing files before installation - off by default. Left off, existing files stay where they are and WordPress is installed alongside them; if the directory already contains index.php, index.html or anything starting with wp-, the installation stops instead of overwriting them. Turned on, the target directory is emptied first.
  • WordPress Language - English (US), English (UK), Spanish, French, German, Italian or Polish. Defaults to English (US).
  • Timezone - the timezone WordPress uses for scheduled posts and timestamps. Defaults to UTC. The list is searchable.

DANGER

Clean existing files before installation deletes everything in the target directory, including any site already published there. Leave it off unless you are certain the directory is disposable.

Step 5: Review & Install ​

The last step summarises the choices that matter: domain, installation path, site title, admin username, admin email, language, and whether existing files will be cleaned.

Step 5 of the wizard showing the summary of the chosen settings above the Install WordPress button

Use Back to correct anything, or the step headers along the top to jump to a step you have already completed. Install WordPress starts the installation.

Installation progress ​

The wizard is replaced by a progress list that refreshes on its own. The installer works through nine stages:

  1. Cleaning directory
  2. Setting up database
  3. Checking WP-CLI
  4. Downloading WordPress
  5. Creating configuration
  6. Creating database tables
  7. Installing WordPress
  8. Configuring settings
  9. Creating .htaccess

A typical installation takes about a minute. The database and its user are created for you - you do not need to prepare anything under Databases first.

TIP

The installation runs on the server, so it finishes even if you close the page. The progress list itself only updates while the page stays open; if you navigate away, follow the installation under Manage WordPress instead.

When the installation stops ​

Since panel 1.9.4, an installation that fails or is stopped by files in the directory stays visible on the wizard page instead of only in a notification that closes by itself:

  • WordPress was not installed names the reason and, under Next step:, what to do. After a failure the wizard opens on Review & Install with the values you entered, so you can correct the cause and click Install WordPress again.
  • WordPress was not installed: the directory is not empty is shown when files in the directory stopped the installation. See Conflicting files.

The notice stays until you click Dismiss or start another installation into the same domain and folder. When you reload the page, the notice of the most recent stopped installation comes back, with the wizard pointed at its domain and folder; the other values have to be entered again. Choosing another domain or folder in the wizard shows the notice of that target instead, if it has one.

Every installation attempt, whether it installed WordPress, was stopped by files in the directory, or failed, is recorded in the panel's Activity Log, the same way for the wizard and for the client API.

If the installation fails ​

Since panel 1.9.2 a failed installation removes what it created, so a retry starts clean and nothing is left counting against your plan:

  • the database and the database user it created,
  • with Clean existing files before installation left off, the WordPress files it added to the directory, and a .htaccess it created (an existing .htaccess gets its earlier content back),
  • with Clean existing files before installation on, the directory's earlier content is put back.

The Install WordPress notification names what went wrong and the next step, for example "The server could not create the database for WordPress." or "The server could not download WordPress from wordpress.org.". When the cause is on the server side, the next step is to contact your hosting provider with the correlation ID the notification shows.

If the installer could not remove the database or the database user, the next step names them, for example "This attempt could not remove what it created: the database demo_wp. Delete it on the Databases page before you run the installation again." Delete it under Databases, then try again.

After the installation ​

A summary replaces the progress list, with a link to the new site and a link to its WordPress admin.

  • Open Website - opens the installed site in a new tab.
  • Login to Admin - opens /wp-admin in a new tab, where you sign in with the administrator account you just created.
  • Installation Details - domain, installation path, installation time, website URL and admin URL.

Start New Installation appears in the page header and returns the wizard to its starting state, so you can install another site without leaving the page.

Conflicting files ​

With Clean existing files before installation left off, the installer checks the target directory first and refuses to write into a directory that already holds index.php, index.html or a file starting with wp-. The warning names the files it found.

Checked before you install ​

Since panel 1.9.4, the wizard runs the same check before the installation starts: when you pick the domain or leave the Installation Path field, and again when you move on from Advanced Options to Review & Install, since the directory may have changed in the meantime. The warning is shown on Domain & Path, Advanced Options, and Review & Install:

  • Files already in the installation directory lists the files, the first ten by name and the number of the others, and says that WordPress cannot be installed over them. Choose a different installation path, or turn on Clean existing files before installation to replace everything in the directory.
  • When the directory already holds a WordPress site, the warning says so instead. To keep that site, choose a different installation path, or click Install WordPress and then use the existing installation, see When WordPress is already installed there.
  • With Clean existing files before installation turned on, the warning reads Everything in the installation directory will be deleted and lists the files that go with it.
  • The installation directory could not be checked means the wizard could not read the directory. The installer checks it again when the installation starts and stops if files there are in the way.

The installation itself still checks the directory when it starts. When files appeared there after the wizard's check, the installation stops, and the wizard opens on Advanced Options with the files listed. If no WordPress site is there, Clean existing files before installation is then turned on for you, and the next step says so: review the listed files before you click Install WordPress again, or turn the option off and choose a different path. The option is turned off again when you point the wizard at another directory.

The default landing page of a new domain ​

Since panel 1.9.4, the welcome page the panel puts on a new domain is not a conflict while it is unchanged, so you can install WordPress into the root of a new domain without cleaning it first. WordPress takes its place once the installation completes, and if the installation fails, the welcome page is put back. A welcome page you have edited counts as your own index.php and stops the installation like any other file.

You have three ways forward:

  • install into a different subdirectory,
  • remove the conflicting files under File Manager,
  • or turn on Clean existing files before installation - which deletes the contents of the directory.

Nothing is written and nothing is deleted when the installation stops this way, so the directory is left exactly as it was.

When WordPress is already installed there ​

Since panel 1.9.0, when the installation stops because the directory already holds a WordPress site, the wizard shows WordPress is already installed in this directory with a Use the existing installation button, as an alternative to Clean existing files before installation.

Use the existing installation keeps the site's files and its database as they are and makes the folder serve WordPress again:

  • If the folder's index.php already loads WordPress, nothing is changed.
  • If another start page took its place, such as the hosting welcome page, WordPress's own index.php is put back, and the page that was there is kept as index.php.landing. When that name is taken, the message names the file it was kept under.

The confirmation, Existing WordPress installation kept, says what was done and offers Open site. If the folder no longer holds a WordPress site, nothing changes and the message asks you to review it and install again. If the change cannot be made, for example because the account is out of disk space, the site is left as it was and the message says so. Should the earlier page itself not go back into place, the message names the file that holds it, so you can rename it to index.php in the File Manager.

  • Manage WordPress - the list of installed sites, with updates, backups and removal.
  • Domains - add a domain before installing onto it.
  • Databases - the database the installer creates for the site.