WordPress is known as the most popular website builder in the world. It powers over 33% of all websites on the internet. The main reason for that is because WordPress is easy to install which makes it easy for anyone to create a website.
All best WordPress web hosting companies allow you to install WordPress with just few clicks. In most circumstances, installing WordPress is a simple process that takes less than five minutes to complete.
In this tutorial, our goal is to offer a complete WordPress installation tutorial for beginners and advanced users alike.
For beginners, we will show you how to install WordPress on all top hosting platforms by using 1-click install scripts like Fantastico, Softaculous, and QuickInstall.
We will also explain how to install WordPress manually using FTP 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).
Apart from showing you how to install WordPress, we will also give you tips on things to do after you install WordPress.
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 60% off their hosting plan (special for WPBeginner users).
The reason we recommend Bluehost is because they are one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They are also an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.
How to Install WordPress on Bluehost
Bluehost is an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider and one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They know WordPress inside out and have the most beginner friendly WordPress installation process.
Bluehost automatically installs WordPress on your domain name when you sign up. Once you login to your Bluehost account, you’ll find your WordPress site under ‘My Sites’ tab.
You can simply click on ‘Log into WordPress’ button, and it will take you directly to the WordPress admin area.
Except for their ‘Basic’ plan, Bluehost also allows you to install WordPress on unlimited sites with all their hosting plans.
Simply click on the ‘Create Site’ button under ‘My Sites’ tab to get started.
This will launch the Bluehost guided WordPress installation wizard. First, it will ask you to provide a site title and optionally a tagline.
Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
After which, you will be asked to select a domain name and path for your website. If you have already purchased a domain name, then you can select it from the dropdown menu. You can always purchase and add new domain names to your account by visiting the ‘Domains’ page from the hosting dashboard.
After selecting your domain name, you can leave the directory path blank and let Bluehost choose it for you. The installer will also show a few essential plugins that you can install.
You can now click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
The installer will set up your WordPress site, which may take a few moments. After that, you will see a success message with your WordPress site details.
You will also receive these details via email. You can now click on the login to WordPress button to enter your new site’s admin area.
Congratulations, you have installed WordPress on your Bluehost hosting account. That wasn’t too bad right.
How to Install WordPress on HostGator
HostGator is another popular shared WordPress hosting provider among beginners. They also make it super easy to install WordPress with just a few clicks.
First, you need to login to your HostGator hosting account’s dashboard. From here, you need to click on the ‘QuickInstall’ icon under the ‘Software’ section.
On the next screen, you need to click on ‘WordPress’ to launch the installer wizard.
Now, you will be asked to select the domain name where you want to install WordPress and enter a directory path.
Most beginners want to install WordPress in the root of their domain name (for example, wpbeginner.com). In that case, you need to leave the directory field blank.
Click on the next button to continue.
The installer will now ask you to enter WordPress site details. You will need to provide a site title, admin username, first and last name, and an admin email address. Make sure that you have access to that email address because this is where you will get your WordPress password reset email.
After entering all the information, click on the ‘Install’ button to continue.
The installer will now run in the background to install WordPress for you. Once finished, you will see a success message with your admin user name and password.
You can now click on the ‘Login’ button to access the WordPress admin area.
Congratulations, you have successfully installed WordPress on your HostGator account.
How to Install WordPress on SiteGround
SiteGround is a popular choice among WordPress beginners. They are known for their excellent support and highly optimized WordPress hosting plans.
SiteGround offers quick and pain-free WordPress installers with all their plans. You can install WordPress directly from your hosting dashboard.
We will show you two different methods for installing WordPress on SiteGround. You can choose one that works for you.
1. Installing WordPress on SiteGround as a New User
If you just signed up with SiteGround, then you will be greeted by a welcome popup upon your first login. It will ask if you would want to set up your website now.
You need to select ‘Start a new website’ and then click on WordPress.
The installer wizard will now ask for WordPress installation details. You need to provide an email address, an admin username, and password for your new WordPress site.
Click on the ‘Confirm’ button to continue.
On the next screen, you will see details of your selection. You can also select additional website enhancements but we will skip them for now, you can add them later if needed.
Go ahead and click on the complete setup button. The installer will now install WordPress for you in the background and you will see a success message when it is finished.
You can now click on the ‘proceed to the customer area’ button. From here, you’ll find your new website under the ‘My Accounts’ tab.
You can click on ‘Visit admin panel’ to enter WordPress admin area.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed WordPress on your new SiteGround account.
2. Installing WordPress on SiteGround as Existing Customer
SiteGround makes it extremely easy to install WordPress from your hosting account at anytime. Simply login to your hosting account and visit the cPanel dashboard.
This will load the cPanel dashboard, which is basically a web-based interface to manage your hosting account.
From here you need to scroll down to the ‘Auto Installers’ section and click on WordPress.
This will launch the auto-installer script with WordPress pre-selected. You need to click on the install button and then select a website protocol http or https and domain name.
Now if you have enabled SSL Certificate on the domain name, then you can select https as your protocol, otherwise select http. You can later switch WordPress to HTTPS/SSL.
Below that, you need to enter your site title, admin username, password, and email address.
You will also see other options to select language, install plugins, and more. You can change these options or leave them unchecked.
Lastly, you will see the WordPress Starter option. You need to keep it checked as it will walk you through post-installation steps to set up your site.
Now, click on the ‘Install’ button to continue.
The installer will now run in the background and set up a WordPress install. Once finished, you will see a success message with a link to your WordPress site’s admin area.
Clicking on the admin area link will take you to your website and launch the site set up wizard. This step by step wizard will help you get started with WordPress. Click on the ‘Start Now’ button to continue.
First, the starter wizard will ask you to choose a design for your WordPress site. It will show you hand-picked design templates organized in various categories.
We recommend choosing a simple design that resembles what you have in mind. Remember each theme comes with customization options and you can change how it looks to your own taste.
Next, you will be asked to select functionalities you want to add to your website. It will automatically select ‘Contact Form’ for you because every website needs a contact form.
Optionally, you can choose Shop (to create an online store), calendar, or JetPack.
Click on the next button to continue.
Now you will be asked to select marketing options to promote your new website. It will show you MonsterInsights for Google Analytics, Yoast SEO, and OptinMonsterfor lead generation.
We recommend selecting all three of them as they will help you grow your website.
After that, click on the complete button and the starter wizard will complete the installation for you. You will now see a success message with a link to enter the WordPress dashboard.
You will now see the WordPress admin dashboard with custom shortcuts to create content, customize design, and start working on your website.
That’s all. You have successfully installed WordPress on your SiteGround hosting account.
How to Install WordPress on WP Engine
WP Engine is the best managed WordPress hosting provider. A managed hosting account is basically a concierge service for your WordPress website.
They take care of managing your WordPress site updates, installation, and performance optimization while you focus on growing your business.
As a managed WordPress hosting company, WP Engine automatically installs WordPress when you sign up. Depending on your hosting plan, you can also create additional websites whenever you need them.
Simply, login to your WP Engine dashboard and visit the ‘Sites’ page. You will see a list of all your WordPress sites. Click on the ‘Create Site’ button to add a new WordPress install.
On the next screen, you will be asked to provide a name for your production environment. Enter a name that helps you easily identify this website and then click on ‘Create Environment’ button.
WP Engine will now install your WordPress environment. It will take some time for DNS changes to propagate.
After that you will be able to access the WordPress admin area by clicking on the link in the sidebar. You will also be able to see your login credentials on the same page.
To add a domain to your website, you need to click on the add domain link. Since WP Engine is not a domain registrar, you will need to point your domain’s DNS settings to WP Engine.
To do this, you will need your site’s IP Address and CNAME. You can find this information on the overview page of your site.
Now we will show you how to enter this information in Domain.com. The basic settings are the same for all domain registrars, you just need to find the DNS settings.
Login to your Domain.com account dashboard and click on DNS and Nameserver settings for your domain name.
On the next screen, first, you need to change the A record with the @ sign as its name. Click on the Edit button to change its settings.
After that, you need to enter the IP address provided by WP Engine as this record’s value and then click on Update DNS button.
Next, you need to see if you have a CNAME record with www as its name. If you do, then you will need to edit that CNAME record. Otherwise, go ahead and click on the ‘Add DNS Record’ button.
Add the CNAME subdomain provided by WPEngine in the Value field and then click on the Add DNS button.
That’s all you have successfully pointed your domain name to your WordPress site hosted on WP Engine.
How to Install WordPress from cPanel
Cpanel is a popular software used by many web hosting companies. It provides website owners with a simple web-based interface to manage their hosting account.
It is a one-stop access to several useful utilities including auto-installer scripts that help you install WordPress.
Hosting companies select which auto-installer script they want to use. Generally, Softaculous, QuickInstall, and Fantastico are the most popular options.
We will show you how to install WordPress using all three auto-installers. You can follow the instructions, based on the installer you see on your cPanel dashboard.
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 like SiteGround and InMotion Hosting use Softaculous in their control panel.
Simply login to your cPanel account and look for Softaculous 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.
If your site has SSL and HTTPS, then you can select https:// or https://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 WordPress admin 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 links to your website and to your WordPress admin area.
How to Install WordPress using QuickInstall
QuickInstall is another popular auto-installer used by many hosting companies like HostGator 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 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.
The installer will now show you the WordPress overview. You will be asked to select your domain name from the drop-down menu.
Most beginners want to install WordPress on the root of their website, for example, wpbeginner.com. In that case, you need to leave the directory field blank.
Now click on the next button to continue. The installer will now ask you to enter WordPress details like username, email address, and site title.
After filling in all the information, click on the Install button.
QuickInstall will now install WordPress for you. After that, you will see a success message with your login details like username and password.
You can now click on the ‘Login’ button to enter the WordPress admin area.
That’s all, you have successfully installed WordPress using QuickInstall.
How to Install WordPress using Fantastico
Fantastico is an auto-installer script used by several WordPress hosting providers. It is similar to the other installer scripts in this guide and offers an easier way to quickly install WordPress.
First, you need to login to your cPanel dashboard and 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 the ‘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. 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. It requires few added steps, and you will need an FTP client to manually install WordPress.
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.
WordPress package comes as a Zip file. You need to unzip the file and inside it, you will find a WordPress folder. This folder contains all the WordPress files you need to upload to your web server.
Now go ahead and connect the FTP client to your hosting server. Once connected, use the FTP client to upload the WordPress files from your computer to your website server.
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 will be showing you how to do that using the cPanel. If your hosting provider has a different control panel then you just need to look for MySQL databases. Rest of the settings will be quite similar.
From your cPanel dashboard, click on the ‘MySQL Databases’ icon.
You will see a field to create a new database. Enter a name for your database, 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 the 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, note down your database name and MySQL username and password. You will need that information later.
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 the 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 database information you created earlier.
Fill in the information and then click on the ‘Submit’ button. WordPress will connect to your database and 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 set up 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 set up 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 on your computer. If you install WordPress locally on 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.
After you have played around with WordPress on your computer you may want to move your local install to an actual live website. We have a step by step 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 visiting Settings » General page in the WordPress admin area.
For more details, see our article on how to install WordPress in other languages.
WordPress is also used widely to create bilingual and multilingual websites. See our tutorial on how to easily create a multilingual WordPress site with TranslatePress.
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. Following are some of our popular theme showcases.
- Best free WordPress blog themes
- Best WordPress Business themes
- Best minimalist WordPress themes for writers
- Best WordPress themes for photographers
Installing and Using WordPress Plugins
The real power of WordPress comes from the massive collection of plugins. They are like apps for your WordPress site, allowing you to extend functionality and add new features to your site.
There are more than 54,000 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 expert pick of the essential WordPress plugins for all websites. 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 easiest 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.
This is where WPBeginner can help. We are the largest free WordPress resource site in the world, regularly publishing tutorials and guides written specifically for bloggers and small businesses.