How To Install WordPress Manually (Step-By-Step Guide)

Want to know how to install WordPress manually? Follow our easy step-by-step WordPress installation tutorial and install WordPress in just a few minutes.

WordPress is the most powerful CMS platform today to create a website or to start a blog. It powers more than 25% of websites globally. Also, WordPress is the most favorite CMS platform for beginners and intermediate users. Among the CMS, It holds a 50%+ market share. Here we have created an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to Install WordPress Manually.

In this post, I will tell you about all the different ways you can install WordPress. I will tell you how to install WordPress in cPanel with 1-click WordPress Installation, then I will show you how you can install WordPress manually using FTP and cPanel if in case you don’t have a 1-click installation option provided with your web hosting.

I will also explain to you how you can install WordPress on the localhost (on your computer and laptop) and then I will also cover, how you can install WordPress on some of the most popular and best WordPress hosting companies. So all set, let’s get started.

Before You Install WordPress

Although WordPress is open-source software that you can get for free but to start a blog or to create a website you need to get a domain name and also you need to buy web hosting, that’s the only investment and you can easily get started.

For getting the domain name, I always recommend GoDaddy. They have been one of the top domain registrars globally for decades. You can easily search and buy a domain name from GoDaddy in less than 5 minutes, here’s our quick step-by-step- guide on how to buy a domain name from Godaddy.

When it comes to hosting, if you are just starting out, you can start with shared hosting and for shared hosting, I recommend A2 Hosting. They are considered one of the best web hosting companies for hosting WordPress websites or blogs.

A2 hosting provides the fastest servers and they ensure 99.9% uptime so that your website will never go down. And, in case you face any issues, they provide excellent support that is available 24x7x365 to help you resolve your issues.

Here are some of the features of A2 Hosting that set them ahead of the competition. Hopefully, these features will help you in making a decision:

• A2 Hosting uses complete SSD servers that are very fast as compared with the other hostings, which simply means your website or blog will load faster.
• They provide a FREE SSL certificate will all their hosting plans.
• Your money is completely safe with 30 Days money-back guarantee and A2 Hosting is the only company that gives any time money-back guarantee.
• Their excellent support is available 24×7, you can get the support on call, by email, live chat, and also they have a ticket support system.
• 99.9% uptime guarantee, there’s very little chance of going your site down.
• Their hosting plans are powered with cPanel and come with a 1-click WordPress installation so that you can easily install and manage your website and blogs.
• They also offer free site migration, where their expert team will help you migrate your website or blog, and that too completely free.

Get A2 Hosting or you may read our complete A2 Hosting Review – the fast and affordable hosting for beginners and also you may go through our easy step-by-step guide on how to buy hosting from A2 Hosting.

How To Install WordPress Using cPanel (1-Click-WordPress Installation)

Most of the good web hosting companies today provide a “One-Click Installation” for WordPress. With a one-click installation option, you can install WordPress really fast without messing up with the WordPress files and going through the options in your control panel to create the database for installing WordPress. I recommend A2 Hosting, they do provide one-Click-WordPress Installation to install WordPress easily.

There are different methods of installing WordPress (we will discuss some of the other popular methods as well in the post below) but this is the simplest and easiest way you can install WordPress and get your blog or website up and running in just a few minutes. Let’s begin installing WordPress with this method.

STEP 1: Login To cPanel & Click On WordPress

• You can directly login to your cPanel account or if you are using A2 Hosting, you can log in to cPanel from their dashboard as well. Many companies provide this option to log in to cPanel from their dashboard itself.
• Once you are logged in to your cPanel account, you can find the WordPress icon, just click on that icon to start the installation process.

On the next page, you need to click on the “Install Now” button to install WordPress.

STEP 2: Fill In All The Details & Install WordPress

• First, you need to choose the protocol, choose HTTPS if you have SSL installed or you can choose HTTP only. Also, if you want you can choose “www” as well.
• Then you need to select the domain for which you want to install WordPress. Leave the directory field blank unless you want to install WordPress in a sub-directory.
• You can write your site name as well as the description. If you want you can leave it default, you can change it later whenever you want.
• Now you need to enter the “Username”, “Password” and “Admin Email Address”. Be careful when adding these files and note them down somewhere, as you will need these details to log in to your WordPress account.
• Lastly, click on “Install”, it will take a few minutes and WordPress will be installed. Once installed, it will show you your site URL as well as your log-in URL.

How To Install WordPress Manually

In case your web host does not provide “One-Click-WordPress-Installation”, then you need to Install WordPress Manually. Though, if you are planning to buy new hosting services, I would suggest buying it from a company that offers “One-Click-WordPress-Installation”, I recommend A2 Hosting. I have personally used them and found their hosting services really good for hosting WordPress blogs and websites.

But if you are OK with your current web host, I won’t suggest switching just because they don’t have “One-Click-WordPress-Installation”. There is an alternate way to Install WordPress (Manually). Installing WordPress manually is not that difficult, rather I would say it’s very easy and it only takes 5-10 minutes time.

Before we start the actual WordPress Installation:

• We assume that you have a shared Linux hosting with cPanel Installed and a standard MySQL Database. (In case you don’t have web hosting as of now, you can buy web hosting from A2 Hosting, one of the Best WordPress Hosting).
• You have access to your cPanel.

To install WordPress manually to your host, you need to download the latest version of WordPress from the WordPress.org repository – Download WordPress Here.

STEP 1: Upload WordPress Files To Web Server

There are actually two ways, you can upload WordPress files to your web server.

• You can use the cPanel File Manager to upload the zip file. or
• Upload the files using FTP.

Here in this tutorial, we will discuss both the methods to upload WordPress to your hosting server. You can use any as per your choice and comfort (both are easy).

1. Upload WordPress Using cPanel File Manager

Log in to your web host cPanel. If you’re unable to locate it, you could try yoursitename.com:2082 since cPanel’s default port is 2082 (In case you cannot log in to cPanel, you need to contact your hosting company). Once logged in, Just click on “File Manager” (in most cases you can easily find that at the top only).

Inside the file manager, look for the “public_html” (This is the place for your main website, you need to upload WordPress to this folder). In case you want to install WordPress to a “Sub Directory”, you need to create a folder (sub-directory) and upload WordPress within that folder to install it in that directory.

You can upload the ZIP file and then you can extract the ZIP file within File Manager.

2. Upload WordPress Using FTP (Alternate Option)

Alternatively, you can upload WordPress files using an FTP Client. If you do not have FTP software installed in your system, you can try using FileZilla (FTP Software).

You need to launch the FTP Software, Enter FTP Login credentials. Once logged in, Just locate the folder where you want to upload and install WordPress (for the main site upload in the public_html folder, and for the subdomain upload it in the subdomain folder).

STEP 2: Creating A MySQL Database & User

In this step, We will be creating a database where all the data (posts, pages, etc.) will be stored. Also, we need to create a User (assign to our database) with all the permission to manage the database. Login to your cPanel again and go to “phpMyAdmin”, From phpMyAdmin you can manage all MySQL databases.

Creating A New Database

To create a new database in phpMyAdmin, go to “Database” (You can also find an option to create a database in the dashboard) and give a name to your database and click on “Create”. (Some web hosts by default do not give the option to create a new database, in this case, you may need to contact your hosting company).

Add An User

You also need to add a user, go to “Privileges” and then “Add New User”.

Here you need to fill in the username and password for the user, also you need to give privileges to manage the database (by default here everything is already selected, just leave it as it is – In case it is not selected, you need to select all manually).

Note: Here you will need to keep a note of username, password, hostname, and database name (We will use these while installing WordPress).

This concludes Step 2, We have successfully created a New Database and added a User.

STEP 3: Installing WordPress And Configuration

As we have completed all the pre-required processes to Install WordPress Manually. Now it’s time to start with the actual installation of WordPress.

It would hardly take 5 minutes.

Launch your web browser and open your WordPress Directory (in a web browser), If you have installed WordPress in your main directory, you can type “yourdomain.com” or if you have installed WordPress in Sub Directory, you may type “yourdomain.com/sub-directory/” in your web browser (you need to replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name). This will launch the installation process.

Click on “Let’s Go”, in the next page, you need to fill in the database details (You already have these details right! We got these things while creating a new database and adding a new user). Once you filled in all the details, just click on “Submit”.

You will get a confirmation if the details you entered are correct.

Click on “Run The Install”. On the next page, you need to set up your WordPress Website.

Fill in all the details (Everything here is self-explanatory) and click on “Install WordPress”. Once installed, you will get a confirmation message with the login details to your newly created WordPress website.

WOW! You have successfully Installed WordPress Manually. Simply log in to your WordPress Website and start customizing now.

How To Install WordPress on Localhost (on Your Computer or Laptop)

Sometimes, you may need to install WordPress on your computer or laptop for local website development. It is essentially required for WordPress developers to develop a site locally and once they have completed the development they can move the site to the live server. For this, you need to install Ampps on your system.

STEP 1: Install Ampps on Your Computer/Laptop

First of all, download Ampps. Ampps is available for various operating systems, you can install it on your Windows, Mac OS, and Linux OS as well. Once downloaded, click on the installation file to start the installation wizard. Just keep clicking on the “Next” button to install the Ampps on your system, it’s really quick and easy.

STEP 2: Install WordPress

Ampps is powered by Softaculous i.e. you get the one-click installation option for WordPress. You can easily auto-install many other web applications as well. Once you have installed Ampps on your system, you can install WordPress with a one-click installation option, you can follow the steps given here. Also, if you want, you can install WordPress manually, for this you can follow the steps given here.

With this, you can develop a WordPress website locally on your system, you can test all the design and functional changes of your site and once you are done with the development, you can move the files to your live server.

How To Install WordPress on A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting comes with cPanel and also they provide a one-click installation option to install WordPress. You can simply follow the steps that we have given above to Install WordPress on A2 Hosting. In case you are using their managed WordPress hosting, that comes WordPress pre-installed and if you want to install more WordPress instances, you can just refer to the official video below.

How To Install WordPress on SiteGround

SiteGround offers a completely different but really cool wizard tool to install WordPress. The process is really simple, easy, and fast. Here’s a quick video showing you the whole process of installing WordPress on SiteGround.

How To Install WordPress on Bluehost

Bluehost is again one of the very popular WordPress hostings. They offer a slightly different panel when we compare it with the cPanel, I guess they use a customized panel. Though installing WordPress is really quick and easy, here is a quick video that you can refer to when installing WordPress on Bluehost.

FAQs When Installing WordPress (Manually)

Here are some of the most common and frequently asked questions that many people ask us when they try to install WordPress. There are different ways and also different hostings have different ways of installing WordPress. We tried to compile some of the most common questions and answered them here to help you and all our other users in Installing WordPress successfully without having any issues.

Conclusion

By now, you know how to install WordPress manually. I have explained to you various methods to Install WordPress. Also, I have explained to you how to install WordPress manually on some of the Best and Most Recommended WordPress Hosting Providers. I hope this entire process of installing WordPress manually was smooth for you and you’ve enjoyed this. For any suggestions or if you feel, I have missed something, please drop a comment below.