WordPress constantly break new records as the world's most popular content management system (CMS). Over 33% of websites on the internet use WordPress. Even amongst popular website builders, WordPress opens a serious gap as you can see from this pie chart of CMS usage from builtwoth.com
CMS Usage Distribution in the Top 1 Million Sites – builtwith.com
As a result of that spread, most leading hosting companies enable you to install WordPress with their systems, usually in a very short process and no technical knowledge required.
In this tutorial, we'll go over the most common WordPress installation processes. Click to go to the appropriate section, or keep reading:
- Installing WordPress on Cloudways
- Installing WordPress on Bluehost
- Installing WordPress on Fastcomet
We will not cover local installation in this tutorial. Very shortly, WordPress can also be installed locally on your computer, however, we find it a bit of an unnecessary step unless you are serious coders that work with GIT or SVN and a part of a team.
Before Installing WordPress
As WordPress is open-source software, it requires a hosting plan with a hosting company such as Fastcomet or Bluehost to go “live”.
A hosting company is a company that provides you with a place on a server where you host your website files.
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Shared hosting for small websites or blogs
We usually recommend using Bluehost as they're the biggest hosting company AND provides you with a free domain for the 1st year, with a 60% discount. We also recommend Fastcomet as they are highly trustworthy and been tested by us plenty of times before.
Best managed cloud hosting solutions
Our #1 choice for a hosting company is – Cloudways. Cloudways is not an ordinary hosting company, as it is a dashboard for Cloud hosting. It allows you to easily host your website on the best cloud hosting providers in the world, such as Amazon, Google, and others.
All of the hosting companies mentioned have great technical support with lots of WordPress knowledge which will come handy from time to time.
Click here to read our full review on –
How To Install WordPress
As explained earlier in this post, WordPress is open-source software that operates on a GNU General Public License which basically means it's free to use.
In the market today, we have 3 kinds of website builders:
- Open-source website builders such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.
- Close code website builders like Wix, Site123
- Semi-open website builder like Shopify that allows you to manipulate your website's code, but they restrict you from doing certain operation or getting access to certain places.
If you don't want to install your own copy of WordPress but will rather choose a closed code website builder for less hustle, check out our best website builders listed here.
WordPress installation comes in 2 major forms;
- manual installation
- wizards
Most hosting companies have an automated or semi-automated WordPress installation and we will not go over them in this tutorial.
Download WordPress here for manual installation. Keep reading for easy installation
#1 – Register and Install WordPress on Cloudways
As mentioned before, Cloudways is our favorite hosting solution. However, using Cloudways is NOT for everyone and not for every use. It is a cloud hosting solution, that runs manged VPS machines (Virtual Private Server) and helps you operate some very technical servers, very easily. If you are in need of a server for a high traffic website, multiple websites, and landing pages, etc, then Cloudways is the answer. For a small website or blog, you should probably use Bluehost or Fastcomet which will cheaper and a great solution for you.
If you don't have an account with Cloudways yet than see the section above. Once you'll finish the registration, You'll be asked to add a server. Don't be alarmed, It's simple and I'll walk you through it.
Adding a server with a WordPress installation
Click here to go to Cloudways and than click the signup button on the top right corner
Now you'll get to the registration page. Fill in the details and click the “START FREE” button
Great! we've made it so far 🙂 Now we can create the server that we'll host on. It a simple process, but you'll get the best server I know, so bear with me.
Now let's click the “Add Server” button to add a new server (note, you only need 1 server)
Now we're in the server creation form, and at the beginning of it, we'll select the application we want on it which is, of course, WordPress.
So let go on and click on the “Select you Application” button
Now we can see that we have a few choices, let's go over the list:
- Version 5.x.x – a clean WordPress installation with Cloudways optimization (such as Caching plugin, etc.) – If you're building a blog, a marketing website, a magazine and such websites, this will be your choice
- Version 5.x.x with WooCommerce Version 4.x.x – WooCommerce is WordPress's online shop plugin. If you are building an online store, choose these options
- Multisite Version 5.x.x – WordPress allows you to build a Super admin to control a lot of different WordPress websites from 1 installation. If you are building a blog network, or you're planning to have multiple websites for your brand, this will be your option. Be advised, multisite is for a more advanced WordPress user.
- Clean (No Cloudways Optimization) Version 5.x.x – Not recommended
For this example, I've chosen “Version 5.x.x”. Now that it's chosen, other fields will be open
- Name of the website – Used to be found on your dashboard. Can be changed later.
- Name of server – Most of you will use just 1 server. But some of you will use more. Name your server, it can be changed later.
- Name of project – A way to filter through different sites of different projects.
Now that we've chosen our WordPress installation, we can choose our cloud hosting provider. Be advised, DigitalOcean's server can be upgraded, but cannot be downgraded. So if you think you will want to downgrade your server sometime in the future, choose other cloud hosting services. Otherwise, DigitalOcean is a pretty good service and is recommended by lots of people.
On the lower left side of the window, you can see your pricing. On cloud hosting, you pay for the use of the machine, so you\ll see a “PAY AS YOU GO” notice and the price per hour of the working server.
We've chosen AWS (Amazon Web Services) as it's our favorite. Although we're going to use Cloudflare as our CND later on, and it will help us with speed optimization worldwide, we will still choose the server farm closest to our target audience. So if it's in the US, that's what we'll choose
Hurray!! Now we have our own WordPress website on a brand new AWS server in the US 🙂
Adding a WordPress Installation on an Existing Cloudways Server
Adding a WordPress “Application” on an existing server is a much shorter process.
Click the big “+” icon on the top of the screen
Click the “Add Application” menu item
Now choose if you want to add a new server for the installation, or use an existing server. Most of the times, you'll choose the existing server
Now name the WordPress installation, and choose the project you want it in
That's it! you have a new WordPress installation on an existing server 🙂
#2 – Register and Install WordPress on Bluehost
We checked and found that Bluehost is one of the biggest shared hosting providers in the world. It has millions of customers, data centers all over the world, and freebies like no other hosting company send. Amongst its freebies you'll find; FREE domain for 1 year, $200 advertising credit, and the list go on.
On top of all that, it also has stellar 24/7 customer support, easy to use dashboard, automatic WordPress install and a bunch of other addons that will help you with enhanced security, website speed, etc. For a beginner webmaster or someone that wants peace of mind, Bluehost is the answer. Click here to read the full Bluehost review.
Watch this video on how to register a new account and install WordPress in ONLY 4 minutes, or keep reading for the textual tutorial.
Register an account with Bluehost
Go to the Bluehost homepage and click the ‘Get Started' button – Go now >>
On the pricing page, choose the Basic package. This package is most suited for small websites, blogs, and small online stores.
If you have a domain name state it here, if you don't have a domain name and you want a FREE one, add it here. You can also choose to add it later.
Click here to learn more on domain names
Next, fill in your information, choose the pricing plan, and your credit card details.
Congrats! You have your own Bluehost hosting account 🙂 Now let's install you a WordPress website…
Fresh WordPress installation on Bluehost
Right after your registration, in your first login, you'll get to an installation wizard screen. This wizard will help you install your first website with ease and without any prior knowledge on WordPress or even any tech background. You can skip this step, but I strongly recommend you take the next 60 seconds to complete it and finish installing your website.
Let's see how it looks;
Next, we'll be asked if we want to add a ‘Blog', ‘Store', or ‘About' section to our site. I chose the blog and about sections as I'm not planning on creating an online store
Give your new site a name and a tagline
Choose your website's design from thousands of Free design themes, or go with the professional for a higher quality design
That's it! You are ready to launch your new website 🙂
#3 – Register and Install WordPress on Fastcomet
