Install WordPress manually

Install WordPress by hand when you need control Softaculous does not give you — uploading the files, creating the database and running the installer.

Install WordPress without an installer. Applies to shared, reseller and Premium hosting.

For a normal new site, use Softaculous instead — it does all of this in one step and assigns a unique database table prefix automatically. Install manually when you need a specific version, a specific directory layout, or you are recreating a site from parts.

1. Download WordPress

Download the package from wordpress.org/download and unzip it. You get a folder named wordpress — you will upload its contents, not the folder itself.

2. Upload the files

Upload into your document root, usually public_html. Any of these work:

File Manager in cPanel — upload the zip and extract it there. This is by far the fastest option; WordPress is several thousand small files and FTP transfers them one at a time.
FTP or SFTP — see Upload files with FileZilla.
SSH — see Connect over SSH.

Upload the contents of the wordpress folder. If you end up with public_html/wordpress/index.php, your site is at example.com/wordpress rather than example.com.

3. Create the database

In cPanel, open MySQL Database Wizard under Databases.
Enter a database name and select Next Step.
Enter a username and password, then select Create User.
Grant All Privileges and finish.

Keep the database name, username and password. Both names are prefixed with your cPanel username.

4. Run the installer

Visit https://example.com. WordPress detects that it is not configured and starts its setup:

Enter the database name, username and password from step 3.
Leave Database Host as localhost.
Change the table prefix from wp_ to something unique, such as wg7x_.

Changing the table prefix matters if you run more than one WordPress site on the account. Sites sharing wp_ will share Redis cache entries and start serving each other's content — see Use Redis object caching without LiteSpeed Cache.

Complete the site title and admin account. Do not use admin as the username — it is the first thing automated attacks try.

Check it worked

Visit https://example.com and confirm the site loads, then sign in at /wp-admin.

If HTTPS shows a warning, the certificate has not been issued — see Install a free SSL certificate.

If the installer will not run

"Error establishing a database connection" — the credentials are wrong, or the user was not granted privileges on the database.
A directory listing appears instead — the files are one level too deep. Move the contents up into the document root.
A 500 error — check error_log in the document root. See Find your error log.