Install WordPress or another application in one click

Your control panel can install an application onto a website in one step. It makes the application's database, its settings and its first admin account for you.

What you can install

The catalogue on a website's Apps tab includes:

• WordPress: blogs and websites.
• Joomla: sites with structured content and many editors.
• Ghost: publishing for writers and newsletters.
• Wiki.js, NodeBB and Flarum: a wiki and two forums.

Each tile says what the application runs on, for example PHP or Node.js. One-click applications are a plan feature. On a plan without it, the install is refused with a message saying the plan does not include it.

Install an application

1. In your control panel, select My sites, then the website.
2. Open the Apps tab.
3. On the application's tile, select Install followed by its name, for example Install WordPress.
4. If the form asks for them, fill in Site title and Admin email.
5. If a Database choice is shown, leave it on Create one for me (recommended), unless you are bringing a database you already have.
6. Select Install.
7. Copy the admin username and password the moment they appear. They are shown once and never again.

The install can take a few minutes. The button says what is happening while it runs: it creates the database first, then the application.

Good to know: if an application runs on something different from your site, for example Node.js on a PHP site, the tile says so. Installing it switches the site's runtime for you, and your files stay where they are.

After it is installed

The Apps tab then shows the application itself, not the catalogue. Its header has Open site, and Open the admin once the application has reported where its admin area is. Applications that run their own processes, such as Ghost or NodeBB, also get Restart.

For WordPress, the WordPress card on the same tab manages the install. It lets you:

• open WordPress's own admin with Open wp-admin, or get a New admin password if you have lost yours
• choose whether core, plugins and themes update themselves, under Auto-update
• make a staging copy to try changes on.

For the other applications, the Apps tab offers Repair, Reinstall and Remove (each followed by the application's name) where they apply:

• Repair fetches the application again and keeps everything it holds.
• Reinstall starts over: its files are put aside, its database is removed, and it is installed again.
• Remove takes it off the site and puts its files aside. Its database stays.

If an earlier install left a database

If you install an application again on a site that already had it, the control panel asks what to do with the old database:

• Start clean: the old database and everything in it are removed.
• Keep the data and install over it: the new install finds the old accounts, and does not reset their passwords.

If the install fails

The Apps tab shows what went wrong, and the catalogue comes back under Try again, or choose another application. The Where things stand card on the Overview tab also says when an application did not install.

Related

• Make a WordPress staging copy and publish it
• Create a database and use the database manager
• Restore a backup, a single file, or something you deleted