Installing WordPress

The installer is a guided wizard that puts a working WordPress on any domain in a couple of minutes, and it can just as easily adopt a WordPress that already exists on the server. It ends with a one-click login into the fresh wp-admin.

Four ways to start

The first step picks the target:

• Existing domain: any active domain on the server. Choosing one inherits its PHP version and SSL state automatically; domains linked to Docker containers are shown but locked.
• New domain: type a domain and the installer creates it on the way. Combined with the auto-create user toggle, one wizard run produces the hosting account, the domain and the WordPress on it; the plan's limits are shown before you commit, and the generated panel credentials are displayed once at the end.
• Subdomain: pick a parent domain and either an existing subdomain or a new prefix; PHP is inherited from the parent.
• Import existing: pick a domain and the panel scans the account's home directory for wp-config.php files, listing every WordPress it finds with its version, path and database. Pick one and the panel adopts it: from then on it gets one-click login, updates, security, staging and backups like any managed site. Already-tracked installations are marked and cannot be double-imported.

Every target also takes an optional install directory under public_html, so example.com/blog setups work out of the box. If the chosen location already contains a WordPress, the wizard says so and offers force reinstall, defaulting to taking a backup first; skipping that backup requires a typed DELETE confirmation.

Site, admin and settings

• Site Setup: title, search-engine visibility (on by default), the WordPress interface language chosen from roughly a hundred locales, PHP version (preselected from the server default or the domain), and HTTP versus HTTPS with a warning when the domain has no certificate yet.
• Admin Account: username (the wizard refuses the literal admin), password with a live strength meter (minimum 8 characters), and an e-mail that is validated with WordPress's own strict rules so the installation cannot fail late on a technically-invalid address.
• Settings: the database table prefix (default wp_) and an optional automatic core-updates switch. There is no database form at all: name, user and password are generated for you.
• Review & Install: a summary of every choice before the button.

Not offered, by design: WordPress version selection (the installer ships the current release), multisite, and theme or plugin preselection; the store on the Plugins & Themes page covers the last one better.

What actually happens when you click Install

The progress bar during installation is a simple busy indicator, not a step-by-step feed. New-domain installs that include SSL issuance take a few minutes, as the wizard's summary notes.

The finish line

The success screen offers Visit Site and WP Admin, the latter using the same one-click login as the Sites page, so you land in wp-admin without typing the password you just set. If the wizard auto-created a hosting user, that panel account's credentials are shown once, with a copy button and a save-this-now warning.

Access

The page sits behind the wordpress license feature. Customers install onto their own domains; administrators and resellers can pick the owner, and the auto-create-user path additionally requires the auto-user permission and a default plan.