An Easy Guide on How to Install WordPress 

Want to explore thousands of free, customizable, and unique themes and plugins for your website? Install WordPress, the biggest and most popular CMS platform globally.  

WordPress is among the biggest content management systems, which offers thousands of unique plugins and customizable themes, which help you in creating your dream website. To utilize the full and unlimited potential of WordPress, users can install WordPress to your domain or on another host. To install WordPress, you can choose from any of the three easy-to-follow steps: one-click installation, manual method, or developer methods.  

Through the blog, you can also learn how to install WordPress in Laragon, DDEV/Docker, and Domain. The blog also offers you various key considerations, which you must follow before installing WordPress, like checking for domain security, name, hosting requirements, and storage, among others. 

What is WordPress?

WordPress is among the largest, free, and open-source content management systems (or CMS), which is used to build and manage websites without the need for extensive coding. WordPress powers about 43% of websites available on the internet, and features over 60,000 unique plugins and over 14,000 free themes to easily customize your website.  

WordPress was launched under the GLPv2, making it a free CMS platform. It also hosts a vast global community, which helps and contributes to its development. Originally built for blogging, WordPress offers multiple applications to the users, which include e-commerce stores, business websites, blog post websites, or portfolio sites, among others.  

The process of installing WordPress is simple and easy to follow. There are three main methods of installing WordPress, which include using a web host method, using the manual method, or using the developer method. The web host method (or “one-click installer”) is considered the easiest way to install WordPress, as this process automates the installation process and technical setups. The manual method of installing WordPress offers full control over the installation, whereas the developer method is generally used to build and test a site on your local computer. 

Using a Web Host: 

• Step 1: Log in to your hosting account and navigate to the Control Panel. 

• Step 2: Locate the “WordPress” icon or the “Auto Installer“.  

• Step 3: Click on “Install Now” and enter basic details, like domain, site settings, and username & password of the admin account.  

• Step 4: Click “install“. 

Using Manual Methods: 

• Step 1: Download the ZIP file of the latest version of WordPress from WordPress.org on your computer.  

• Step 2: Log in to your hosting control panel, navigate to “MySQL Database,” and create a new database and user.  

• Step 3: Grant the user “All Privileges” to the new database.  

• Step 4: Upload the unzipped WordPress file using an FTP client to the root folder of your server.  

• Step 5: Visit your domain in a browser > select your language > enter the database name, username, and password.  

• Step 6: Enter your site title and admin login details to complete the installation. 

Using Developer Methods: 

• Step 1: Use tools like XAMPP and MAMP to turn your computer into a local server environment. 

• Step 2: Follow the steps for manual installation, using “localhost” as your server address.  

Or  

• Use tools like Local WP to automate the entire local server setup process. In this process, you just need to name your site and click “Create.” 

How to Install WordPress in Laragon: 

Laragon is a lightweight, fast, and portable local development environment, which is designed for Windows. Laragon is used to build, manage, and test various web applications, using code such as PHP, Python, Java, and Node.js, among others.  

The process of installing WordPress in Laragon is extremely fast, which includes 2 different methods, i.e., one-click installation and manual installation.  

The following methods offers you a detailed guide on How to Install WordPress on Laragon.  

One-Click Installation:  

The one-click installation process of WordPress in Laragon is the fastest and most recommended method.  

• Step 1: Open the Laragon Application and click on “Start All” to activate Apache and MySQL.  

• Step 2: Click on Menu > Quick App > WordPress. 

• Step 3: Enter the name of the site and click OK. On clicking OK, Laragon will automatically download the latest version of WordPress. It will also create a local database and generate a URL.  

• Step 4: After downloading, your browser will open the installation page of WordPress.  

• Step 5: In the installation page, select your language > enter your database details > click on Install WordPress. 

Manual Installation: 

• Step 1: Download WordPress ZIP. 

• Step 2: Inside c:\laragon\www, create a new folder and unzip the file.  

• Step 3: Right-click on Laragon and go to MySQL > phpMyAdmin. Create a new database. 

• Step 4: Open your browser and enter http:// [New Folder Name].test and follow WordPress prompts to set up the database. 

How to Install WordPress in DDEV/Docker:  

To install WordPress in DDEV/Docker, you can follow the following steps: 

• Step 1: Create a Project Directory by opening your terminal and creating a folder for the new site.  

• Step 2: Initialize the DDEV configuration. It is essential to specify the project type to ensure correct Nginx/Apache and PHP settings.  

• Step 3: Launch Docker container and download the latest WordPress files.  

• Step 4: Complete setup through a browser or command line. 

How to Install WordPress in Domain: 

To install WordPress on a Domain, you can follow any of the two given methods:  

Using a One-Click Installer: 

The one-click installer method is the most recommended and easiest method of installing WordPress on a domain. The method automatically handles all database creation, along with file installation. 

• Step 1: Log in to your Hosting Account and navigate to the control panel.  

• Step 2: Locate “Website“, “Auto Installer“, or “WordPress“.  

• Step 3: Select the domain you want to use and set up your WordPress credentials.  

• Step 4: Click on Install to automatically set up the database and install WordPress.  

Using a Manual Method: 

The manual method of installing WordPress on a domain involves the manual setup to upload WordPress using an FTP client.  

• Step 1: Download the latest version of WordPress ZIP from WordPress.org. 

• Step 2: Use an FTP client to upload the WordPress unzipped file to the public_html folder of your server.  

• Step 3: Select MySQL Database in your control panel and create a new database, user ID, and password.  

• Step 4: Rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and update it with the credentials of your database.  

• Step 5: Open a browser and go to your domain to complete the final setup steps. 

Key Considerations before Installing WordPress: 

Before installing WordPress, you need to follow some essential considerations, which include: 

• Hosting Requirement: It is essential to ensure that your host provides key features like one-click installation, daily backups, and adequate server resources.  

• Domain Name Selection: Before installing WordPress, you should choose an easy-to-spell and relevant domain name, ideally with a .com extension.  

• Security: It is also essential that the host provides an SSL certificate, which is crucial for the security of your website. 

• Storage and Performance: Evaluating your disk space and bandwidth requirements is also essential before installing WordPress in your domain. 

Conclusion 

WordPress is among the biggest CMS platforms globally, which powers about 43% of the total websites on the internet. WordPress offers its users over 60,000 plugins and over 14,000 customizable themes, which help in creating unique websites, from blog posts to e-commerce websites. One of the major quests which arises while creating and managing a website is “how to install WordPress?”, which ensures easy and more optimized management for the users. The process of installing WordPress is pretty easy, which includes two major methods: using a web host, the manual method, and the developer method. The web-host method (or one-click installer method) of installing WordPress is considered the easiest method, as the process automates the installation along with all the other technical setups. The manual method and developer method of installing WordPress offer full control of installation to the users.