Installing WordPress on Plesk

If your hosting account runs on Plesk, you have two routes to getting WordPress up and running: the built-in WordPress Toolkit, which handles the whole process for you, or a manual installation if you prefer more control over the setup. This post covers both.

Plesk’s WordPress Toolkit is the faster option for most people. It creates the database, downloads WordPress, configures the files and sets up your admin account in one go. The manual route takes a few more steps but follows the same process you would use on any hosting platform.

Installing WordPress with WordPress Toolkit

WordPress Toolkit is included in Plesk and gives you a dedicated interface for installing, managing and updating WordPress sites. To install a new site, follow these steps.

1. Log in to your Plesk control panel.
2. In the left-hand menu, click WordPress to open WordPress Toolkit.
3. Click the Install button at the top of the page.
4. Choose Quick Install to use default settings, or Custom Install to set your own database name, admin username and site title.
5. Select the domain you want to install WordPress on from the dropdown.
6. Click Install to confirm. Plesk will download WordPress, create the database and configure everything automatically.
7. Once the installation completes, you will see your new site listed in WordPress Toolkit with links to the front end and the admin dashboard.

Installing WordPress manually in Plesk

If you want to install WordPress without using WordPress Toolkit, you can do it manually through the Plesk file manager and database tools. This approach gives you full control over where files are placed and how the database is configured.

Step 1: Create a database

WordPress needs a MySQL database to store its content. In Plesk, go to Databases under the relevant domain and click Add Database. Give it a name, create a database user with a strong password, and note both down. You will need them during the WordPress setup wizard.

Step 2: Upload the WordPress files

Download the latest version of WordPress from wordpress.org and extract the zip file on your computer. In Plesk, open File Manager for your domain and upload the extracted files to the httpdocs folder. If you want WordPress at the root of your domain, upload the contents of the wordpress folder rather than the folder itself.

Step 3: Run the WordPress installer

Visit your domain in a browser. WordPress will detect that it has not been configured yet and launch the setup wizard. Select your language, then enter the database name, username and password you created in step 1. The database host is usually localhost. Click Submit, then Run the installation.

On the next screen, enter your site title, admin username, password and email address. Click Install WordPress to finish. You can then log in at yourdomain.com/wp-admin.

After installation: a few things worth doing

Once WordPress is installed, a few quick steps will put your site in a better position before you start building. These are not mandatory, but skipping them tends to cause problems later.

• Install an SSL certificate. Most browsers flag sites without HTTPS as insecure. Plesk includes Let’s Encrypt integration, so you can add a free certificate directly from the control panel. Our guide to installing a Let’s Encrypt SSL in cPanel covers the general process if you need a reference point.
• Set your permalink structure. Go to Settings > Permalinks in the WordPress dashboard and choose a URL format. Post name is the most widely used option and works well for SEO.
• Delete unused themes and plugins. WordPress ships with default themes and the Hello Dolly plugin. Remove anything you are not using to reduce the attack surface on your site.
• Set up backups. WordPress Toolkit includes a backup feature. Use it before making any significant changes. Our WordPress backup guide covers the options available.

If you want to go further with securing your site after installation, the security plugins for WordPress post covers the tools worth considering, and our guide on how plugins can compromise security explains what to watch out for as your site grows.

WordPress Toolkit makes the installation process about as frictionless as it gets on Plesk. Whether you use the automatic route or prefer to set things up manually, you should have a working WordPress site within a few minutes. Our Plesk hosting plans include WordPress Toolkit as standard, so you can manage installations, updates and backups from one place.

If you run into any issues during setup, the UWH support team is available to help.