Softaculous is a one-click application installer built into Hordanso's cPanel. It makes installing WordPress (and other apps) extremely fast — no manual file uploads required.
Step-by-Step: Installing WordPress
- Log in to cPanel.
- In the Software section, click Softaculous Apps Installer (or just Softaculous).
- Click the WordPress icon, or search for WordPress in the search bar.
- Click the Install button (not Quick Install — use the full Install form for more control).
- Fill in the installation form:
- Choose Protocol: select https:// (you should have SSL installed)
- Choose Domain: select the domain you want to install WordPress on
- In Directory: leave blank to install at the root (yourdomain.com), or type a folder name (e.g., blog) to install at yourdomain.com/blog
- Under Site Settings, enter:
- Site Name: your website name
- Site Description: a short tagline
- Under Admin Account, enter:
- Admin Username: choose something other than 'admin' for security
- Admin Password: use a strong password
- Admin Email: your email address — this is where password resets go
- Under Database Settings, Softaculous will create a new database automatically. Leave these settings as they are unless you have a specific reason to change them.
- Scroll down and click Install.
- Wait 30–60 seconds. You will see a success screen with:
- Your WordPress site URL
- Your WordPress Admin URL (yourdomain.com/wp-admin)
- Bookmark your WordPress admin URL and log in with the credentials you set.
After Installing WordPress
- Install a security plugin (e.g., Wordfence)
- Choose and install a theme
- Install essential plugins (Yoast SEO, WPForms, etc.)
- Set your permalink structure: Settings > Permalinks > Post name
Note: If your domain does not yet have an SSL certificate, install one first (see How to Install a Free Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate — SEC-01) before installing WordPress so you can select https://.
