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WordPress WordPress for Website Owners Getting a WordPress Site Setting Up Your Own Site

Anton Bredl
Anton Bredl
15,359 Points
Posted by Anton Bredl
Anton Bredl
15,359 Points

What is the situation with CPanel?

Do I need to download CPanel?

Do I need to download a VPS? What is a VPS in relation to CPanel? Which VPS should I use?

How do these two (CPanel & VPS) work in concert with WordPress?

Help please! I am stuck.

Anton Bredl
Anton Bredl
15,359 Points
Anton Bredl
Anton Bredl
15,359 Points

where is the one click install coming from?

3 Answers

A Arun
A Arun
12,222 Points

VPS (virtual private server) as the name suggests is similar to having your own personal computer/server .. but "on internet" .. means you have almost full access to the "virtual server" - via command line. (so you cannot "download" it, but you can "work" on that server to install or upload new softwares like wordpress)

Shared Hosting is a cheaper alternate, where a server is shared between multiple people - noone has command line access / or perhaps a very limited command line access.

Cpanel is a web based tool - and it helps to manage many webhosting related processes (eg- uploading files, managing emails, disk space, etc). Most shared hosting providers usually come preinstalled with cpanel.

VPS may or may not have cpanel, but you yourself can install cpanel and any other softwares if you want to, but it's even more complicated - https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-cpanel-on-a-virtual-server-running-centos-6

Wordpress can run on either of these setups. If you are not sure, I will suggest to go for a shared hosting with cpanel and one which provides one click install softwares - that will take care of creating database and filesystem for you, and all left for you to choose wordpress themes and plugins for your needs.

Hope that helps?

Anne Hennegar
Anne Hennegar
9,164 Points
Anne Hennegar
Anne Hennegar
9,164 Points

Cpanel is something your webhost provides. It's a front-end to the web server that allows you to do various functions like setup email accounts, view logs, upload files etc.. It's pretty popular among webhosts, but there are others like Plesk. Some webhosts use their own admin tools.

VPS is a type of "virtual" web hosting. It's more expensive and flexible than "shared hosting" where there are hundred of domains on the same server. A VPS is a "virtual private server" that is more secure than shared hosting. You also have more control of your space and settings.

WordPress can run on either of these setups. Some webhosts who have cPanel have a section for automatic installations such as popular CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc. The 5 minute install is another way of installing WordPress. You would download the software and follow the instructions for creating the database. You can find more details at: https://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Famous_5-Minute_Install

Anton Bredl
Anton Bredl
15,359 Points
Anton Bredl
Anton Bredl
15,359 Points

Thank you both! Each of your answers was helpful. I figured out that it was a problem with my hosting service that was keeping me from accessing CPanel. Lots to learn still. Thanks again :)