How to Manually Install WordPress

This guide walks you through installing WordPress by hand on your Noiz hosting: downloading the software, creating a database and database user, uploading the files, and running the browser-based setup that WordPress calls its famous five-minute install. A manual install is the alternative to the one-click app installer built into most hosting panels. It takes a few more steps, but it gives you a completely clean site running the exact core version you chose, with nothing bundled in that you did not ask for. This article is written for Noiz clients who are comfortable moving files with an SFTP client or the panel File Manager, and it uses generic example names such as yourdomain.com that you replace with your own.

Last reviewed: 27 July 2026, against WordPress 7.0.2 (latest stable). This guide is written for Noiz hosting and is kept current against WordPress. It complements, and does not replace, the official WordPress documentation linked below.

Official Documentation Reference

• How to install WordPress (WordPress Developer Docs): the canonical reference for the manual install, including the detailed and basic step lists.
• Editing wp-config.php (WordPress Developer Docs): the full reference for every directive in the configuration file, including the table prefix and the many optional constants.
• Requirements (WordPress.org): the current server requirements WordPress recommends, kept up to date with each release.
• Download WordPress (WordPress.org): the official download page, and the only place you should ever get the core files.

Prerequisites

• A Noiz hosting plan with the domain already pointed at your account, so that visiting the domain reaches your web space rather than a holding page.
• Access to your hosting control panel. Noiz runs Plesk on the South African platform (neo.noiz.co.za), DirectAdmin on the Ireland platform, and ISPConfig. The panel is where you create the database and can reach the File Manager and phpMyAdmin.
• Either an SFTP client (such as any modern file-transfer program) with your SFTP credentials, or comfort using the panel File Manager, for uploading the files.
• A server that meets the current WordPress requirements. Noiz hosting already ships with a supported PHP 8.3 or newer and a compatible MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.11 database, and every Noiz site is served over HTTPS, which WordPress now expects. You do not need to arrange any of this yourself.

When to Install Manually, and When a One-Click Installer Is Fine

Before you spend the extra effort, it is worth being honest about the trade-off. Most hosting panels include a one-click installer (an app installer or a WordPress toolkit) that provisions a database, drops in the files, and finishes the setup for you in under a minute. For a great many sites that is the right choice, and there is no prize for doing it the long way.

A manual install earns its keep when you want control the automated tool does not give you:

• A genuinely clean site. Some one-click tools pre-select a handful of plugins or a particular theme, or leave behind their own management plugin. A manual install gives you nothing but WordPress core, so you decide from an empty slate what goes on.
• An exact, current core version. Downloading straight from WordPress.org guarantees you are installing the latest release the moment it ships, rather than whatever version the installer's catalogue happens to have cached.
• Installing into a subdirectory, or giving WordPress its own folder. If you want WordPress to live at yourdomain.com/blog/, or to keep the core files tidily in their own directory while the site still answers at the root, a manual install makes that straightforward.
• Reusing an existing database, or restoring a site. If you are rebuilding from a backup or attaching WordPress to a database you already have, you are working by hand anyway.
• Learning how the pieces fit. Once you have done this once, the errors that take WordPress sites offline (a wrong database password, a mis-typed host, a permissions problem) stop being mysterious, because you know exactly which file holds which setting.

If none of those apply and you simply want a blog online quickly, the one-click installer in your panel is a perfectly good choice, and Noiz support can point you to it. If you are on a managed plan, you can also ask the Noiz support team to perform the manual install for you and hand over the finished site.

Step 1: Download WordPress

Get the software only from the official source, wordpress.org/download. The download is a single ZIP archive; the current release, WordPress 7.0.2, is served from https://wordpress.org/latest.zip. Never install a copy from a third-party site or a bundle of unknown origin, because that is one of the commonest ways a site is compromised before it even launches.

You have two sensible approaches:

• Download to your own computer, then upload. Save the ZIP, unzip it locally (you will get a folder named wordpress containing files such as index.php, wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes, and wp-config-sample.php), and upload the files as described in Step 3.
• Download straight onto the server. If your File Manager offers a way to fetch a URL, or you use SFTP alongside a shell where fetching is available, you can pull latest.zip directly into your web space and extract it there, which is much faster than uploading thousands of small files one at a time.

Extracting on the server, where possible, is the quicker route, because unpacking one ZIP takes seconds while transferring the roughly two thousand individual files WordPress contains over SFTP can take several minutes.

Step 2: Create a Database and Database User

WordPress stores all of your content, settings, users, and comments in a database. Before it can run, you need an empty MySQL or MariaDB database and a database user that has full rights over it. On Noiz shared hosting the reliable place to create both is your hosting panel, not phpMyAdmin: on shared platforms the phpMyAdmin login usually lacks the privilege to create new users, whereas the panel creates the database and the user together and grants the rights for you.

Creating the database in your panel

• Plesk (South African platform, neo.noiz.co.za): open Databases, choose Add Database, give it a name, then add a database user with a strong password at the same time.
• DirectAdmin (Ireland platform): open MySQL Management and Create New Database; DirectAdmin creates the database and a user with full rights in one step.
• ISPConfig: under Sites, open Database and add a new database, creating its database user at the same time.

Whichever panel you use, write down four things, because you will type them into WordPress in the next step:

1. The database name.
2. The database user.
3. The password you set for that user.
4. The database host, which on Noiz shared hosting is almost always localhost. Check what the panel shows when the database is created, because a small number of setups use a different host name or a specific port, and getting this wrong is the single most common cause of the dreaded database-connection error.

A gotcha worth knowing: shared-hosting panels usually prepend your account name to whatever you type, so a database you name wpsite may actually be created as youracct_wpsite, and the same for the user. Copy the full final names exactly as the panel displays them, not the short names you typed.

Use a database character set of utf8mb4 if the panel gives you the choice, as that is what modern WordPress expects and what lets it store the full range of characters and emoji correctly.

phpMyAdmin, reachable from the panel, is still useful here: after you create the database you can open it to confirm it exists and is empty, and later to import content or take a look inside. For a fresh install, though, it is the panel that does the creating.

Step 3: Upload the WordPress Files

Now put the WordPress files into the correct place in your web space. On Noiz hosting your site is served from a document root, typically a folder such as httpdocs on Plesk or public_html on DirectAdmin; the panel File Manager opens in the right place, and your SFTP account lands there or nearby.

Root install (the usual case)

To have WordPress answer at yourdomain.com, you want the contents of the wordpress folder in your document root, not the folder itself. This is the mistake almost everyone makes the first time: if you upload the wordpress folder whole, your site ends up living at yourdomain.com/wordpress/, which is not what you wanted. So the document root should directly contain index.php, wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes and the rest, with no extra wordpress layer wrapping them.

Subdirectory install

If you genuinely want WordPress in a subfolder, for example a blog at yourdomain.com/blog/, then create a blog folder in your document root and upload the contents of the wordpress folder into that instead. The site will then run at that subpath.

A note on file permissions

Uploads through the panel File Manager or a normal SFTP account generally arrive with sensible permissions already, so you rarely need to touch them. If you do end up setting them, the safe convention is 644 for files and 755 for directories. Never set anything to 777: fully world-writable files and folders are a security hole, not a fix, and if something will not write, the real cause is almost always ownership rather than a need to open permissions wide. On a managed plan, ask Noiz support rather than guessing.

Step 4: Run the Setup and Create wp-config.php

WordPress keeps its database credentials and a handful of core settings in a single file, wp-config.php, which does not exist in a fresh download. There are two ways to create it, and the first is easier.

Option A: Let WordPress build it for you (recommended)

Open your site in a browser over HTTPS, for example https://yourdomain.com. Because there is no wp-config.php yet, WordPress runs its setup-config.php routine and offers to create the file. After a language prompt it asks for the four database details you noted in Step 2: the database name, the database user, the password, and the database host (leave this as localhost unless your panel told you otherwise). There is also a table prefix field, covered below. WordPress tries to write the finished wp-config.php for you; if the server does not let it write the file directly, it shows you the exact contents to copy into a new wp-config.php yourself, which you can do in the File Manager.

Option B: Edit the sample file by hand

If you prefer to prepare everything before visiting the site, rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and edit it. Set the four core values to match what you created:

define( 'DB_NAME', 'youracct_wpsite' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'youracct_wpuser' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'your-strong-password' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

Replace each example value with your real one. Keep the single quotes, and if your password happens to contain a quote or a backslash you will need to escape it, which is a good reason to avoid those particular characters when you set the password.

The table prefix

Just below the database settings sits the table prefix, which WordPress ships as wp_:

$table_prefix = 'wp_';

You may change it to something like wp7x_ before installing, and some people do so on the grounds that it makes automated attacks slightly less predictable. Be clear-eyed about it: a custom prefix is a very small obfuscation, not a real security control, and it will not stop a determined attacker. It is optional. If you do want it, set it now, before the install runs, because changing it on a live site is fiddly. For genuine hardening, follow the Noiz WordPress Security Checklist once the site is up.

The authentication keys and salts

Further down, wp-config.php has a block of eight lines for authentication unique keys and salts, which WordPress uses to secure the cookies that keep you logged in. A fresh sample file has placeholder text here that you must replace with real random values. The official generator lives at https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/: open it in a browser, copy the whole block it returns, and paste it over the eight placeholder lines. If you used Option A above, WordPress fetches fresh salts for you automatically, so you can skip this. Never leave the placeholder values in place, and never reuse another site's salts.

Step 5: Run the Famous Five-Minute Install

With wp-config.php in place and pointing at a working database, visit https://yourdomain.com again (or https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php directly). WordPress now runs its install script, which creates all the database tables and your first account. Because you are visiting over HTTPS, WordPress records your site address as an https:// URL from the start, which is exactly what you want and saves a common post-launch headache.

The install screen asks for a small set of details:

• Site Title: the name of your site. You can change it later under Settings > General, so do not overthink it.
• Username: your administrator login name. Choose something other than admin, since admin is the first name every password-guessing bot tries. This one cannot be changed as easily later, so pick it deliberately.
• Password: WordPress suggests a strong random password. Accept it and store it in a password manager rather than weakening it. A weak admin password on a public site is asking for trouble.
• Your Email: used for password resets and important notices, so make sure it is an address you actually monitor.
• Search engine visibility: ticking Discourage search engines from indexing this site asks search engines to stay away while you build. It is a request, not a wall, but it is sensible during setup. The vital part is to remember to untick it once you launch, because a live site left with this ticked will struggle to appear in search results.

Click Install WordPress. In a few seconds WordPress confirms success and offers a login link. Your site is now installed.

After the Install: First Login and Next Steps

Log in at https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin with the username and password you just set; the general guide to logging in to the WordPress admin dashboard covers this and the small things that trip people up. A sensible short list for a brand-new site:

• Under Settings > General, confirm the WordPress Address and Site Address both begin with https://.
• Under Settings > Reading, check that Discourage search engines is unticked if the site is meant to be live.
• Under Settings > Permalinks, choose a readable structure such as Post name.
• Work through the Noiz WordPress Security Checklist before you invite anyone to the site.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: Error establishing a database connection. One of the four database values in wp-config.php is wrong. Re-check the database name, user, and password against what the panel shows (remembering the account-name prefix), and confirm the host is localhost unless your panel specified otherwise. A freshly reset user password that was never saved into wp-config.php is a frequent cause.
• Symptom: your site loads at yourdomain.com/wordpress/ instead of the root. You uploaded the wordpress folder itself rather than its contents. Move the files up one level so that index.php sits directly in your document root, then reload.
• Symptom: the install screen says WordPress is already installed. The database you pointed at already contains WordPress tables. Use an empty database, or if you truly intend to start over, drop the existing tables in phpMyAdmin first (this deletes their content, so be sure).
• Symptom: you see the raw contents of wp-config.php as text, or a blank white page. PHP is not running the file, which usually means the file was uploaded to the wrong place or with a wrong extension, or the core files are incomplete. Confirm the full set of WordPress files is present in the document root and re-upload if the transfer was interrupted.
• Symptom: WordPress cannot write wp-config.php during setup. This is normal on some configurations. Copy the block of text WordPress displays, create wp-config.php yourself in the File Manager, paste it in, and continue.
• Symptom: you have lost the admin password you set during the install. You can reset it directly in the database by following how to reset a WordPress admin password via phpMyAdmin.

If a manual install stalls at any point, or you would rather have it done for you, open a support ticket with the Noiz support team. Tell them your domain, which platform your account is on, and where you have got to, and if you are on a managed plan a technician can complete the install, create the database, and hand you a working site to log in to.