How to Install and Manage WordPress with WordPress Toolkit Print

WordPress Toolkit is built into cPanel and lets you install, update, back up and secure your WordPress sites from one place. It's included with your EDZNET hosting and replaces third-party installers, giving you full control over every WordPress site on your account. For a walk-through of a first install, see our guide on how to install WordPress.

What you can do with WordPress Toolkit:

• Install WordPress in a few clicks, with no technical knowledge needed
• Manage themes and plugins (install, update, activate, deactivate and delete)
• Clone a site to make a staging copy, and copy changes back to the live site
• Update WordPress, themes and plugins, by hand or automatically
• Take backups and restore them
• Turn on maintenance mode
• Apply security hardening
• Change the WordPress admin and database passwords
• Control search engine indexing
• Log in to the WordPress dashboard with one click

How to open WordPress Toolkit

1. Log in to cPanel. If you're not sure how, see how to log in to the client area, cPanel and webmail.
2. In the Domains section, click WordPress Toolkit.

The dashboard lists every WordPress site on your account. If you haven't installed WordPress yet, it will be empty.

How to install WordPress

1. Open WordPress Toolkit.
2. Click Install.
3. Fill in the installation details:
   • Installation path: the domain or folder to install into, such as example.co.uk or example.co.uk/blog
   • Website title: your site's name (you can change it later)
   • Plugin/theme set: optionally, a set of plugins and themes to install at the same time
   • WordPress version: the latest stable version is recommended
   • Language: the language for the dashboard and site
4. Optionally, adjust the WordPress Administrator username and password, and the database name and user. Use a unique admin username, not admin, and a strong password.
5. Click Install. A progress bar shows while WordPress Toolkit sets everything up, and your site is ready when it finishes.

Tip: security hardening is applied automatically to new installations. Leave it switched on; it protects your new site against common attacks.

How to log in to WordPress with one click

1. Open WordPress Toolkit.
2. Find your site in the list.
3. Click Log in. The WordPress dashboard opens without asking for a password.

For logging in directly and managing your WordPress user, see how to log in to WordPress and manage your user account.

How to update WordPress, themes and plugins

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and click the site you want to update.
2. Open the Updates section. It lists available updates for WordPress itself, your plugins and your themes.
3. Tick what you want to update and click Update.

Automatic updates: in the site's update settings you can choose to apply updates automatically for WordPress, plugins, themes or all three. Where Smart Update is available on your account, you can choose between:

• Smart Update: WordPress Toolkit tests the update on a copy of your site first and only applies it if the site still works.
• Standard updates: updates are applied straight away, without that check.

We recommend Smart Update where you have it. If you don't, take a backup before large updates.

How to back up and restore WordPress

Create a backup:

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and click your site.
2. Open Backups (sometimes shown as Back Up / Restore).
3. Click Back Up to create a new backup. It's worth doing before a big change, such as a theme switch or plugin update.

Restore a backup:

1. Open the backups list for your site.
2. Find the backup you want and click Restore next to it.
3. Confirm. Your site goes back to how it was when that backup was taken.

Note: restoring overwrites your current site. Take a fresh backup first if you might want to keep its current state. These backups are separate from the automated daily backups we take of your hosting account.

How to clone WordPress (create a staging site)

Cloning makes an exact copy of your site, so you can test changes without affecting visitors.

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and find the site you want to clone.
2. Click Clone.
3. Choose where the copy should go:
   • a folder on the same domain, such as example.co.uk/staging
   • a subdomain, such as staging.example.co.uk
   • another domain on your account
4. Click Start (or Clone) and wait for it to finish.

Copying changes back to the live site: when you're happy with the staging copy, use Copy Data on the staging site to copy its files, database or both back to the live site.

How to turn on maintenance mode

If you're making changes and don't want visitors to see a half-finished site:

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and click your site.
2. Switch Maintenance mode on.
3. Optionally, customise the message visitors see.
4. Switch it off again when the site is ready.

How to apply security hardening

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and click your site.
2. Open Security. WordPress Toolkit shows which protection measures are applied and which aren't.
3. Click Secure (or Protect) to apply all the recommended measures, or apply them one at a time. They include:
   • turning off file editing in the WordPress dashboard
   • hiding the WordPress version number
   • blocking access to wp-config.php and other sensitive files
   • turning off XML-RPC, if you don't use it for remote publishing or an app

We recommend applying all the recommended measures on every WordPress site. New installations get them automatically.

How to change WordPress passwords

You can change passwords without logging in to WordPress:

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and click your site.
2. Find the site's login or database settings.
3. Change either:
   • the WordPress administrator password, used to log in at /wp-admin, or
   • the database password; WordPress Toolkit updates wp-config.php to match.
4. Enter a new password, or use the generator for a strong random one, and save.

How to manage themes and plugins

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and click your site.
2. Open Themes or Plugins.
3. From here you can:
   • install new themes or plugins from the WordPress directory
   • update them one at a time
   • activate or deactivate them without deleting them
   • delete ones you no longer need

Tip: delete themes and plugins you don't use. Fewer installed components means fewer things that can be attacked.

How to control search engine indexing

For a staging site, or one that isn't ready yet, you can ask search engines not to list it:

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and click your site.
2. Switch Search engine indexing off.
3. Switch it back on when the site goes live; otherwise it won't appear in search results.

How to turn on debugging

If your site shows errors or isn't working properly, WordPress debug mode can help find the cause:

1. Open WordPress Toolkit and click your site.
2. Switch Debugging on.
3. When you've finished troubleshooting, switch it off. Leaving it on for a live site can reveal details that attackers could use.

Frequently asked questions

Is WordPress Toolkit included with my hosting?
Yes. It's included with your cPanel hosting at no extra cost.

I can't see WordPress Toolkit in my cPanel. What should I do?
If it isn't in the Domains section, open a support ticket and we'll enable it for you.

Can I manage more than one WordPress site?
Yes. WordPress Toolkit doesn't limit how many sites you manage; how many you can host depends on your plan.

What's the difference between WordPress Toolkit and Softaculous?
WordPress Toolkit is a complete management tool built into cPanel, covering installation, updates, backups, staging and security. Softaculous was a third-party installer, and we've replaced it with WordPress Toolkit on our servers.

Will my existing WordPress sites be affected?
No. Sites installed before the change keep working as normal, and you can manage them in WordPress Toolkit.