Installing WordPress

WordPress installs in under a minute on Flashcloud. Our portal-native install wizard handles everything: domain selection, database setup, admin account, optional starter set of plugins and themes.

Use the install wizard

Go to Services → click your WordPress or shared hosting service.
Open the WordPress tab — you'll see a card for each existing install plus an Install button.
Click Install.

The wizard walks you through 5 steps:

Step 1: Domain

Pick which domain or subdomain to install to. Options:

Your primary domain — yourdomain.com.
A subdirectory — yourdomain.com/blog, useful for a blog on an existing site.
A subdomain — blog.yourdomain.com, for separate sites under one domain.
An addon domain — another-site.com, for a totally different site.

The wizard creates the directory if it doesn't exist and ensures DNS is right.

Step 2: Site title and admin

Site title — the name of your site. Editable later from WordPress admin.
Admin username — what you'll log in with. Pick something other than admin for security.
Admin password — strong; we'll generate one if you'd like.
Admin email — where WordPress sends notifications (different from your portal email if you want).

Step 3: Starter set (optional)

Pick a starter set to pre-install plugins and themes:

Flashcloud WordPress — our recommended starter set. Includes the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, security hardening, common utilities. Configured with sane defaults.
Bare — vanilla WordPress, no extra plugins or themes.
Custom sets — if your team has set up custom starter sets in WP-Toolkit, they appear here.

For a typical site, Flashcloud WordPress is the right pick. You can always add or remove plugins later.

Step 4: Database

We create a database automatically. Default settings are fine; advanced users can override:

Database name (auto-generated by default).
Database user (auto-created with a random password).
Database prefix (default wp_; some recommend changing for security).

Step 5: Confirm

Review everything. Click Install.

The install runs in 30–60 seconds. You'll see progress as it:

Downloads the latest WordPress.
Creates the database.
Configures wp-config.php.
Runs the WordPress installer.
Installs starter set plugins and themes (if selected).
Activates the LiteSpeed Cache plugin and Redis object cache.
Issues the SSL certificate (auto, takes ~5 minutes after install).

After install

Your new site appears on the WordPress card grid in your hosting service's WordPress tab. The card shows:

A live screenshot of your site.
Domain and admin login.
Status (running, needs update, etc.).
Quick actions: Open admin (auto-login, no password needed), Manage (full detail page), Tools (cache flush, debug, etc.).

For management options on a per-site basis, see the WordPress site detail page (we'll add this article in a future update).

Auto-login from the portal

Click Open admin on any site card and we sign you straight into WordPress admin — no password to type. The auto-login link is single-use and expires after 15 minutes; you don't store it anywhere.

This is a Flashcloud feature, not a default WordPress one. It works because we're hooking into the wp-cli login command via our shim.

Common questions

Can I install in a subdirectory?

Yes — pick the subdirectory in Step 1 of the wizard. WordPress runs at yourdomain.com/blog/ (or whatever path you pick). All admin URLs reflect the subdirectory.

Can I have multiple WordPress installs on one hosting plan?

Yes — repeat the install wizard for each. They share the hosting plan's resources (storage, databases, etc.) but are otherwise independent.

What if I want to install WordPress manually?

You can. Upload WordPress files via FTP to the document root, create a database in cPanel, and run the WordPress installer at yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php. The wizard does this faster, but manual works too.

What's the LiteSpeed Cache plugin doing?

Connecting WordPress to the server-level LSCache. See The cache stack we ship with every WordPress install for the full picture.

Power-user note

Behind the scenes, the install wizard uses wp-toolkit (a cPanel-affiliated tool) over SSH from our portal to your hosting server. We've built the wizard so most users never see this, but if you're ever inspecting what's happening at the system level: wp-toolkit --install ... is the actual command.