Upload the zip through File Manager in the portal, then right-click the file and choose Extract. cPanel unpacks it directly on the server, so you skip downloading and re-uploading hundreds of individual files over FTP. This is the fastest way to move a WordPress install, a static site export, or a backup archive onto your hosting account.
Upload the zip file
Log into the portal and open File Manager from your service's tile list. Navigate to the folder where you want the contents to end up, usually public_html for a live site, or a subfolder if you're staging it first. Use File Manager's upload option to select your zip file. File Manager uploads it as a single compressed file, which is much quicker than uploading a folder full of small files individually, especially on a slower connection.
Once the upload finishes, click Go Back to "/public_html" (or whatever folder you're in) at the bottom of the upload screen to return to the file listing.
Extract on the server
Right-click the uploaded zip file in the file list and select Extract. A dialog confirms the destination path, which defaults to the folder the zip is already in. Confirm it, and cPanel extracts every file and folder inside the archive to that location, preserving the folder structure from the zip.
For a WordPress migration or a fresh install, this typically means the zip contains a top-level folder like wordpress/ or the site's file structure directly. Check what's inside before extracting if you're not sure, by using an unzip utility locally first, so you don't end up with everything nested one level deeper than intended.
Fixing a nested folder after extraction
If the zip extracts into a subfolder instead of landing directly in public_html, either move the contents up a level or change the extraction target. Select all the files inside the nested folder, use File Manager's move option, and set the destination to public_html. Then delete the now-empty subfolder. This is the most common mistake with zip extraction: a site that returns a directory listing or a 404 instead of loading usually means the files are one folder too deep.
Compressing files instead
File Manager works the other direction too. Select one or more files or folders, then use File Manager's compress option to create a zip, tar.gz, or other archive from them. This is useful for creating a manual backup of a folder before making changes, or for packaging up a site to hand off elsewhere. Select the files first, then choose the archive type in the dialog that appears.
Large archives and PHP limits
Extraction itself isn't bound by PHP's upload limits since the file is already on the server, but the initial upload is. If a zip is too large to upload through the browser, check the maximum upload size in MultiPHP INI Editor under Software in cPanel, where upload_max_filesize and post_max_size are set. Raise these values there if you're hitting a size ceiling on the upload step itself.
For very large sites, uploading over FTP can be more reliable than a browser upload, since FTP clients handle resuming interrupted transfers better than a browser tab. Create FTP credentials from the FTP Accounts tile if you need this route.
When to contact support
If an extraction fails partway through, or the archive reports as corrupted after a successful upload, open a ticket from Support in the portal. Include the file name and roughly how large it is, and our support team can investigate further.