How-to · Intermediate · 20 minutes to learn
How to Use phpMyAdmin
Read, back up and carefully edit your database through the panel's standard window — a practical, jargon-free walkthrough with the classic mistake flagged before you make it.
Straight answer first
In a line: read, back up and carefully edit your database through the panel's standard window — a intermediate-level task that takes 20 minutes to learn.
Below you get the exact steps, the classic snag, and a tip from the support desk. Where our platform handles a step for you, the guide says so rather than making you do the robot's work.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 1 August 2026
Intermediate
Skill needed
5
Stages to finish
Free
Help included
Tested
On our own kit
This guide assumes no expertise at all — just a hosting account, a browser and 20 minutes to learn of attention. Every instruction works on our platform exactly as written, and carries over to any standard cPanel host.
One promise before you start: nothing in this guide is irreversible. Where a step could bite, we say so and give you the undo.
The shape of the work
From start to finish, you will look before you touch, take an export first, every time, change single rows with the pencil, use the sql tab deliberately and import to put a database back.
No stage needs code or a terminal unless the guide says so outright, and where it does, the exact commands are printed. The full step-by-step sits below; the sections around it give the context that makes it stick.
Where this goes wrong, and how not to
An UPDATE or DELETE without a WHERE clause. It runs instantly, it runs on every row, and whether that is a five-second fix or a very long afternoon depends entirely on whether you took the export.
It is worth learning because it is not some rare edge case — it is the single most common reason this task turns into a support ticket. Knowing it up front turns the whole job from risky into routine.
The shortcut, straight from the support desk
WordPress stores serialised data that a blunt find-replace will corrupt. For URL changes use WP-CLI's search-replace command instead, and keep phpMyAdmin for reading and small surgical edits.
It costs a minute now and pays that back every time the job comes round again — which, like most hosting jobs, it certainly will.
The parts we have already done for you
Several steps in this guide exist only because hosting historically made you do them. On our plans SSL issues itself, backups run daily without being asked, and one-click installers replace the manual setup entirely. What is left is the part that is genuinely yours.
And when a step misbehaves anyway, support answers at any hour with the actual fix, not a knowledge-base link and a shrug. Half our best guides began life as a pattern in the ticket queue.
Why the job is simpler on our plans
Every walkthrough on our how-to shelf is tested on the platform we actually run — cPanel, LiteSpeed, NVMe, one-click installs — so the instructions match your screen instead of gesturing vaguely at it.
Mailboxes on your own domain are part of the plan, never an add-on sold back to you at checkout.
- Step by step, tested exactly as printed
- The snag flagged before you reach it
- The dull steps are already automated
- People on hand at any hour if you stall
Why Hosting Seller
On every plan, as standard
No jargon toll
Terms are explained where they appear or linked to the glossary — nothing assumes you already know.
5 steps, no filler
Each stage is a few minutes of steady clicking, with the fiddly parts marked as fiddly.
The undo is always named
Where a step could bite, the guide says so and tells you how to put it back again.
Works exactly as written
Every step tested on the platform we run — no 'your host may differ' hand-waving anywhere.
Scoped honestly
Read, back up and carefully edit your database through the panel's standard window is a intermediate-level task — this guide budgets 20 minutes to learn and says which steps the platform absorbs.
Written from real tickets
Our guides come off the support desk, so the snags flagged here are the ones people genuinely hit.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Look before you touch
Databases and tables sit in the left panel, Browse shows the rows, Structure shows the columns. Reading costs nothing, changes nothing, and hands you the map.
- 2
Take an export first, every time
The Export tab writes a full SQL backup in seconds. That single habit turns every mistake from a disaster into an undo you already have on disk.
- 3
Change single rows with the pencil
Browse, then the pencil icon, then edit the fields on a form. Far safer than hand-written SQL for a one-off change like a settings value or an email address.
- 4
Use the SQL tab deliberately
The SQL tab will run anything you hand it, which makes it superb for bulk fixes and search-replaces. The export from step two is the seatbelt that makes that acceptable.
- 5
Import to put a database back
The Import tab replays an SQL file. That is how an export comes home, and how a database moves between hosts when you are doing it by hand.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- SSH, Git and Composer on the plans built for developers
- A free SSL certificate on every plan, reissued before it lapses
- Real people on the counter, every hour of every day
- The renewal price printed on the tag matches the order price
- A 30-day money-back guarantee on every hosting plan
- LiteSpeed caching running at the server, not bolted on by plugin
- A 99.9% uptime commitment, watched by monitoring day and night
- PHP versions picked per site from the panel
- NVMe SSD storage on every shelf, not just the top one
- DDoS filtering handled out at the network edge
Across the Counter
The questions we get asked most
Can I break something just by looking?
No. Browsing rows and structure changes nothing whatsoever. The risk starts when you edit a row or run SQL, which is precisely why the export-first habit turns phpMyAdmin from frightening into merely powerful.
My database is not listed in phpMyAdmin — where is it?
phpMyAdmin only shows databases this cPanel account owns. A missing one usually belongs to a different account, or was never actually created. The MySQL Databases page in the panel is the definitive list of what exists.
Can one plan hold more than a single website?
From the Pro tier upward, yes — several sites, each with its own domain, mailboxes and certificate, all under one account. If those extra sites belong to clients rather than to you, reseller hosting is the better fit: it gives each one proper separation.
Is there a refund if it does not suit?
Yes — thirty days. Put the hosting through real work, and if it is not right, ask for the money back and you get it; there is no retention script to survive first. Domain registrations are the one carve-out, because registries take that fee the moment the name is placed.
Can I set the PHP version myself?
Yes — PHP versions are chosen per site from the control panel, so an old application and a current one can sit side by side on the same account. Extensions and per-site settings live in the same screen, and none of it needs a support ticket.
Which control panel comes with the account?
cPanel, which the whole trade already knows. That means every tutorial online matches what you see, your backups restore onto any cPanel host anywhere, and what you learn here stays useful for life. Plesk and DirectAdmin are stocked on specific plans for anyone who prefers them.
Do you shift an existing site across at no charge?
We do. Open a ticket with the login details for your current host and the whole lot comes over: files, databases, mailboxes and configuration. You check the copy before DNS changes hands, and the old site keeps serving customers until the new one takes the traffic, so nobody ever sees a gap.
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Sign your outgoing mail so that tampering and spoofing both show up — intermediate level, about 15 minutes.
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