How-to · Beginner · 10 minutes
How to Use the Softaculous Installer
Install any of hundreds of applications in one click, and set it up properly while you are there — a practical, jargon-free walkthrough with the classic mistake flagged before you make it.
Straight answer first
In a line: install any of hundreds of applications in one click, and set it up properly while you are there — a beginner-level task that takes 10 minutes.
The walkthrough below covers every step, the mistake most people make, and the shortcut worth keeping. On Hosting Seller plans several of these steps are already done for you, and we say where.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 1 August 2026
Beginner
Difficulty level
10 minutes
Time to allow
5
Stages
24/7
Help at any hour
You do not need to be technical for this. The walkthrough is written for first-timers, tested on our own platform, and honest about which parts are genuinely fiddly and which are merely unfamiliar.
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 route, start to finish
The job breaks into a few clear stages: have a look through the catalogue, fill the settings in properly, tick the maintenance boxes, work from the installations list and uninstall the same way you installed.
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.
The classic snag
The forgotten experiment. A forum installed one curious afternoon and never updated since quietly becomes the most vulnerable software on the account. The installations list is a decommissioning list as much as an inventory.
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 tip we hand out to everybody
Softaculous can clone an installation, which turns a configured app into a template. Get one WordPress set up exactly how you like it, then clone it for each new project and skip the whole ritual.
It costs a minute now and pays that back every time the job comes round again — which, like most hosting jobs, it certainly will.
How our platform shortens this
We have automated the steps that do not deserve your time: certificates issue and reissue themselves, the installer handles application setup, the daily backup covers the what-if, and per-site settings live in a panel instead of a config file. The guide above covers what remains — the part that is actually about your site.
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.
The hosting this guide is written against
Tutorials age badly when they are written against imaginary hosting. These are written against ours: the same panel, the same installer and the same defaults you will meet.
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
5 steps, no filler
Each stage is a few minutes of steady clicking, with the fiddly parts marked as fiddly.
Written from real tickets
Our guides come off the support desk, so the snags flagged here are the ones people genuinely hit.
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.
No jargon toll
Terms are explained where they appear or linked to the glossary — nothing assumes you already know.
Scoped honestly
Install any of hundreds of applications in one click, and set it up properly while you are there is a beginner-level task — this guide budgets 10 minutes and says which steps the platform absorbs.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Have a look through the catalogue
WordPress gets the billing, but forums, wikis, CRMs, learning platforms and shops are all in there — hundreds of open-source applications, packaged and ready to go.
- 2
Fill the settings in properly
Choose the domain and directory (root for the main site), set genuine admin credentials, and give the site a name. The defaults are the only real trap in here.
- 3
Tick the maintenance boxes
Auto-update and automatic backup during install cost nothing and save plenty, especially on the applications you fully intend to set up and then forget about.
- 4
Work from the installations list
Softaculous keeps a record of everything it installed. Updates, cloning, staging and removal all run from that one list.
- 5
Uninstall the same way you installed
Remove through Softaculous rather than deleting folders. It clears the database and configuration too; deleting the folder leaves an orphaned database haunting the account.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- NVMe SSD storage on every shelf, not just the top one
- Webmail in the browser plus IMAP, POP and SMTP for your own client
- Nothing added at setup — no joining fee, ever
- A free SSL certificate on every plan, reissued before it lapses
- SSH, Git and Composer on the plans built for developers
- cPanel, the panel the rest of the trade already knows
- WordPress Toolkit, with updates applied for you
- DDoS filtering handled out at the network edge
- A 99.9% uptime commitment, watched by monitoring day and night
- Real people on the counter, every hour of every day
Across the Counter
The questions we get asked most
Do I end up with a different version if I use Softaculous?
No. You get the identical official application; Softaculous simply creates the database, places the files and writes the configuration in one transaction. There is no cut-down edition hiding in there — same software, installed faster.
What else in the catalogue is worth a look?
Depends what you need. Matomo for analytics you host yourself, DokuWiki or BookStack for team notes, phpBB for a forum, Kanboard for project boards. Browse it with a problem in mind and it usually has an answer.
Is the SSL certificate genuinely free?
On every plan, with nothing held back. The certificate is issued the moment your domain points here and reissues itself well before expiry. The encryption is the same as a paid DV certificate — paid tiers exist only for wildcard coverage or organisation validation, which most sites never need.
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.
What does round-the-clock support actually stretch to?
People at the counter at every hour, and a scope that takes in the practical work: mailbox setup, DNS records, WordPress trouble, restores. Not 'the server responds, ticket closed'. Ask us something hard before you order — the reply is a fair sample of what you would get afterwards.
Does the price climb when the term is up?
No. What you pay to order is what you pay to renew, year after year. We do not run teaser rates, so there is no year-two ambush waiting in the calendar, and your bookkeeping can treat the hosting line as a fixed number.
What if the site outgrows the plan I bought?
You move up in place. Plan changes are made from the client area with no migration and no downtime, and the range runs from small shared accounts through VPS to whole dedicated servers. Growing becomes a line change on your account rather than a hunt for a new host.
Read next
How to Schedule Server Backups
Automated, offsite and tested — the three conditions that make a backup real — advanced level, about one hour of setup.
How to Test Your Website Speed
Measure honestly, so the work that follows aims at facts rather than hunches — beginner level, about 20 minutes.
Business Hosting
Shared hosting with the developer kit: SSH, Node.js, Python and PostgreSQL.
Node.js Hosting
Keep Node.js apps beside your websites, with SSH and Git access.
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