# How to Install WordPress on Ubuntu VPS

https://hostcarts.qa/knowledgebase/article/how-to-install-wordpress-on-ubuntu-vps

1. **Update Your Server**

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

1. **Install Nginx**

sudo apt install nginx -y

sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

**Check status:**

systemctl status nginx

1. **Install PHP & Required Extensions**

Modern WordPress requires PHP 8.x.

sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql php-xml php-gd php-curl php-mbstring php-zip php-intl php-soap php-bcmath -y

Check PHP version:

php -v

1. **Install MySQL & Create Database**

Install:

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Secure MySQL:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create DB:

sudo mysql

Inside MySQL:

sql

CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

**EXIT;**

1. **Download WordPress**

cd /tmp

wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

tar -xvf latest.tar.gz

sudo mv wordpress /var/www/wordpress

Set permissions:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/wordpress

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/wordpress

1. **Configure Nginx Server Block**

Create config:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress

Paste:

nginx

server {

listen 80;

server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;

root /var/www/wordpress;

index index.php index.html;

location / {

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;

}

location ~ \.php$ {

include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;

fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;

}

** **

location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg)$ {

expires max;

log_not_found off;

}

}

Enable site:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

sudo nginx -t

sudo systemctl reload nginx

1. **Configure WordPress**

Copy sample config:

cd /var/www/wordpress

cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

Edit:

nano wp-config.php

Update DB settings:

php

define( 'DB_NAME', 'wordpress' );

define( 'DB_USER', 'wpuser' );

define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'StrongPassword' );

define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

1. **Enable HTTPS (Let’s Encrypt SSL)**

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

Auto-renew test:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

1. **Complete Installation in Browser**

Visit:

Code

http://yourdomain.com

Set:

- Site title
- Admin username
- Admin password
- Email

Done — WordPress is live.

1. **Optional: Redis Cache for High Performance**

Install Redis:

bash

sudo apt install redis-server php-redis -y

sudo systemctl enable --now redis-server

Add to wp-config.php:

php

define( 'WP_REDIS_HOST', '127.0.0.1' );