Softaculous is a one-click application installer included with all our cPanel hosting. It can install and manage over 400 applications — WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, PrestaShop, phpBB, and many more — without any manual configuration.
Accessing Softaculous
- Log in to cPanel.
- Scroll to the Software section and click Softaculous Apps Installer, or use the application icons shown in the Softaculous section of the cPanel home page.
Installing an application
- In Softaculous, find the application (use the search box or browse categories).
- Click the application, then click Install Now.
- Complete the installation form:
- Choose Protocol: select https:// (SSL is free on all our plans).
- Choose Domain: the domain or subdomain to install on.
- In Directory: leave empty to install at the domain root, or enter a folder name (e.g. blog) to install at yourdomain.com/blog.
- Site Settings: site name, description, and application-specific options.
- Admin Account: choose a strong admin username and password — avoid “admin”.
- Click Install. Softaculous creates the database, uploads the files, and completes the configuration automatically.
Managing installations
The All Installations view in Softaculous lists everything installed through it. From there you can:
- Update applications when new versions are released
- Back up an installation (files + database) and restore it later
- Clone an installation to another location
- Create a staging copy and push changes back to live (supported apps)
- Remove an installation cleanly, including its database
Automatic backups and updates
When installing (or later via Edit Details), you can enable:
- Automated backups on a schedule, with a rotation limit
- Auto-upgrade for the application core, and for WordPress also plugins and themes
Enable automated backups with at least a few rotations before enabling auto-upgrade — if an automatic update ever causes an issue, you can restore the previous state in a couple of clicks.
