How to Install WordPress on Your VPS (Step-by-Step Guide 2025)

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. Whether you're setting up a personal blog or a business site, installing WordPress on your VPS gives you full control, speed, and flexibility. This guide walks you through the complete process.

Prerequisites

A VPS with Ubuntu or Debian installed (similar steps apply to other distros)
Root or sudo access
A domain name (optional but recommended)

Step 1: Update Your System

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install LAMP Stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)

Install Apache:

sudo apt install apache2 -y

Install MySQL:

sudo apt install mysql-server -y
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create a WordPress database:

sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strongpassword';
GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Install PHP:

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-cli php-curl php-xml php-gd php-mbstring php-zip -y

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 3: Download WordPress

cd /tmp
curl -O https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xvzf latest.tar.gz
sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/

Set permissions:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/wordpress

Step 4: Configure Apache for WordPress

Create a new virtual host file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf

Paste:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress
    ServerName example.com

    <Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable site and rewrite module:

sudo a2ensite wordpress.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 5: Finish Installation in Browser

Visit http://your-server-ip or your domain.
Follow the on-screen WordPress setup (choose language, site title, username, etc.)

Optional: Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

To enable HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt, you must have a registered domain name pointed at your server’s public IP address (via A or AAAA DNS records).

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y
sudo certbot --apache

Follow the prompts to choose your domain and configure HTTPS automatically.

Summary

You've now installed a fully functional WordPress site on your VPS. From here, you can install themes, plugins, and customize to fit your brand.