Running WordPress on a VPS is significantly faster and more reliable than shared hosting. You get full control, better performance and flexibility. Here is how to get started.

What you need

  • A VPS with Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12 (we recommend VPS Plus for WordPress)
  • A domain pointed to your VPS IP address
  • SSH access (root or sudo user)

Step 1 — Install Nginx, PHP and MySQL

Installation commands
  • sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
  • sudo apt install nginx php8.2-fpm php8.2-mysql php8.2-curl php8.2-gd php8.2-mbstring php8.2-xml -y
  • sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Step 2 — Create a database

Log into MySQL and create a database and user for WordPress:

MySQL commands
  • CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
  • CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strong_password';
  • GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';
  • FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Step 3 — Download WordPress

Download and extract
  • cd /var/www/html
  • sudo wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
  • sudo tar -xzf latest.tar.gz
  • sudo chown -R www-data:www-data wordpress/

Step 4 — Configure Nginx

Create an Nginx server block for your domain and enable SSL with Certbot for HTTPS.

Step 5 — Complete the installation

Open your browser, navigate to your domain and follow the WordPress installation wizard.

Performance tips

  • Install a caching plugin (WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache)
  • Use a CDN for static assets
  • Enable PHP OPcache for faster execution
  • Add Storage Basic for automated offsite backups