Discover Softaculous: The App Installation Tool on Your Server
Last Updated: May 2, 2024
If you have recently acquired a Web Hosting account and want to install an application such as WordPress or any other well-known CMS, then you may be wondering if you will have to do it manually, or if there is a way to do it with just a few clicks.
The answer is yes. With just a few clicks you can install the most popular web applications used by most website owners. In this article, I will introduce you to one of the most used tools for this purpose, Softaculous. Let’s do it?
Table of Contents
What is Softaculous?
As I already mentioned, Softaculous is a tool whose functionality is to install scripts or apps on your hosting or server.
It is usually included in your hosting cPanel. If you don’t have Softaculous, you should eventually have a similar tool to install scripts or apps on your server.
As we can see in the image below, Softaculous is usually presented as one of the first tools available in cPanel.
Why Softaculous?
Softaculous is incredibly easy to use and allows you to install scripts and apps that would otherwise require some extra knowledge about server administration, and this could often compromise your own hosting accounts if something went wrong.
That’s why hosting companies have joined Softaculous so you can install scripts with just a few clicks, without the hard work of having to handle command lines or writing complicated codes.
What Apps or Scripts Can I Install with Softaculous?
You can install different types of scripts such as the best-known CMSs like Joomla and Drupal, Magento, forums such as phpBB or myBB, and frameworks such as Laravel or Codeigniter.
In the image below we see the Softaculous home page with the main apps immediately available for installation with just one click.
Can I Install WordPress From Softaculous
Of course. And it’s usually the first CMS available for installation in cPanel as we saw in the image above.
See the images below for some of the apps/scripts available for installation on Softaculous.
Note: The images shown are from Softaculous installed on my cPanel from the hosting company I work with and where my websites are hosted (Namecheap).
Depending on the hosting company where you are registered, there may be differences, not only in the presentation and layout of both cPanel and Softaculous, so the images are merely demonstrative of what you should normally find on your Softaculous and not a generality.
Advantages of Using Softaculous
As I mentioned above, the first is its ease of use, but in addition to being able to install apps, scripts and CMSs, you can also manage and back them up, all in one place. And this is what makes Softaculous a true “spectaculous” of “software”. 😉
Is it Possible to Backup a Website on Softaculous?
If your website has been installed by Softaculous and you are using one of the well-known CMSs like WordPress, then of course yes. You can even schedule automatic backups when installing WordPress. You can define the frequency and rotation of Backups, that is, the number of previous backups to be maintained simultaneously. And if you need to restore your backup, it will be as easy as clicking on one of the available backups and clicking “Reset”.
Conclusion
With Softaculous, installing apps, scripts or CMSs has never been easier. With simple installation and configuration forms and with just a few clicks, you will be able to install WordPress, for example.
Gone are the days when we had to download WordPress in zip format, unzip the contents of the “WordPress” folder to the “public_html” folder and then go to PHPMyAdmin to create a database and then run wp-config on our browser to proceed with the installation. Nowadays, we have Softaculous. Thank you Softaculous.
*(This article was written entirely by a Human, without any use of Artificial Intelligence (except for creating or editing images). For more details read my Humanity Statement)
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