Welcome to my step-by-step guide on setting up WordPress with Krystal hosting.
In today’s digital landscape, having a domain and a website is no longer a luxury but a necessity.
Whether you’re an individual looking to showcase your portfolio or a business aiming to establish an online presence, I’m here to provide you with the knowledge and steps required to get you up and running.
I will be using Krystal to show you how to set up your WordPress site, I have been using Krystal hosting for years and I believe they are one of the best UK-based hosting companies around.
So let’s dive in and get started with getting your domain sorted first.
Table of Contents
What is a Domain?
Before diving into the world of domains and hosting, it’s crucial to understand what a domain is and its significance for your online presence.
A domain serves as your digital address, allowing users to find and access your website. When it comes to choosing the right domain name, it’s essential to consider factors such as branding, memorability, and relevance to your website’s content.
To brainstorm ideas, you can utilize domain name generators or simply start with keywords that represent your brand or niche, alternatively, this is a good use case for AI to help you pick the right domain name.
Once you have a list of potential domain names, it’s time to check their availability. This is where domain registrars like Krystal come into play. Using their search function, you can quickly determine if your desired domain is available for registration.
Finally, registering the domain involves completing the necessary steps and securing the chosen domain through a trusted registrar like Krystal. This process ensures that your domain becomes exclusively yours, providing you with a unique online identity.
Selecting a Hosting Provider: Why Krystal?
When it comes to establishing a robust online presence, choosing the right hosting provider is paramount. This is where Krystal shines as a trusted and reliable option. With their proven track record and dedication to customer satisfaction, Krystal stands out among the competition.
What sets them apart is their commitment to providing top-notch services, including exceptional website performance, reliable uptime, excellent customer support and eco-friendly hosting.
Their hosting plans cater to a wide range of needs, whether you’re starting a personal blog or running a thriving e-commerce business. Additionally, Krystal offers a user-friendly interface, making it easy for beginners to navigate and manage their hosting account effortlessly. With their comprehensive range of features and competitive pricing, Krystal is the ideal hosting provider to partner with, ensuring your website operates seamlessly and efficiently.
I have been using their hosting for years and have been very happy with the service, they have always been ready to give a helping hand if I needed it and in that time I have had no downtime which is crazy good. For anyone starting out or looking for a new hosting provider, I would recommend krystal hosting.
Exploring Krystal’s Hosting Plans
When it comes to selecting a hosting plan, Krystal offers a diverse range of options to cater to your specific needs. Let’s explore these hosting plans to help you make an informed decision.
Web Hosting: Krystal’s web hosting plans are designed for individuals and small businesses looking for reliable and affordable hosting solutions. With ample storage, bandwidth, and easy-to-use control panels, web hosting is a great starting point for establishing your online presence.
Business Hosting: If you’re running a growing business or have higher resource requirements, Krystal’s business hosting plans are the ideal choice. These plans offer increased performance, enhanced security features, and the ability to handle larger volumes of website traffic. Business hosting provides the scalability and flexibility needed to support your business growth.
Managed WordPress Hosting: For those using WordPress as their content management system (CMS), Krystal’s managed WordPress hosting plans are tailored specifically for optimal WordPress performance. With advanced caching, automatic updates, and expert WordPress support, this option takes care of the technical aspects, allowing you to focus on creating and managing your website’s content.
For this guide we are going to go with the standard web hosting as I feel this is the best one to go for when starting out, you can always upgrade later once you have more traffic.
Krystal offer 3 plans on their standard web hosting, they are:
Amethyst Plan: The Amethyst plan is an excellent choice for those starting with a single website. It offers 10GB of premium NVMe storage, unlimited bandwidth, 2GB of ram and 1 CPU core. This plan is suitable for personal blogs, small portfolios, or brochure-style websites that require a reliable hosting solution.
Ruby Plan: The Ruby plan is designed for individuals and businesses with multiple websites or more resource-intensive needs. It provides 25GB of premium NVMe storage, unlimited bandwidth, 4GB of ram and 2 CPU cores. This plan offers additional resources and scalability for websites that require more storage space or handle a higher volume of traffic, plus free domain name included with this plan.
Emerald Plan: The Emerald plan is the most comprehensive web hosting plan offered by Krystal in the standard web hosting. It is tailored for businesses or advanced users with demanding website requirements. With 50GB of premium NVMe storage, unlimited bandwidth, 6GB of ram and 3 CPU cores. This plan ensures ample resources and enhanced performance for complex websites, e-commerce platforms, or online applications and same as Ruby offers free domain.
I recommend going for the Ruby plan as it gives you extra resources, and you get the free domain as well which makes it the best value for money.
If you choose annually, or biennially, you can save money on the hosting, so if you know you will be keeping the hosting for a long time I would go with one of those options.
Purchase The Hosting Package and Domain
Now we have decided to go with the Ruby package, let’s go through the steps of getting this purchased.
Open your web browser and navigate to Krystal’s website.
Once you’re on the Krystal website, click on the “Hosting” option in the top navigation menu, this will open a dropdown and in this dropdown select web hosting.
On the hosting page, scroll down till you find the “Ruby” package.
Review the features and pricing of the Ruby package to ensure it meets your requirements. If you’re satisfied, click on the “Order Ruby” button to proceed.
On the order page, you will be prompted to choose a domain name, click on new domain then, enter the domain name you want to register or transfer. If the domain is available, you will be able to proceed. If it’s not available, you may need to try a different domain name.
Choose the desired domain extension (e.g., .com, .co.uk, net, .org) by typing it after your chosen domain name then click continue.
Now pick your billing option for the Ruby package – Monthly, Annually, or Biennially.
Then at the bottom, it will ask you to pick your server location, you want to pick the one that is nearest to your client base, I will be picking London.
Click on the “Continue” button to proceed to the next step.
Now will ask you to configure your domain options.
1 year registration period will already be selected and can’t be changed, so all we need to do now is fill out the Additional Information – legal type and Registrant Name.
Click on the “Continue” button to proceed to the next step, which will take you to the cart page.
Choose the billing cycle for your hosting package (e.g., monthly, or annually).
Review your order and any additional hosting services or add-ons that are available and select the ones you need or skip them for now.
Click on the “Checkout” button if you are happy.
On the checkout page, you will need to provide your personal information, including your name, email address, and contact details. Fill in all the required fields.
Choose your payment method (credit card, PayPal, etc.) and enter the necessary payment details.
Double-check all the information you’ve entered and ensure it’s accurate.
Once you’re ready, click on the “Complete Order” button to finalize your purchase.
After the payment is processed successfully, you will receive a confirmation email with your account details and instructions on how to access your hosting control panel.
Congratulations! You have now successfully purchased a domain and hosting from Krystal on their Ruby package. You can now proceed to set up your website or configure any additional settings as needed.
Login and Access cPanel
On the homepage, locate and click on the “Client Login” button at the top right corner of the page.
You will be redirected to the Krystal Client Area login page.
Enter your username and password in the respective fields. These credentials should have been provided to you when you signed up for a Krystal hosting account.
After entering your login details, click on the “Login” button to proceed.
Once you are logged in, you will be inside the Krystal Client Area. Here, you can manage various aspects of your hosting account.
In the Client Area, look for the section labeled “Services.” Under this section, you should see a list of the hosting services you have with Krystal.
Find the hosting service for which you want to access cPanel and click on the “Manage” button next to it. This will take you to the management page for that specific hosting service.
On the management page, you should see a variety of options and information related to your hosting service. Look for a button or link labeled “Login to cPanel” or similar.
Click on the “Login to cPanel” button or link. This will open a new tab or window in your browser and take you directly to the cPanel interface.
You may be prompted to enter your cPanel username and password. If so, enter the credentials provided by Krystal for your cPanel account.
After entering the cPanel login details, click on the “Login” button. This will log you into the cPanel interface.
Once logged in, you will have access to various tools and settings to manage your website, domains, databases, emails, and more through the cPanel interface.
That’s it! You have successfully logged in and accessed cPanel from the Krystal website. From here, we can get WordPress installed.
Install WordPress from cPanel
Log in to your cPanel account if you’re not already logged in.
Once logged in, locate the “Software” or “Softaculous Apps Installer” section. This section may vary depending on your hosting provider, but it is usually easy to find.
In the software installer section, search for “WordPress” or locate it under the “Popular Apps” or “Blogs” category, most likely it will be at the top under top scripts.
Click on the WordPress icon or name to begin the installation process.
On the WordPress installation page, click on the “Install Now” button or a similar option to start the installation.
You will be prompted to enter some details for your WordPress installation. Fill in the following information:
Choose the protocol: Select “http://” or “https://” depending on your website configuration.
Choose the domain: Select the domain name on which you want to install WordPress.
In Directory: Leave this field empty if you want to install WordPress on your main domain. If you want to install it in a subdirectory, enter the subdirectory name (e.g., “/blog”).
Site Name: Enter the name of your WordPress site or blog.
Site Description: Enter a brief description of your site or blog (optional).
Admin Password: Enter a secure password for your WordPress admin account. Make sure to use a strong password.
Admin Email: Enter your email address.
Scroll down the page and leave the remaining options as they are unless you have specific preferences.
Click on the “Install” button or a similar option to start the installation process.
Wait for the installer to complete the installation. It may take a few moments.
Once the installation is complete, you will see a success message along with the login details for your WordPress admin account.
Access your WordPress site by visiting the URL where you installed it (e.g., http://yourdomain.com or http://yourdomain.com/blog).
To log in to your WordPress admin dashboard, append “/wp-admin” to your site’s URL (e.g., http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin).
Enter the admin username and password you set during the installation.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed WordPress on cPanel.
Now you are ready to start building your WordPress site by selecting themes, installing plugins, and creating content.
In another guide, I will go over what page builders and themes to use to start building your theme.
Install Coming Soon Plugin
Now we have installed WordPress, we want to add a coming soon splash page, so our customers can’t see the website till you have finished building it.
My plugin of choice for this is CMP (Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin) it has a free option and is easy to configure.
Let’s go over how to get this installed and set up.
Install the CMP Plugin
Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Navigate to “Plugins” on the left-hand side menu and click on “Add New.”
Search for “CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin” in the search bar.
Once you find the plugin, click on “Install Now.”
After installation, click on “Activate” to activate the plugin.
Configure the CMP Plugin Settings
In the WordPress dashboard, go to “CMP Settings” and click it.
You will be presented with the plugin settings page.
The first thing to check is that under the “CMP Status” section that “Whole Website” is selected.
Next, choose the desired mode (Coming Soon or Maintenance) from the “Mode” section. We want to select coming soon as we haven’t launched our website yet.
Click “Save All Changes” to apply.
Customize the Coming Soon Page
Within the CMP settings, navigate to the “Content” tab.
Here, you can customize various elements of your coming soon page, such as the background, logo, text, and more.
Use the available options to upload a background image, set the logo, and add the content you want to display.
Now navigate to the “Customize” tab.
Under this tab is where you can add your fonts and change the colours.
Preview your changes as you make them to ensure the coming soon page looks the way you want it, you can preview the changes by clicking the “preview” tab.
Set the Plugin Live
Once you are satisfied with the customization, navigate to the “General” tab in the CMP settings.
In the “Status” section, set the “Enable CMP” option to “Yes” to make the coming soon page live.
Save your changes.
Congratulations! You have now installed the CMP Plugin, customized the coming soon page, and set it live. Visitors to your website will now see the coming soon page instead of the regular site until you are ready to launch.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, I have shown you how to set up your hosting with your chosen domain name on Krystal and then get WordPress installed via cPanel and how to put up a coming soon page up so It’s ready for you to start building your website.
In another guide, I will go over what page builders and themes to use to start building your theme.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can I upgrade my hosting plan if my website grows?
Yes, Krystal allows easy upgrades to accommodate your growing website needs. You can upgrade your hosting plan from the client portal or by contacting their support team.
2. Does Krystal provide a control panel with hosting?
Yes, Krystal provides cPanel access with its hosting packages. cPanel is a user-friendly control panel that allows you to manage various aspects of your hosting account.
3. Can I register a domain with Krystal?
Yes, Krystal offers domain registration services. You can register a new domain or transfer your existing domain to Krystal.
4. Do I need technical knowledge to install WordPress?
No, installing WordPress with Krystal is beginner-friendly. The one-click installation process simplifies the setup, and you don’t require advanced technical skills.