Knowledge Base / / Installing a plugin

Installing a plugin

Sometimes, when you’re creating a website with WordPress, you’re gonna need to add a feature that is not available by default. You can do that by installing a plugin, which consists of a PHP script that extends the functionality of WordPress.

To install a WordPress plugin you must have a working version of WordPress already installed in your web server. If you don’t, you can easily install WordPress in about five minutes.

Automatic installation↑ Back to Top

This is the preferred method.

  1. On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New.
  2. Find the plugin you want to install. You can browse the categories, or use the search form.
  3. Once the desired plugin in the list, click the Install Now button. If you work on a remote server, WordPress may ask for your FTP credentials after you click the button, so make sure to have this information at hand.
  4. Wait until the process is done, and click Activate.

Manual installation↑ Back to Top

If automatic update is not an option, you can always do it the old-fashioned way. If you’re going down this road, it’s very important that you know what you’re doing: messing with the wrong files could break your site entirely. We also recommend backing up your site first, just in case.

Downloading plugin files↑ Back to Top

Download the plugin ZIP file from the WordPress Plugin Directory or your third-party vendor.

Uploading plugin files↑ Back to Top

Using WordPress admin

    1. On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New.
    2. Find and click the Upload Plugin button.
    3. Upload the plugin ZIP file you downloaded and click Install Now.

      4. Wait until the process is done, and click

Activate

    .

Directly to the server

  1. Extract the ZIP’s contents and find the extracted plugin folder.
  2. Connect to your server using FTP (or the method of your choice) and find the wp-content/plugins folder.
  3. Create a folder for the plugin (for example, if you’re installing Nice Portfolio, it should be wp-content/plugins/nice-portfolio) and upload the extracted contents there.
  4. Disconnect from your server.
  5. On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
  6. Find the plugin you just uploaded, and click Activate.
Please make sure that the path is wp-content/plugins/pluginname and not wp-content/plugins/pluginname/pluginname, the latter may cause malfunctioning.

That’s it. Your plugin should be installed now.

More Resources↑ Back to Top

Installation & Updates

Related Articles