Joomla Installation and Setup Guide

Joomla is a powerful, flexible content management system perfect for blogs, business sites, and community portals. UnderHost hosting supports Joomla on both shared hosting and VPS. This guide covers installation from start to finish.

System Requirements

Joomla 4.x requires:

• PHP 7.2+ (8.0+ recommended)
• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.1+
• Apache or Nginx web server
• .htaccess support (for URL rewriting)
• OpenSSL extension

On UnderHost: All shared hosting and VPS plans include PHP 7.4-8.2, MySQL/MariaDB, and Apache/Nginx. Check PHP version in cPanel → Select PHP Version or aaPanel dashboard.

Download Joomla

1. Visit downloads.joomla.org
2. Download the latest stable version (Joomla 4.x)
3. Extract the ZIP file on your computer

Upload to Server

Option 1: Using cPanel File Manager (Shared Hosting)

1. Log into cPanel
2. Click File Manager
3. Navigate to public_html folder
4. Click Upload and select the Joomla ZIP file
5. Right-click the ZIP → Extract
6. Delete the ZIP file when done

Option 2: Using FTP Client (cPanel or VPS)

1. Get FTP credentials from cPanel → FTP Accounts
2. Use FileZilla or WinSCP to connect
3. Upload all Joomla files to public_html (or subdirectory)
4. Extraction may happen automatically on upload

Option 3: Using SSH (VPS/Dedicated)

cd /home/username/public_html
wget https://downloads.joomla.org/cms/joomla4-latest.zip
unzip joomla4-latest.zip
rm joomla4-latest.zip

Create Database

In cPanel:

1. Go to MySQL Databases
2. Create new database (name: username_joomla)
3. Create MySQL user with same name
4. Set a strong password
5. Add user to database with ALL permissions

In aaPanel/CloudPanel:

1. Go to Database → MySQL
2. Create database and user
3. Note the database name, user, and password

Run Installation Wizard

1. Visit yourdomain.com in your browser
2. Joomla installer should load automatically
3. Select Language → Choose your language
4. Pre-Installation Check → Verify all items show green
5. Database Configuration:
   • Database Type: MySQLi
   • Host: localhost
   • Database Name: username_joomla
   • User: database_user
   • Password: your_password
6. Admin User → Create admin account (different password from DB)
7. Site Settings → Name your site, set timezone
8. Installation Complete → Note the admin login URL

Important: Delete the installation folder when prompted:

# Via SSH
rm -rf installation/

# Via File Manager
Delete the "installation" folder

Access Admin Panel

After removing the installation folder:

1. Visit yourdomain.com/administrator
2. Login with admin credentials you created
3. You're now in the Joomla admin dashboard

Fix File Permissions

For proper functionality, set correct permissions on key folders:

# Via SSH (VPS/Dedicated)
chmod 755 configuration.php
chmod 755 htaccess.txt

# Rename htaccess to enable friendly URLs
mv htaccess.txt .htaccess

In cPanel File Manager: Right-click → Permissions → Set to 755 for folders, 644 for files.

Post-Installation Steps

Enable SEO-Friendly URLs

1. Login to Joomla admin panel
2. Go to System → Configuration
3. Click System tab
4. Set Search Engine Friendly URLs: ON
5. Set Use Apache mod_rewrite: ON
6. Save & Close

Install Security Extensions

• Admin Tools: Firewall, 2FA, malware scanner
• Akeeba Backup: Automated backups
• RSFirewall: Web application firewall

Configure Regular Backups

Use cPanel Backups (shared hosting) or Akeeba Backup (Joomla extension) to automate backups. See our Backup strategy guide.

Common Issues & Fixes

Related: WordPress installation | CMS comparison | CMS on shared hosting