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How to Set up a Hosting Plan
Setting up your newly purchased hosting plan at Hostinger with our onboarding process
Updated over a week ago

After purchasing a hosting plan, you will find the option to set it up in the Home section of your control panel:

The Home section of Hostinger hPanel showing a new hosting order and where to set it up

This will initiate the onboarding, which will guide you on how to get your hosting order up and running. Let's go through each step in detail:

  1. Personalize Your Experience

  2. Create or Migrate Your Website

  3. Name Your Website

  4. Finish Setting Up

NOTE:

  • If you start the onboarding and need to complete it later, just click on the Hostinger logo at the top to go back to the panel

Step 1 - Personalize Your Experience

When you see the Hello! page, click on Start now to provide more information about your project. Here you can indicate if you will be creating:

  • A new website for yourself

  • A new website for someone else, such as a client

  • Or, if you already have a website

The next few questions will vary according to your initial answer. Alternatively, you can skip the personalization and head directly to the next step.

Step 2 - Create or Migrate Your Website

After completing the personalization, you will be presented with the option to create or migrate a website:

The Create or Migrate screen of hosting onboarding at Hostinger

Choose accordingly:

  • Create website - to start building a totally new website

  • Migrate website - if you have a website either hosted somewhere else, uploaded on a file-sharing platform, or stored on your local device

  • Skip - if you want to move on to the next step

Create Website

Here you will be able to select a platform to create your new website:

The Select a Platform screen of hosting onboarding at Hostinger and its options

  • WordPress - if you have experience with WordPress or are interested in learning one of the most widely used Content Management Systems (CMS)

  • Hostinger Website Builder - our recommendation to build your first website if you want an easy-to-use solution with fast results

  • Other platforms - select this option if you have a different platform in mind to suit your specific needs, such as a wiki, or an advanced CMS or framework such as Drupal, Joomla, and many more

  • Skip - if you want to go to the next step. You will be able to choose at any time after setting up your hosting plan

Before moving to the next step, you will be asked to create a user for your platform by entering an email and a strong password in case you selected WordPress or another CMS from the Other platforms list. For WordPress sites, you will also have the option to add some recommended plugins as well as select a template.

Migrate Website

Once you choose Migrate your current website, you will find these alternatives:

  • Upload website - select this option to upload and extract a .zip, .tar, or .gz archive of up to 256MB to the public_html folder

  • Transfer website - select this option to create a migration request if you have a WordPress website or if you have an active hosting plan using cPanel or any other control panel

  • Skip - to continue to the next step. You will be able to upload or migrate your website at any time after the onboarding

Step 3 - Name Your Website

Now it's time to choose a domain name for your website. You can either use a domain you already own or select a new one:

  • For new domains, you will be able to choose an available domain name and extension and complete the purchasing process.

  • For existing domains, an information card will show the current provider, nameservers, and expiration date of your domain. If you need to change it, you will have the option to do so at this point

NOTES:

  • If your hosting plan included a free domain, you will be able to claim it in this step or do it later from your panel

  • If you are using a domain purchased elsewhere, you will need to connect it to Hostinger after the onboarding. In case of website migration, you should point your domain after the migration is completed

Step 4 - Finish Setting Up

Before completing the setup process, a summary including the server location and domain will be displayed. If CMS was selected, it will also contain the name of the chosen platform and the admin email.

You can change any of these settings before finishing by clicking on the edit icon:

The Finish Setting Up screen of hosting onboarding

That's it, your hosting is fully active! If you have selected the Website Builder, the next step will lead you to the Builder, where you can start creating your website right away. For WordPress or other CMS, the setting up process will take a few minutes to complete, and after that, you can edit your website or go to the control panel.

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