WordPress is the world‘s most popular open-source content management system. It powers over 43% of all websites, from personal blogs to massive enterprises like CNN, Forbes, and TechCrunch. The best part? WordPress is 100% free and open for anyone to use.
In this comprehensive guide, you‘ll learn how to download and install WordPress for free, either on a web server to launch your website or locally on your computer for development and testing purposes.
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Why is WordPress Free to Download?
WordPress is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This open source license grants users the freedom to download, use, modify, and distribute the WordPress software without paying a license fee.
Thousands of developers from around the world contribute to the WordPress project. The nonprofit WordPress Foundation oversees core development and releases new major versions a few times per year. This community-driven model is why WordPress has grown to be the world‘s #1 CMS.
While the WordPress software itself is free, launching a website will have costs like web hosting, a domain name, themes, plugins, and maintenance. However, WordPress can easily be used to create full-featured websites on a budget.
Now let‘s look at how to get the WordPress files downloaded onto your computer or server.
How to Download the Current Version of WordPress
Downloading WordPress is easy and takes just a couple of minutes. Here are the steps:
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Go to WordPress.org/download/ in your web browser.
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Under the blue "Download WordPress" button, you‘ll see the current version number. As of this writing, it is WordPress 6.1.1.
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Click the blue Download WordPress button to save the ZIP file to your computer.
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When the download completes, unzip the wordpress folder onto your computer. This contains all the WordPress files.
That‘s it! You now have WordPress downloaded and ready to install in the location of your choosing.
The WordPress ZIP file contains the following folders and files:
- /wp-admin – The admin backend files
- /wp-includes – The internal WordPress files
- /wp-content – For themes, plugins, and media uploads
- wp-config-sample.php – Sample configuration file
- index.php – Home page template
- license.txt – The GPL license file
- readme.html – Details about WordPress
These are all the files required to run WordPress. Next, let‘s go over how to install it.
How to Manually Install WordPress on a Web Server
Performing a manual WordPress install on a web server involves three main steps:
- Uploading the WordPress files via FTP
- Creating a database
- Running the WordPress installation script
Though it may sound complicated, this entire process usually only takes 5-10 minutes. Let‘s break it down step-by-step:
Upload the WordPress Files
First, you need to upload the WordPress folders and files to your web server using an FTP client like FileZilla.
Log into your web host‘s FTP server using the provided credentials. The hosting account needs to have PHP and MySQL databases enabled, which is extremely common.
Once logged in, you‘ll see your local computer files on the left side and the web server files on the right. Navigate to the /public_html/ folder on the server. This is the web root directory.
Now upload the /wordpress folder from your computer to the server‘s /public_html/ folder. You can drag and drop the files or use the upload function.
Create the MySQL Database
Every WordPress site needs a database to store all the site data like posts, pages, comments, plugins, themes, and users. For this, you‘ll use the MySQL database management system.
Log in to your web host‘s control panel and navigate to the database or MySQL section. Create a new database and make note of the database name, username, password, and hostname.
Some hosts use phpMyAdmin to handle database administration. If you see a phpMyAdmin icon, click it to get started.
In phpMyAdmin, click the Databases tab and create a new database. Come up with a name like wordpress_db and click Create.
Run the WordPress Installer
Now you‘re ready to run the web-based WordPress installer. Visit your domain name in a web browser, such as example.com.
You‘ll see the language selection screen. Choose your language and click continue.
Next, you‘ll see fields to enter your database connection details. Enter the information from the database you created in Step 2 and click Submit.
On the next screen, click "Run the Installation" and WordPress will set up the database tables.
Lastly, enter your site title, admin username, password, and email address. Then click "Install WordPress" to complete the installation.
That‘s it! WordPress is now successfully installed. Click Log In to visit your admin dashboard and start building your site.
How to Install WordPress Locally on Your Computer
In addition to installing on a live web server, you can also download and install WordPress on your local Windows PC or Mac computer.
Running WordPress locally allows you to build or modify WordPress sites offline on your computer for testing purposes. It‘s perfect for theme/plugin developers and bloggers who like to tinker before going live.
Here‘s an overview of how to install WordPress locally:
Download the Pre-Packaged Software Stack
Trying to configure a local WordPress environment from scratch can be tricky. To make it easy, download an all-in-one software stack.
For Windows, use WAMP or XAMPP. On Mac, use MAMP. These bundles include WordPress, Apache, MySQL, and PHP preconfigured to work together.
Install the Software Stack on Your Computer
Run the installer for your chosen software stack. The default settings should work fine in most cases.
During installation you‘ll set a password for the MySQL "root" user that will be needed later. The stack will run in the background on your computer when complete.
Download WordPress and Configure wp-config.php
Next, download the latest WordPress ZIP file from WordPress.org. Extract the /wordpress folder to the web root directory of your local server.
For WAMP and XAMPP this is C:\wamp\www\ or C:\xampp\htdocs\ by default. For MAMP it‘s /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/.
Then, configure your MySQL database credentials in wp-config.php so WordPress can connect to the database locally.
Complete the Famous 5-Minute Installation
With the database configured in wp-config.php, you can now run the WordPress installer locally.
Just visit http://localhost/wordpress in your browser. Provide your desired admin username, password, site title, and email address.
After clicking "Install WordPress", your local WordPress site is ready to use! You can access the admin dashboard to start development and testing.
Keeping WordPress Updated
New versions of WordPress are released a few times per year. It‘s important to keep your website updated to get the latest features, security enhancements, and bug fixes.
Minor updates like going from 6.1 to 6.1.1 are automatic in the dashboard. However, major updates like 6.0 to 6.1 need to be done manually.
To update WordPress manually, repeat the file upload process:
- Download the latest WordPress ZIP file from WordPress.org.
- Delete all files and folders from the /wordpress folder on your server except wp-content.
- Upload the new WordPress files via FTP as a replacement.
- Run the update script by visiting /wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php in your browser.
Some web hosts offer automated WordPress updates. If not, this manual method works great.
Conclusion
Installing WordPress only takes a few minutes, but it provides you with a powerful platform capable of running everything from personal blogs to online magazines, corporate websites, ecommerce stores, and more.
The freedom of open source software means you can try WordPress for free without any limits or restrictions. If you need help getting started, there are thousands of tutorials available along with a large helpful community.
We hope this guide showed you how straightforward it is to download and install WordPress, whether it‘s on a live server or locally for development. Now it‘s time to start building your website!
