Names & applications · Beginner · 10 minutes
How to use softaculous installer — Softaculous: The Domain Dropdown Is the Field That Matters
You are installing an application onto one of several names, and the field you pick in that dropdown is the one that is hardest to change afterwards.
The short answer
Settle the domain and directory before anything else on the Softaculous form: the hostname you choose is written into the application's database as its site URL, so installing onto the wrong name, or onto www when your canonical form is the bare domain, turns a two-minute install into a database search-replace weeks later.
Everything else on that screen — credentials, title, auto-update, automatic backup — is easy to change afterwards. The hostname is the one that spreads itself through the content as you work.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 24 August 2026
Beginner
Level assumed
10 minutes
Time to set aside
5
Stages in the procedure
24/7
Desk hours
No technical background needed. This was written for people who manage names rather than servers, proven on the platform we actually run, and honest about which parts are genuinely fiddly rather than merely unfamiliar.
One promise before step one: nothing here is a one-way door. Any step that is awkward to reverse is flagged, and the way back is printed beside it.
The dropdown lists what the account answers for, and nothing else
Softaculous offers the main name, every addon domain and every subdomain that exists on the account. A name you have bought but not yet added will not appear, and a name that has been added but whose delegation has not arrived will appear perfectly happily — the installer does not check whether anybody on the internet can reach the address it is about to bake in.
That is worth knowing rather than fearing. Installing before propagation is fine; the site simply is not reachable until the name resolves here. What is not fine is installing onto a name you are still deciding about, because the decision hardens the moment content starts referencing it.
Choose the canonical form now, once
www or bare: pick one and never think about it again. The installer will accept either, the application records it, and links, images and redirects follow from it. Changing your mind later means a search-replace through the database plus a redirect rule, which is more work than the original install.
Whichever you choose, make sure the certificate covers both forms and that one redirects to the other. A canonical form the certificate does not cover produces a browser warning halfway through the redirect, which is a confusing fault to diagnose from the symptom alone.
The rest of the form, in order of consequence
Directory: leave it empty for the site root, or name it deliberately if the application is meant to live at a path. Admin credentials: replace the defaults, which are the only genuine hazard on the page. Site title: it is easier to set now than to correct in three places later.
Then switch on auto-update and the install-time backup. They cost nothing and repay a great deal, most of all on the applications you honestly intend to install and then never think about again.
The installations list is a decommissioning schedule
Softaculous records every install it performs, and updates, clones, staging copies and removals all start from that one list. Read it every few months as a list of things to retire rather than only as an inventory.
The abandoned experiment is the real risk: a forum installed on a curious afternoon, sitting on a subdomain nobody visits, quietly becoming the oldest and least-patched software on the account. Cloning is the flip side of the same feature — build one application exactly as you like it, then clone it for each new name and skip the setup ritual entirely.
The account these steps were written against
Every walkthrough here is run on the platform we actually operate — cPanel with a full zone editor, LiteSpeed, NVMe, one-click installs — so the screen the words describe is the screen in front of you.
Already hosted elsewhere? We move the whole site at no charge, usually inside 24 hours, and it keeps answering visitors throughout, because the copy is built before any record changes.
- Every step run on this platform before it was published
- The clock on each record spelled out
- The failure mode printed beside the fix
- A desk that answers whatever the hour
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
Five stages, none of them filler
Each stage is a short spell of deliberate clicking, and the ones that are genuinely fiddly are labelled fiddly.
Written from the ticket queue
Every trap named here came out of a real support ticket, which is why the awkward ones get named at all.
The way back, printed beside the risk
Anything awkward to reverse is flagged, with the route back written next to it rather than three paragraphs later.
Screens that match the words
Written against the panel your own account opens, so the buttons sit where the page says they sit.
Registry, registrar, reseller, host
The four words most guides use interchangeably are kept apart here, because which one you are dealing with decides who can actually fix the problem.
Sized honestly, not flattered
Install an application onto the right name and the right form of it, so nothing has to be search-replaced later is a beginner-level job — set aside 10 minutes, with the steps the platform already absorbs marked as such.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Pick the name, then the directory
The domain dropdown carries every name and subdomain the account serves. Choose deliberately, because this hostname becomes the application's site URL and spreads into its content from the first page you publish.
- 2
Settle www or bare before you continue
Choose the canonical form, confirm the certificate covers both, and arrange the redirect from one to the other. Reversing this later means a database search-replace rather than a setting.
- 3
Replace every default on the form
Real admin credentials, a proper site title, and a directory you meant to type. The default values are the only part of this screen with teeth.
- 4
Switch on auto-update and the install-time backup
Both are free, and both matter most on the applications you install with enthusiasm and then forget. This is the moment they are easiest to enable.
- 5
Remove through the tool, never by deleting folders
Uninstalling from the installations list clears the database and configuration too. Deleting the directory alone leaves an orphaned database sitting on the account and a name pointing at nothing.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- DDoS volume absorbed at the network edge
- Softaculous included, for installs that take one click
- Money back inside 30 days on hosting plans, 7 on reseller
- NVMe SSD storage on every tier, not just the expensive ones
- WordPress Toolkit, with the updates handled for you
- A PHP version chosen per site from the control panel
- A free certificate on every plan, reissued before the current one lapses
- A renewal figure identical to the one you first registered at
- Developer plans carrying SSH, Git and Composer
- A staging copy for rehearsing a change before it goes live
Frequently Asked
Questions we field again and again
I installed onto the wrong domain. Do I start again?
If the site is empty, reinstalling is quicker than repairing. If content exists, run a search-replace across the database for the old hostname, update the site and home settings, then confirm that internal links and image sources have moved with it. Take a copy first: this is one of the few jobs where an error is tedious rather than instant to undo.
Can I install onto a name whose DNS has not arrived yet?
Yes. The installer only needs the name to exist on the account, not to resolve. The site simply is not reachable from outside until delegation lands and cached answers expire. Just be sure the hostname you type is the one you will keep, because the application records it regardless.
Does an application on an addon domain need its own certificate?
It does, and it gets one automatically once the name resolves here. Certificates are issued per name, so each addon and each subdomain is covered separately. Check the SSL status page after propagation rather than assuming, particularly if you plan to redirect between the www and bare forms.
Is the packaged copy the same software as the official download?
The same, exactly. Softaculous creates the database, puts the files in place and writes the configuration in one pass; there is no stripped-down edition involved. The catalogue runs to WordPress and 400+ other applications, so the same is true of the forums, wikis and shop software beside it.
Keep reading
Mail Filtering
Spam and virus filtering standing in front of any mailbox, wherever it is hosted.
Secure Hosting
Imunify360, isolated accounts and hardened defaults for security-first builds.
Changing provider? Work through this checklist beforehand.
A straightforward running order for a migration your visitors never spot: which files travel first, how to bring the mail across without dropping a single message, the right moment to repoint DNS, and the two errors that sit behind almost every outage we get called in to fix.
Start on a plan whose renewal you can predict.
Every plan carries as standard what other hosts bill as extras, and a desk that answers.
View Mail Filtering plans