DEV Community

Cover image for How to Install WordPress on Ubuntu with Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP
FlatlinerAtheist | CLI-NERDS
FlatlinerAtheist | CLI-NERDS

Posted on Originally published at clinerds.com

How to Install WordPress on Ubuntu with Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP

#linux #wordpress #nginx #mariadb

WordPress still powers a huge chunk of the web, and installing it yourself means full control: your plugins, your data, your server, no hosting-plan upsells. This guide sets it up on Ubuntu with the classic LEMP stack — Linux, Nginx, MariaDB, PHP.

A quick note on versions: Ubuntu 18.04 is past standard support, so for anything new, use 22.04 or 24.04 — the steps below are identical on all of them.

1. Install Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP 

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx mariadb-server php-fpm php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Secure the database with a root password and sensible defaults:

sudo mysql_secure_installation
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

2. Create the WordPress database and user 

sudo mysql
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 
CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'a-strong-password-here';
GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

3. Download WordPress 

cd /tmp
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xzf latest.tar.gz
sudo cp -r wordpress /var/www/wordpress
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/wordpress
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

WordPress writes uploads and plugin files as the web server user, so ownership matters — wrong permissions are the most common cause of "update failed" later.

4. Configure Nginx

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/wordpress;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~* \.(css|js|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|svg)$ {
        expires 30d;
    }
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Enable it and reload:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

5. Run the installer

Point your DNS at the server, then open http://example.com in a browser. The WordPress installer asks for:

  • Database: wordpress
  • Username: wpuser
  • Password: the one you created
  • Host: localhost
  • Table prefix: leave wp_ or change it, doesn't matter much

Pick your site title and admin user (not "admin" — bots try that name first), and you're in.

6. HTTPS and the essentials

Every WordPress site needs TLS — logins and admin sessions go over it constantly:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Certbot edits the Nginx config and sets up auto-renewal; our Let's Encrypt guide has the renewal-test details.

Then finish with the basics: set pretty permalinks (Settings → Permalinks → Post name), install one caching plugin, and set up backups before you touch anything else — a WordPress site is a database plus the wp-content folder, and both need regular copies (backup tools compared).

If something breaks

  • "Error establishing a database connection" — wrong credentials in wp-config.php, or MariaDB not running: sudo systemctl status mariadb
  • White screen — usually a PHP error; check /var/log/nginx/error.log and the PHP-FPM log
  • Plugin uploads ask for FTP — file ownership issue; re-run the chown -R www-data:www-data command

That's a complete self-hosted WordPress: fast, yours, and ready for content.

Top comments (0)