[WordPress](https://wordpress.org/) is an open source publishing platform that powers 34% of the web, from hobby blogs to the biggest online news sites. It has a robust [themes](https://wordpress.org/themes/) and [plugins](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) ecosystem and a worldwide community that continues to work towards making it one of the most flexible options for online publishing.

This guide shows how to deploy a WordPress instance on Render in just a few minutes. It uses [MySQL 8](/content/docs/deploy-mysql/index.html) and a [Render disk](/content/docs/disks/index.html) for fast persistent storage for all your files. Render manages TLS certificates and custom domains for you, and you can easily add additional security and backups using the official [Jetpack](https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/) plugin.

## One-Click Deploy

Click **Deploy to Render** below and follow the prompts to set up WordPress on Render.

[Deploy to Render](/content/deploy?repo=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Frender-examples%2Fwordpress/index.html)

## Manual Deploy

1. [Set up a MySQL 8 instance](/content/docs/deploy-mysql/index.html) on Render and make a note of the connection details. Make sure to select the `master` branch when you create your database. The database should be up in a few minutes. Wait for it to go live before moving to the next step.

2. Fork [render-examples/wordpress](https://github.com/render-examples/wordpress) on GitHub or click 'Use this template'.

3. Create a new **Web Service** on Render and give Render permission to access your new repo. Make sure the **Language** field is set to `Docker` and pick a name for your service.

4. Add the following environment variables to your web service:

| Key | Value |
| --- | --- |
| `WORDPRESS_DB_HOST` | MySQL hostname from above (e.g. `mysql-xyz0`) |
| `WORDPRESS_DB_NAME` | MySQL database name |
| `WORDPRESS_DB_USER` | MySQL database user |
| `WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD` | MySQL database password |

5. Add a Disk under **Advanced** with the following values:

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Mount Path** | `/var/www/html` |
| **Size** | `10 GB` Feel free to change this to suit your needs. |

That’s it! Save your web service to bring up WordPress. It will take a couple of minutes to start, but future deploys will be much faster.

Your WordPress instance will be available on your `.onrender.com` URL as soon as the deploy is live.

You can then configure WordPress by going to `https://your-subdomain.onrender.com` and start creating content for your new site!

## Backups

Relying on a [disk snapshot](/content/docs/disks#disk-snapshots/index.html) to restore a database is not recommended. Restoring a disk snapshot will likely result in corrupted or lost database data.

Using a database’s recommended backup tool (for example: [mysqldump](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysqldump.html)) is the recommended way to backup and restore a database without corrupted or lost data.

## Custom Domains for WordPress

Render makes it easy to add a custom domain to your WordPress site, with free and fully managed TLS certificates. Follow the [Render custom domains](/content/docs/custom-domains/index.html) guide to add a domain to your site.

If you add a custom domain, make sure to add the **primary domain** under the **General Settings** tab in your WordPress Admin Panel.

## WordPress Plugins

Use your WordPress admin dashboard to install plugins. As a starting point, we recommend the following plugins:

- [Jetpack](https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/) for added security and performance.
- [Akismet Anti-Spam](https://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/) to manage comment spam.
- [Yoast SEO](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/) for optimizing your site for search engines.

## Sending Mail from WordPress

Install the free [WPMail SMTP](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/) plugin and configure it with a service like [Mailgun](https://www.mailgun.com/) which allows up to 10,000 emails per month for free.