Boo! 15% off your first payment on every paid plan. The donkey isn’t scared, but the prices are → ends 1 November, 23:59

Install DonkeyCMS

FREEPROBUSINESSWHITE-LABEL

DonkeyCMS installs into a folder of your website, called blog, so your blog lives at yoursite.com/blog. The whole install takes about five minutes.

What you need

You needDetails
Hosting with PHPPHP 8.1 or newer. Most hosts let you pick the version in cPanel under Select PHP Version or MultiPHP Manager.
A MySQL databaseAn empty database, plus its username and password. Create it first, in cPanel under MySQL Databases. The installer fills it but does not create it.
Your downloadThe zip from your donkeycms.com account, under Downloads.

Tip: Your license key is already inside every download. There is nothing to copy or paste during the install.

1. Upload the files

  1. Download DonkeyCMS from your donkeycms.com account: Downloads.
  2. In your hosting's File Manager, open your website's main folder (often public_html).
  3. Upload the zip and Extract it. You now have a blog folder next to your site's pages.

2. Run the installer

Open yoursite.com/blog/install.php in your browser. It has three short screens:

  1. Database connection. Enter the database host (usually localhost), the database name, its username and password, then press Test connection & create tables.
  2. Create your admin account. Choose a username, your email and a password of at least 8 characters, then press Create account. This is the owner account: it can do everything.
  3. Site settings. Give your blog a name, pick your Language and your time zone, then press Finish installation. The language is the one the admin panel and the blog's own words start in; you can change it later under Settings, Language.

The last screen confirms that your license key has been saved and that the zip has been removed from your hosting. The installer then locks itself, so nobody can run it again. Press Go to the admin login screen and sign in.

3. Add your domain to your license

On donkeycms.com, open your account, go to Domains and add the domain your blog runs on, for example yoursite.com.

Then open License & Updates in your blog's admin panel. It checks again by itself; you can also press Check again.

License & Updates in the admin panel: the license key field, with the key that came inside the download.1
  1. Your license key: already filled in, because it came inside the download.

Warning: Updates only reach a domain that is on your license. On a paid plan, a blog whose domain is missing keeps its features for 7 days, then works with the Free plan's features until you add the domain. Your posts are never affected.

Next step

Your blog works now, but it does not yet carry your site's menu and footer. Frame Setup copies them over in a few clicks.

Still stuck? Write to us — we read every message.