Installing an App on Your Site

The Apps install wizard takes three steps: configure the admin account and site settings, review what is about to happen, then watch the install run and collect your login details.

Before You Start

You need one thing: an active website on your account. The wizard installs onto a site you already have, it does not create one. If you have none, the wizard tells you so and links you to create one. See Creating Your First Website.

You also need the apps:write permission, held by account Owners and Admins.

Take a backup before installing onto a site that already has content. The wizard has a safety net for a site that already holds an app, described below, but a manual restore point taken deliberately is always worth more than one taken automatically. See Taking a Backup.

Getting to the Wizard

Click Apps in the KPanel sidebar.
Click the app you want.
Click Install [app] in the panel on the right.

The direct address is /apps/<app-slug>/install.

The app install wizard in KPanel

Step 1: Configure

The wizard shows the app, then four groups of fields. A Plan upgrade recommended notice appears at the top if the app suggests a higher plan level than you are on: it is advice, and the install still proceeds.

Location

Install on site. Choose from your active sites. This is where the app will live.

Admin Account

Admin username. Defaults to admin. This is the username you will log in with, and you can add more users later.
Admin password. A strong 16-character password is generated for you the moment the page loads. Show reveals it and Generate makes a new one. You can also type your own; it must be at least 8 characters.
Admin email. Optional. Used for login and password reset. Left blank, your account email is used.

Save the admin password before you leave the wizard. It is shown on the review screen and again on the success screen, and then it is gone. Kapsule does not store a copy you can retrieve later, so losing it means resetting the password through the app itself.

Site Settings

Site name, where the app asks for one.
Language. The language the app is set up in, chosen from sixteen options including English (US), English (UK), Te Reo Māori, and the major European and Asian languages. This sets the app's own content language, not KPanel's.

Database

Shown only for apps that need one. The wizard suggests a database name derived from your domain. Letters and numbers only, no underscores or hyphens: the field enforces this as you type. Change it if you like.

Apps that need a database have it provisioned automatically as part of the install.

Some apps add their own extra fields below this, defined by the app itself, with help text where it applies. Required fields are marked with an asterisk, and Continue stays disabled until all of them are filled.

At the bottom the wizard shows the resource summary for this app: expected install time, minimum RAM, and whether a database is added.

Click Continue.

Step 2: Review and Confirm

The review screen restates the decisions in one list: app, website, site name, admin username, admin password (with a show or hide toggle), admin email, language and database name. The subtitle says it plainly: nothing is installed until you confirm.

Edit goes back to change something.
Confirm and install starts the job.

Use the review screen for the one check that matters most: the Website row. Installing onto the wrong site is the single most common install mistake, and it is the one the overwrite guard below exists to catch.

Step 3: Install

The wizard switches to a progress view. You will see, in order:

Queued: waiting for worker. Your job is in the queue and will start shortly.
Installing [app], with elapsed seconds against the typical install time and a progress bar.

Leave the page open. The install continues in the background if you navigate away, but you lose the live view and the credentials summary at the end.

If the install hits a problem it retries automatically, showing Retrying the install with the attempt number. If it runs well past the expected time, a note appears offering to keep waiting or cancel.

Cancelling

Cancel install stops the job. The result screen confirms it: The install was stopped. Nothing was changed on your site.

When the Site Already Has an App

If the target site's directory already contains a site, the install stops with a warning naming what it found:

This directory already contains [app]. Installing [new app] will OVERWRITE it and cannot be undone. A full backup of your current site will be taken first so you can restore it.

Two choices: cancel, or Back up and overwrite. If you consent, the job takes a full backup of the existing site before it writes anything, so there is a restore point.

This is the point of no return in the wizard. Overwriting replaces the existing site's files. The automatic backup means it is recoverable, not that it is reversible with a click. If you are not certain the site is disposable, cancel and install onto a different site instead.

Apps Our Team Installs by Hand

Some apps have no proven auto-installer. For these the wizard skips the progress bar entirely and shows a warm confirmation instead:

We are setting up [app] for you. This app needs a hands-on setup, so our team installs it on your site for you after you order. We will email you the moment it is live; there is nothing more you need to do.

Nothing failed and nothing is pending on you. Apps are free, so there is no charge either way.

Step 4: You Are Live

On success the wizard shows [app] is live, a link to your domain, and the credentials summary:

Admin username
Admin password, with show or hide
Admin email
Site title

It also shows the install log, line by line, with each step marked succeeded, failed or skipped. That log is worth a glance even on a clean install: it tells you exactly what was configured.

Two buttons finish the flow: Open [app] goes straight to the app, and Back to App returns to the catalogue page.

What If It Fails

Installation Failed. The result screen shows what happened and states the important part: Any partial changes have been rolled back. Your site is clean. Two actions are offered, Try Again and Contact Support.

Common causes and what to do:

Resource limits. If the app's minimum RAM is above what your plan gives it, the install can fail partway. Check the Min RAM figure on the app page. See Upgrading Your Plan.
A rejected field. The wizard refuses input containing shell-unsafe characters before the job is even queued, and names the field. Simplify the value: a plain username, a generated password, a letters-and-numbers database name.
The site is not active. Only sites with ACTIVE status appear in the site dropdown. A site still provisioning will not be listed.

The install succeeded but the site shows an error. Check the install log for a failed step, then check the app's own documentation for post-install setup. Community apps in particular often need a final setup wizard run in the browser. See Website Not Loading.

You lost the admin password. Use the app's own password reset with the admin email you set. For WordPress specifically, see Reset a WordPress Password.

The install is stuck on Queued. The job queue is busy. It will start. If it is still queued long past the expected install time, cancel it and try again, then open a support ticket if it repeats.