Adding your first website

Adding a site takes a couple of minutes. You can do it before your domain points at us, and in fact that is the order we recommend, so the site is ready and waiting when DNS changes over.

Steps

1. In your panel, go to Sites and choose Add site.
2. Enter the domain you want the site to answer on, for example example.com. If you also want www.example.com, add it as well.
3. Choose what you are putting there:

• WordPress, which we install for you
• A blank PHP site, if you are uploading an existing site or a Laravel application
• A static site, for plain HTML, or a build output from a tool like Astro or Hugo
• An app (Node.js, Python or Docker) on Pro and above

1. Choose the database, if the site needs one. We can create it for you.
2. Confirm. We create the site, issue a free TLS certificate so it serves over HTTPS, and switch on page caching, the Redis object cache and the global CDN.

While your domain still points elsewhere

Your site exists and works before DNS changes. Use the temporary preview address shown on the site's page in your panel to check it looks right. When you are happy, point the domain at us and traffic starts arriving.

If you chose WordPress

We give you the admin address and a first admin login. Sign in, change the password, and you are on a normal WordPress site with your themes and plugins working as usual. See Hosting a WordPress site on 8Deploy.

If you are bringing an existing site

Do not rebuild it. Follow Moving an existing site to 8Deploy, which covers copying files and the database across and testing before you switch DNS.

How many sites can I have?

Starter includes 1 site, Pro 3, Premium 10, Platinum 25. If you need one more than your plan allows, you can either move up a plan or add an extra domain add-on at $9 a month.

After it is live

Check Pointing your domain at 8Deploy to confirm DNS, then take a look at Why your site might be slow and how to find out if performance is not what you expect.