WordPress on serverplus in 10 minutes

You can get a WordPress site running on a serverplus VPS in literally 10 minutes. Below are two paths: via Docker Compose (the fastest and cleanest) and the classic LEMP stack (nginx + PHP + MariaDB) if you want to do everything "by hand". Plus a domain, free SSL and basic protection.

What you will need

• A serverplus VPS: to start, 1–2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM and 20+ GB of disk are enough. Disk type — ssd-universal (a good balance for the site and the database).
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (or 22.04 LTS) — the recommended option.
• A domain (preferably) — to enable HTTPS. You will need access to the domain's DNS.
• SSH access to the server (via a key).

WordPress requirements (current). PHP 8.3+, MariaDB 10.6+ or MySQL 8.0+, HTTPS. Both methods below already account for these versions.

Method 1 — Docker Compose (fast and clean)

WordPress and the database come up with two files and a single command. Nothing "litters" the system, and it is easy to move and update.

1. Install Docker

# official Docker install script curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh # check sudo docker version

2. Create the project

mkdir -p ~/wordpress && cd ~/wordpress

Create a .env file with passwords (replace with your own, strong ones):

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=change_me_root MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress MYSQL_USER=wp_user MYSQL_PASSWORD=change_me_strong

Create docker-compose.yml:

services:  db:    image: mariadb:11    restart: always    environment:      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}      MYSQL_DATABASE: ${MYSQL_DATABASE}      MYSQL_USER: ${MYSQL_USER}      MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_PASSWORD}    volumes:      - db_data:/var/lib/mysql  wordpress:    image: wordpress:php8.3-apache    restart: always    depends_on:      - db    ports:      - "80:80"    environment:      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: ${MYSQL_DATABASE}      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: ${MYSQL_USER}      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_PASSWORD}    volumes:      - wp_data:/var/www/html volumes:  db_data:  wp_data:

3. Start it

sudo docker compose up -d # container status sudo docker compose ps

Open http://your_server_IP in a browser — you will see the WordPress setup wizard. Done; next is the "First login" section.

Firewall. Open the needed ports: sudo ufw allow OpenSSH, sudo ufw allow 80, sudo ufw allow 443, then sudo ufw enable.

Method 2 — Classic LEMP (nginx + PHP + MariaDB)

If you prefer to install the components directly into the system. Commands are for Ubuntu 24.04.

1. Packages

sudo apt update sudo apt install -y nginx mariadb-server \  php-fpm php-mysql php-gd php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip

2. Database

sudo mysql_secure_installation   # set the root password, answer Y to the questions sudo mysqlCREATE DATABASE wordpress CHARACTER SET utf8mb4; CREATE USER 'wp_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'change_me_strong'; GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wp_user'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;

3. WordPress files

cd /tmp && curl -O https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz tar xzf latest.tar.gz sudo cp -r wordpress /var/www/mysite sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/mysite

4. nginx site

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite (replace the domain and PHP-FPM version if needed):

server {    listen 80;    server_name example.com www.example.com;    root /var/www/mysite;    index index.php;    location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; }    location ~ \.php$ {        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;    } }sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Then open the site by domain/IP and go through the setup wizard.

Domain and DNS

For the site to open by domain and for HTTPS to work, point the domain at the server's IP:

• A record @ → your VPS IP.
• A record www → the same IP (or a CNAME to the main domain).

A DNS update can take from a few minutes to a couple of hours. Check: dig +short example.com.

Free SSL (HTTPS) in a minute

Once the domain points at the server, enable HTTPS with a Let’s Encrypt certificate via certbot.

For LEMP (nginx)

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

Certbot will write HTTPS into the nginx config itself and set up auto-renewal.

For the Docker method. The easiest is to add a reverse proxy with automatic TLS in front of WordPress (for example Caddy or Nginx Proxy Manager) — it issues and renews the certificate itself. Or install certbot on the host and proxy to the container's port.

First login and basic setup

• Open the site → WordPress wizard: choose the language, set the site name, the admin login (not admin!) and a strong password.
• Go to /wp-admin → "Settings" → set the correct site address (with https://).
• Delete demo content and unnecessary themes/plugins, install the theme you need.
• Configure "Permalinks" (pretty URLs) in "Settings → Permalinks".

Basic protection

• Do not use the login admin and come up with a long password; enable two-factor authentication with a plugin.
• Update everything: the WordPress core, themes and plugins — most hacks go through outdated plugins.
• Install plugins only from trusted sources and remove unused ones.
• Firewall and SSH: outward — only 80/443 and SSH; log in over SSH by key, not by password.
• Backups: keep backups separate from the server (a snapshot + upload to serverplus S3 object storage).
• HTTPS is mandatory — it is both security and a plus for SEO.

Updates and backups

Docker method — updating images:

cd ~/wordpress sudo docker compose pull sudo docker compose up -d

Backup (Docker): save the volumes with files and a dump of the database:

# database dump sudo docker compose exec db \  sh -c 'mariadb-dump -u root -p"$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD" wordpress' > wp-db.sql

The files (the wp-content directory with themes/plugins/uploads) and the database dump are all you need to restore. Keep them in S3 or on a separate server.

FAQ

Which method should I choose — Docker or LEMP?

For a quick and tidy start — Docker Compose: easier to install, update and move. Choose LEMP if you need full control over the configuration or are more used to it.

Is a minimal VPS enough?

For a small site/blog — yes: 1–2 vCPU and 2 GB RAM. For load and many plugins add RAM and take ssd-universal or nvme-fast for the database.

Can I do without a domain?

For testing — yes, by IP. But a real site needs a domain: without it you cannot issue SSL, and HTTPS is mandatory today.

How do I speed up the site?

A caching plugin, image optimization, a fresh PHP version (8.3+) and an ssd-universal/nvme-fast disk for the database. For traffic — a CDN.

The site does not open after installation.

Check the firewall (80/443 open), that the containers/services are running (docker compose ps or systemctl status nginx php8.3-fpm), and that DNS points to the right IP.