This page will walk you through how to create a WordPress site with DevKinsta. When you first launch DevKinsta, you’ll see three different site creation options.

New WordPress Site

This option creates a new WordPress site configured with Nginx, MySQL, and the latest version of WordPress. To create a new WordPress site, follow the steps below.

  1. Click Add Site in the upper-right corner of DevKinsta.
  2. Select the New WordPress Site option.
  3. Fill in the Site Name, WordPress Admin Username, and WordPress Admin Password fields.
  4. Click Create Site, and wait 30-60 seconds for the site to be created.

During the site creation process, you may need to provide your user account password (macOS) or accept a confirmation dialog (Windows). This is required because DevKinsta modifies the system’s hosts file.

After creating the site, you’ll be able to view it in DevKinsta’s Sites list.

Import from MyKinsta

If you have a Kinsta account, DevKinsta allows you to clone your sites to your local computer. This makes local development of your Kinsta-hosted sites very convenient! To import a site hosted on Kinsta, follow the steps below.

  1. Click Add Site in the upper-right corner of DevKinsta.
  2. Select the Import from Kinsta option.
  3. Log in to your Kinsta account.
  4. Select a site environment (live or staging) to import.
  5. If your site is a multisite, specify whether it’s a subdomain or subdirectory multisite. If your site is not a multisite, select the No Multisite option.
  6. Click Import Site to start the import process.

During the site creation process, you may need to provide your user account password (macOS) or accept a confirmation dialog (Windows). This is required because DevKinsta modifies the system’s hosts file.

After creating the site, you’ll be able to view it in DevKinsta’s Sites list.

Custom Site

Note that at the moment, not all fields can be modified when creating sites. DevKinsta is being actively developed, and we have created fields for settings we anticipate will be changeable in the future.

  1. Click the Add New button in the top right corner of the site list.
  2. Select Custom site.
  3. Choose Install WordPress, Empty site, or Import backup.

Install WordPress

Choose this option if you want to install a fresh WordPress site.

  1. Enter at least the Site name and WordPress admin username. You can modify the following settings:
    • PHP version
    • Database name
    • Enable HTTPS
    • WordPress site title
    • WordPress version
    • WordPress admin e-mail
    • WordPress admin username
    • WordPress admin password
    • Multisite
    • Multisite type (if Multisite is enabled, choose between subdirectory or subdomain)
  2. During site creation, you need to provide your password (on macOS) or click Accept in the confirmation dialog (on Windows). This is required because DevKinsta modifies the hosts file.
  3. It should take about 15-60 seconds. After creating the site, you’ll be able to view it in DevKinsta’s Sites list.

Empty site

Choose this option if you want to create an empty site without WordPress.

  1. Fill out at least the Site name. You can modify the following settings:
    • PHP version
    • Database name
    • Enable HTTPS
  2. After creating the site, you’ll be able to view it in DevKinsta’s Sites list.

Import backup

Choose this option if you want to create an empty site from a WordPress backup. For more details, see our Create a Site From a Backup guide. After creating the site, you’ll be able to view it in DevKinsta’s Sites list.

Customizing Sites

  • Project name: this will show up in the site list.
  • PHP version: We recommend always using the latest version. See our PHP versions guide for more information.
  • Database name: The name of your database. Unless you are doing custom development, you will likely not need to change this.
  • Site title: This will become your actual site title. It populates the WordPress setting of the same name.
  • WordPress admin email: This will be the admin user’s email address. We recommend not using actual email addresses.
  • WordPress admin username: This is the username of your admin user. You will use this to log in to your WordPress site.
  • WordPress admin password: This is the password for your admin user. You will use this to log in to your WordPress site.

Steps of Site Creation

Updating NGINX config

In this step, DevKinsta sets up the required webserver settings. You can check the sites.ini configuration file here: /Users/user/DevKinsta/kinsta/sites.ini
Modifying this file is not recommended. All changes are done by DevKinsta.

Creating MySQL database

DevKinsta creates a database for the site. If this step fails, you may try to cancel the site creation, restart DevKinsta and create again the site.

Installing WordPress x.y

If the webserver and database are ready, DevKinsta can start to install the latest WordPress. This step may take 10-40 seconds.

Updating host file

Here DevKinsta will ask for a confirmation from the user. On macOS, you have to enter your password. On Windows, you have to click the OK button in the confirmation dialog.

DevKinsta needs this permission because it writes to the hosts file (macOS: /etc/hosts, Windows: C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts). This allows your site to use a pretty URL instead of an IP address.

Generating thumbnail

In the last step, DevKinsta creates a preview of your site, and it will be displayed inside DevKinsta.