PrestaShop Manual Installation and Setup Guide

Below is a clear, step-by-step PrestaShop Manual Installation and Setup Guide (perfect for beginners and also useful if you prefer installing without auto-installers like Softaculous).

This guide works for PrestaShop 8.x and 9.x on most shared/VPS hosting.

📌 PrestaShop Manual Installation & Setup Guide

1️⃣ Server Requirements (Check First)

Make sure your hosting meets these minimum requirements:

✅ Required

• PHP: 8.1 or 8.2
• MySQL: 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+
• Web Server: Apache or Nginx
• Disk Space: Minimum 500 MB
• Memory Limit: 256 MB (recommended)

✅ Enable PHP Extensions

• PDO_MySQL
• cURL
• OpenSSL
• Zip
• GD
• Intl
• mbstring
• fileinfo

📌 Most cPanel hosts already support these.

2️⃣ Download PrestaShop

1. Go to PrestaShop official site
2. Download the latest PrestaShop ZIP
3. Save it on your computer

📁 File name example:

prestashop_8.x.x.zip

3️⃣ Create Database (MySQL)

In cPanel:

1. Open MySQL Databases
2. Create:
   • Database name
   • Database user
   • Password
3. Assign user to database
4. Grant ALL PRIVILEGES

📌 Note down:

• Database Name
• Username
• Password
• Database Host → usually localhost

4️⃣ Upload PrestaShop Files

Option A: Using File Manager (cPanel)

1. Open File Manager
2. Go to public_html/
3. Upload prestashop.zip
4. Extract the ZIP

Option B: Using FTP (FileZilla)

1. Connect using FTP credentials
2. Upload extracted files to public_html/

📌 Important:
If files are inside a /prestashop folder, move all files out to public_html.

5️⃣ Set File & Folder Permissions

Recommended permissions:

In cPanel:

• Select folder → Permissions → Set to 755

6️⃣ Run PrestaShop Installer

Open your browser and visit:

https://yourdomain.com

The PrestaShop Installation Wizard will start automatically.

7️⃣ Installation Wizard Steps

🔹 Step 1: Language

• Choose installation language
• Click Next

🔹 Step 2: License Agreement

• Accept license terms
• Click Next

🔹 Step 3: System Compatibility

• Green ✔️ means OK
• Fix any red ❌ issues before proceeding

🔹 Step 4: Store Information

Fill in:

• Shop name
• Main activity
• Country
• Time zone
• Admin email
• Admin password

📌 Use a strong password

🔹 Step 5: Database Configuration

Enter:

• Database name
• Database user
• Database password
• Database server: localhost
• Table prefix: ps_ (default)

Click Test Database Connection → then Next

🔹 Step 6: Installation

• Installer creates tables and configures store
• Takes 1–3 minutes

✅ Success screen appears when complete

8️⃣ IMPORTANT: Delete Installation Folder

After installation:

1. Go to public_html/
2. Delete /install folder

⚠️ Your store will NOT work until this folder is removed.

9️⃣ Access Your Store

Front Office (Shop)

https://yourdomain.com

Back Office (Admin Panel)

https://yourdomain.com/adminXXXX

📌 adminXXXX is auto-generated
Rename it for security.

🔟 Basic Post-Installation Setup (Must Do)

✅ General Settings

• Shop name & logo
• Contact details
• Enable SSL (HTTPS)

✅ Products

• Add categories
• Add products
• Set prices, tax & stock

✅ Payments

• Cash on Delivery
• UPI / Razorpay / PayU
• Stripe / PayPal

✅ Shipping

• Create carriers
• Set shipping zones & costs

✅ SEO

• Enable Friendly URLs
• Configure Meta Titles & Descriptions

🛠 Common Installation Issues & Fixes

❌ Blank Page After Install

• Increase PHP memory limit
• Enable display_errors temporarily

❌ Database Connection Error

• Re-check DB credentials
• Ensure database user has privileges

❌ 500 Internal Server Error

• Check .htaccess
• Ask host to enable mod_rewrite

🎯 Recommended Next Steps (Beginner Path)

1. Install a free theme
2. Configure tax rules
3. Setup Google Search Console
4. Improve speed (cache + image optimization)
5. Enable maintenance mode until ready