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How to Purchase and Install WHMCS

Last modified: February 8, 2024

Overview

WHMCS offers an all-in-one billing and automation platform that automates all aspects of a web hosting business. This document describes how to install WHMCS on your cPanel account. You can purchase a license for WHMCS in the cPanel Store. For more about managing WHMCS, read the WHMCS documentation.

Install WHMCS as Site Software

Before you install WHMCS as Site Software, your hosting provider must enable this cPAddon in WHM’s Install cPAddons Site Software interface (WHM » Home » cPanel » Install cPAddons Site Software).

One-click installation

For the one-click installations, log in to your cPanel account and perform the following steps:

Note:

The one-click installation requires you to set up a contact email address in cPanel’s Contact Information interface (cPanel » Home » Preferences » Contact Information).

  1. Navigate to cPanel’s Site Software interface (cPanel » Home » Software » Site Software).

  2. Under Automation, click WHMCS.

  3. Under the Install tab, select a domain from the Installation Domain menu. The system will check whether the domain has a WHMCS license.

    • If the domain owns a license, click Install.

    • If you possess a license for the domain, but the system does not detect it, click Enter a license manually. Enter your WHMCS license in the License Key text box and click Install.

    • If the domain does not possess a license, click Buy License. The system will connect to the cPanel Store so you can buy a license. After your purchase, the cPanel Store will return you to the Site Software interface. Then, click Install.

  4. After the installation completes, the interface will provide a success message, the username, password, and the WHMCS administration URL.

Advanced configuration installations

For advanced configuration installations, log in to your cPanel account and perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to cPanel’s Site Software interface (cPanel » Home » Software » Site Software).

  2. Under Automation, click WHMCS.

  3. Under the Install tab, select a domain from the Installation Domain menu. The system will check whether the domain has a WHMCS license.

  4. Click Show Advanced Configuration. The interface will display additional configuration options.

    Note:

    • If you have not entered an email address in cPanel’s Contact Information interface (cPanel »Home » Preferences » Contact Information), the interface will automatically display the advanced configuration options.

    • If you possess a license for the domain, but the system does not detect it, click Enter a license manually. Enter your WHMCS license in the License Key text box.

    • The Advanced Configuration feature does not support the Buy License option. You can visit the cPanel Store in a new browser window to purchase a WHMCS license.

  5. Under Installation URL, enter a directory path. To install directly to the domain’s document root, leave the text box blank.

  6. Enter an administrator username in the Admin User text box.

  7. Enter and confirm the new password in the appropriate text boxes.

    Note:
    • The system evaluates the password that you enter on a scale of 100 points. 0 indicates a weak password, while 100 indicates a very secure password.
    • Some web hosts require a minimum password strength. A green password Strength meter indicates that the password is equal to or greater than the required password strength.
    • Click Password Generator to generate a strong password. For more information, read our Password and Security documentation.

  8. Enter your email address in the Email text box.

  9. Click Install.

  10. After the installation completes, the interface will provide a success message and the WHMCS administration URL. When you navigate to the URL, log in with the username and password that you provided during the installation process.

Install WHMCS Manually

Before you install WHMCS, you will need to install ionCube® and set up your database.

To install WHMCS, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the Download WHMCS website.
  2. Enter your license key in the text box and click Validate and Download. The system will download a .zip file that contains the WHMCS files.
  3. Unzip the contents of the .zip file to a folder on your computer.
  4. In the WHMCS folder, rename the configuration.php.new file to configuration.php.
  5. Upload the WHMCS folder to your website. If the system returns an error, upload the folder in binary mode.
    Note:
    • The default WHMCS directory name is whmcs.
    • You can rename the WHMCS directory or create a subdirectory for the WHMCS files on the server. For example, you can create a clients or billing subdirectory in the public_html directory.
    • You cannot use the name admin for the WHMCS directory. The administration directory uses admin as a name.
  6. Navigate in your web browser to example.com/whmcs/install/install.php, where example.com represents your domain.
    Note:

    If you renamed the WHMCS directory or put the WHMCS files in a directory other than public_html, replace whmcs with the directory’s name in the URL. For example, if your WHMCS directory name is billing, navigate to example.com/billing/install/install.php.

  7. Follow the instructions to complete the installation.
  8. On the command line, run this command as the root user to enter the WHMCS directory: 
    cd /home/example/public_html/billing
    Note:

    Replace this directory path with the path to your WHMCS directory.

  9. Change the permissions on the configuration file: 
    chmod 400 configuration.php
  10. Change the permissions on the directories WHMCS uses to write files: 
    1
2
3

    chmod 755 attachments
chmod 755 downloads
chmod 755 templates_c
    Important:

    Some webserver environments may require that you set permissions of 777 on these directories. Do not set 777 permissions unless your account is the only one with shell access on the server.

  11. Navigate to the directory where you uploaded WHMCS.
  12. Delete the install directory.
  13. In your web browser, log in to your WHMCS admin area at example.com/whmcs/admin with the username and password you created during the installation process in step 7.
    Note:

    If you renamed the WHMCS directory or put the WHMCS files in a directory other than public_html, replace whmcs with the directory’s name in the URL. For example, if your WHMCS directory name is billing, navigate to example.com/billing/admin.

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