How to Delete WordPress Installation from Hosting Account?

Hosting companies like Bluehost, SiteGround and many others offer one-click WordPress installation. You can even install WordPress immediately after purchasing the hosting plan. When starting a website users install WordPress on multiple locations like on main domain, subdomain, subdirectory or on the temporary domain. There could be lots of reasons why you need multiple WordPress installations. For example, you want to learn the admin panel interface by installing themes and plugins on dummy installation. However, many users do not know how to delete the unnecessary WordPress installations on the hosting account. In this article, we will explain how to delete WordPress installation from your hosting account.

Why Should You Delete Unused WordPress Installation?

Whether you have installed WordPress for learning or messed up your initial installation, it is a good idea to destroy the installation. You can anytime install back whenever you need new installation.

• Many hosting companies limit disk space of the plans. Simply, leaving unused installation will occupy server space for which you need to pay.
• Similarly, you may also have restrictions on MySQL space and number of databases.
• Users and search engines can discover your unused website. Remember, even you have a coming soon or maintenance mode enabled on your unused site, users and search engines can still find the home page.
• It can create security problems since you will not be updating WordPress core, themes and plugins on the unused installations.

At any case, it is a good idea to housekeep your hosting account by deleting unnecessary stuffs.

How to Delete WordPress Installation?

There is no single answer to this deletion process. It completely depends on the type of hosting account and the way you installed WordPress on your account. Below are the different options available for deleting the entire WordPress installation.

• Manually delete WordPress installation
• Using one-click installers like Softaculous in cPanel
• Deleting from custom hosting setup

We will try to explain all three scenarios with examples.

1. Manually Deleting WordPress

This is a suitable action when you have installed WordPress manually on your site. WordPress installation contains two types of content – one is files/folders and other is database. Here we will explain how to manually delete WordPress installation in Bluehost hosting.

• Login to FTP or go to File Manager app in your hosting account.

• Locate the folder where you have installed WordPress.
• Simply select the folder and delete the entire content.
• If you have WordPress installed on the root (/public_html) then you should select all relevant files and delete them. Remember, you should not mistakenly delete subdomains and subdirectories that will also be available in the root of the hosting account.

• Now, go to your hosting account and locate the MySQL app. Here you can view all available databases on your hosting account.

• Choose the database and related user and delete them.

• This will delete the entire WordPress installation from your hosting account.

If you have installed WordPress from cPanel or custom tool, follow one of the below instructions.

2. Deleting with One-Click Installers

Bluehost and many other companies offer Softaculous installer to install WordPress and other applications on your site. If you have installed WordPress using Softaculous or any other installer, you have to uninstall using the same installer. Here will explain, deleting WordPress from Bluehost cPanel using Softaculous installer.

• Login to your hosting account and go to cPanel section. In Bluehost, click on “Advanced” option from the sidebar or click “cPanel” link.

• Use the search box or find Softaculous installer and click on it.

• Alternatively, click on WordPress app  showing as “WordPress Manager by Softaculous” or available under the “Softaculous Apps Installer” section.

• All the options will take you to Softaculous installer section. Click on the “All Installations” button showing on the top toolbar.

• Choose your WordPress installation and select “Remove Completely” option from the dropdown.
• Click on “Go” button to delete the WordPress installation from your account.

Note, “Remove from Softaculous” option will not delete the installation. It will only remove the entry from the Softaculous list. Therefore, make sure to choose “Remove Completely” or similar options on your hosting account.

3. Delete WordPress Installation from Custom Hosting Setup

Managed WordPress hosting companies like WPEngine, Kinsta and SiteGround offer custom hosting panel. In this case, the process of the deletion depends on the hosting interface and tools you use. We will explain with the most popular SiteGround hosting account. SiteGround offers Site Tools  instead of cPanel where you can manage your hosting account for each site.

• Login to your SiteGround account and go to “Websites” menu.

• Here you will see all available websites under your account. Generally, WordPress installations will show with the icon for you to easily identify. Click on “Site Tools” button against the site from which you want to delete the WordPress.

• When you are in Site Tools section, go to “WordPress > Install & Manage” section. Here you can view all WordPress installations under the selected site.

• Click on the three dots button against the WordPress installation you want to delete.
• Select “Delete Application” from the dropdown menu.

• You have options to keep your database and stagging copies if you have previously created any. Otherwise, leave those checkboxes blank and click on “Confirm” button.

• You will instantly see the success message showing the application was deleted. You will see the deleted installation is removed from the list.