Getting started with EmpathyHost takes six steps: choose a plan, create your account, create your server and pick its region, add your first website, point your domain and check SSL, and confirm daily backups are on. Nothing here needs a developer. If you already have a site somewhere else, skip to the last section and we will move it for free.
Step 1: Choose a plan
Go to Pricing and pick the plan that matches how many websites you want to run: One website for $25 a month, Two websites for $40, or Five websites for $80, all in USD and billed monthly. Every plan is the same kind of server; only the size and the site count change. Not sure which? The Which plan guide takes two minutes.
Step 2: Create your account
Checkout creates your own account, with your own login. Right after, you get a welcome email with everything you need to sign in. Keep it somewhere you can find it: your servers, sites, backups and billing all live in that account from now on.
Step 3: Create your server and pick the region
Sign in using the details from your welcome email, then create a server. You will be asked where it should live: pick the region closest to the people who visit your site. Your server is Ubuntu, with full root access, on Vultr cloud infrastructure in that region, on Intel Xeon processors with built-in AI acceleration (Intel DL Boost). Each plan sets the RAM, vCPU and bandwidth.
Step 4: Add your first website
Add a site to your server and choose WordPress from the one-click apps. It installs on your server, with WP-CLI ready if you want the command line. Give the site a name, set your admin login, and you can open the WordPress dashboard straight away. Building something else? Add a Node, Laravel or Python app and connect a git repo, or bring a Docker Compose file. The rest of this guide follows the WordPress path.
Step 5: Point your domain and check SSL
At your domain registrar, point your domain at your new server. Once it resolves, the free SSL certificate is issued for the site, so it loads over https. Not sure what to change at the registrar? Message us on WhatsApp (opens in a new tab) with the registrar name and we will tell you exactly what to set.
Step 6: Confirm daily backups are on
Daily backups are included on every plan. Open the site in your account and check the backups view once, so you know where they are when you need one. Rob, a small business owner who hosts with us, put it this way:
“I love the daily backups. It means I don't need any plugins on my website because it's all done for me on the back-end with one-touch backups.”
Already have a site somewhere else?
Skip steps 4 and 5. Message us on WhatsApp (opens in a new tab) with where the site lives now and how to reach it, and we move it across to your server for free, then check it with you before you switch over. The moving guide covers what to have ready.
Stuck on any step? Talk to us, opens WhatsApp and our support team will help.