If you want to sell products online, you don't need to build a store from scratch. Softaculous lets you install a ready-made e-commerce platform on your hosting account in a few minutes. This guide walks you through choosing a platform and installing it.
Choosing a store platform
Softaculous offers several options under its Store/E-Commerce category. The right one depends on what you already have:
- WooCommerce: a plugin that turns an existing WordPress site into a store. Best if you already have a WordPress website or want the flexibility of WordPress for blog content alongside your shop.
- PrestaShop: a dedicated, standalone e-commerce platform with built-in catalog and order management. Good if you only need a store, not a full website.
- OpenCart: another standalone option, generally considered lighter and simpler to configure than PrestaShop for a small product catalog.
If you're not sure which to pick, WooCommerce is usually the easiest starting point for a small Kenyan business that also wants a normal website (About, Contact, blog) alongside the shop.
Installing your store with Softaculous
Softaculous is available in both control panels, though the icon sits in a slightly different place. In cPanel, look for it under the Software section on your dashboard. In DirectAdmin, look under Extra Features or a similarly labeled section for Softaculous Apps Installer. Once you're inside Softaculous, the installation steps are identical in both panels.
- Log in to your hosting control panel and open Softaculous.
- Click the E-Commerce (or Store) category in the left-hand menu.
- Select your chosen platform (for example WooCommerce) and click Install.
- Choose the domain (or subdomain) you want the store installed on.
- Fill in the site name, an admin username, and a strong admin password. Write these down somewhere safe.
- Enter an admin email address you can access, since account and order notifications go there.
- Click Install and wait for Softaculous to finish. This usually takes under a minute.
- Once complete, Softaculous shows a confirmation with a link to your new store and its admin login page. It also emails these details to the address you provided.
Install on a test subdomain first if you already have a live website on the main domain, so you can set up your catalog without visitors seeing an unfinished store.
After the install
A fresh install is a blank store. Before you announce it to customers:
- Log in to the store's admin area and change any default settings (store name, currency, address).
- Add your products, prices, and images.
- Set up a payment method your customers can actually use. If you installed WooCommerce, plugins that accept M-Pesa payments are available; see our guide on adding M-Pesa payments to a WordPress website for the setup steps.
- Set up shipping or delivery options, and test the full checkout process yourself with a sample order.
It's also worth changing the admin password again once you're set up, using a password manager rather than the one Softaculous generated. See our guide on changing the admin password of a Softaculous-installed app for how to do this later without reinstalling anything.