If you’ve already got a WordPress website, you can skip straight ahead to our guide on installing Jetpack CRM. The below article is designed to help you get your own hosting and install WordPress on it, thus allowing you to host your own CRM!
Getting Started
Jetpack CRM is different to many other CRMs in two respects:
- It does not run on your computer as an app.
- It does not exist solely as a service in the cloud.
Jetpack CRM is a self-hosted CRM. This means that you run it on your own web hosting. There are many benefits to this approach (and a few cons). If you don’t yet have a web host, you’ll need to get one.
Note that we’ve put this information together as a guide, but if you get stuck, you’ll want to contact the web host you choose for further support.
1. Getting Web Hosting
First of all, you’ll need to sign up for web hosting somewhere. There are countless services who offer web hosting, all of which basically give you space on their servers for a monthly or yearly price.
It can be difficult to understand all of the options when comparing different web hosting plans, but for Jetpack CRM it’s simple. Because it’s built on top of WordPress, our CRM plugin will run on the vast majority of web hosts. You can find Jetpack’s recommended hosts here. The only hosting requirements are the following:
- Includes a domain name
- Supports PHP
- Includes a MySQL Database
Don’t panic! You don’t have to know what these mean at this point.
Along with a hosting account, you’ll also need a domain name for this. Many hosts provide you with a free domain name for the first year when you sign up.
We recommend choosing something short and relevant to your business (e.g. mikesbusiness.com).
The process for registering a domain name is very straightforward so we won’t belabour it here – signing up to most web host companies prompts you to choose a domain name.
2. Installing WordPress
After you’ve signed up to a web host and registered your domain name, you’ll need to install WordPress and then Jetpack CRM onto that. Most web hosting providers make this super easy.
Below we’ve listed a few WordPress install guides below from some popular WordPress hosts, but if you can’t find a guide for your web host, their support should be able to help you install WordPress.
External links for WordPress hosting
3. Install Jetpack CRM
Congratulations, you should now have WordPress installed! Head on over to the Getting Started guide to install Jetpack CRM.