Documentation
How to run a Pressy
Step-by-step guides for everything in your dashboard, and fixes for the things that go wrong.
Getting started
- How to create a PressyAn address, a Stack or a size, a theme and plugins, then payment on Stripe. The build runs five steps you can watch, and your site is reachable at its pressy.site address before you own a domain.
- The dashboardOne Pressy, one sidebar, three groups — the website, the server it runs on, and the account that pays for it. Overview carries the address, the meters and one-click sign-in to WordPress and phpMyAdmin.
Your account
- How to reset your PressyPress passwordUse the forgotten-password link on the sign-in page. This is your dashboard password, which is separate from your WordPress one.
- How to set up two-factor authenticationScan a QR code with any authenticator app, type the six digits, and save your recovery codes. About a minute, and the codes are shown once.
- Your accountOne account holds every Pressy. Email is the recovery root, so changing it asks for your password; two-factor is an authenticator app with recovery codes; every date in the product renders in the timezone you set here.
Custom Domains
- How to connect your domainType the domain, copy the two records into your DNS provider, and wait. HTTPS is issued for you once it resolves — there is nothing to buy or click.
- What is DNS?DNS is the address book that turns your domain into a server address. Changes are cached all over the world, which is why they are not instant.
- Custom domainsWe issue and renew HTTPS, redirect every extra domain to your primary, and watch public DNS. We do not host DNS or edit records at your registrar.
WordPress
- How to log in to WordPressOne click from your dashboard signs you in as an administrator, with no password to remember. Here is that route and the two others.
- How to reset your WordPress passwordSign in from your dashboard without a password, then set a new one in your WordPress profile. This works even when WordPress cannot send you email.
- How to turn maintenance mode on and offOne switch puts a holding page in front of visitors. It also locks you out of wp-admin, so turn it off from the dashboard, not from WordPress.
- How to update WordPress core safelyPress one button. It takes a backup, updates, checks the site still answers, and puts the backup back if it does not.
- What we manage for youSecurity releases install themselves, a backup is taken before every core update, and a failed one rolls back. Plugins and themes stay entirely yours.
Themes & plugins
- How to install a pluginSearch the WordPress directory from your dashboard, install, activate. Two clicks, without signing in to WordPress at all.
- How to install and activate a themeSearch the WordPress directory from your dashboard, install it, then activate it. Activating changes how your site looks immediately.
- How to manage plugin, theme and WordPress updatesSecurity releases of WordPress install themselves. Plugin and theme auto-updates are switched on individually, and we never change them for you.
- What are WordPress plugins?Add-ons that give WordPress abilities it does not have on its own — a shop, a contact form, bookings. Here is what they are, how many is too many, and which ones matter.
- What is a WordPress theme?The theme decides how your site looks — layout, fonts, colours, menus. Your content is separate from it, which is why changing theme does not delete anything.
Backups
- How to restore a backupPick a row, type restore, and the site goes back to how it was. Restores are free and unlimited, and they never touch your domain or DNS.
- How to take a backupOne button, and you have a restore point in a few minutes. Do it before every plugin update, theme change or bulk edit you are not sure about.
- How backups workWeekly, kept 30 days, plus one manual an hour. Restores are free and never touch your domain. The schedule and retention are fixed, and backups age out on their own.
Staging
- How to create a staging siteOne button makes a full second copy at its own address, free and not counted against your plan. Test there, then push it live in one action.
- How staging worksA full second copy at its own address, free and not counted against your plan. Sync pulls live down, push replaces live. Both are whole-site, and the address is public.
PHP & caching
- How to change your PHP versionOne click, and PHP restarts within a few seconds. Check on a staging copy first if the site earns money — an old plugin can fatal on a newer PHP.
- How to check what a PHP setting actually isThe overrides list only shows what you have changed, so ask PHP directly with one command over SSH, or a temporary file made in the Files screen.
- How to enable Redis object cachingTwo steps — start the Redis server, then install the plugin that makes WordPress use it. Switching the first on alone does nothing to your site.
- How to raise the PHP memory limit and upload sizeOne click each on the PHP screen. Raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size together, or large uploads still fail.
- PHP settingsEvery version with its security state on the tile, four one-click limits, a raw php.ini override list, an error log, and two caching switches that do different jobs.
Databases
- How to open phpMyAdmin and export your databaseOne click signs you in — no database password needed. Import and export both live there, in its own tabs.
- How databases workDatabases and their users shown as one relationship. WordPress's own is protected from deletion, new passwords are shown once, and import and export are in phpMyAdmin.
Cron jobs
- How to add a cron jobBuild the schedule from plain controls, see the next runs before saving, and add a log redirect so you can check afterwards whether it ran.
- How cron jobs workBuild a schedule from plain controls or write it raw, see the next runs before saving, and get warned about the two traps. Nothing records what a job did, so have the job say so itself.
Files & access
- How to connect over SSHGenerate a key, paste the public half into the Access screen, then copy the login command it builds for you. We never see your private key.
- How to connect with FileZilla (or any FTP client)Use FTPS on port 21 with explicit TLS. Choosing SFTP is the single most common mistake here, and it fails with an error that looks like wrong credentials.
- How to create an FTP accountTwo clicks on the Access screen. The password is shown once, so copy it before you close the dialog.
- How to edit a fileOpen Files in your dashboard, click the file, edit and save. Works for wp-config.php and .htaccess, with no FTP client needed.
- FTP and SSHFTPS on port 21, not SFTP — the wrong choice fails with an error that looks like bad credentials. SSH takes keys or a password. One account of each per site.
Node.js
- How to deploy a Node.js appUpload the files, point a startup command at them, and optionally proxy a path on your domain to the port it listens on.
- How Node.js apps workA Node process in the same container as your site, optionally on a path of your own domain. The platform reports configuration only, so the log is how you know it is alive.
Security
- How to block an IP addressOne rule covers the whole Pressy. Blocking keeps listed addresses out; allowing keeps everyone else out, including you.
- How security worksFirewall, HTTPS, backups and container isolation are on from the start. The two controls you own are the WAF toggle and one IP rule, and nothing here reports attacks.
Plan & billing
- How to cancel a PressyCancelling stops the renewal; the site stays live until the period you paid for ends, then everything is kept for another 37 days. A MiniPressy is free, so its Cancel page just asks when it should go.
- How to change your plan or resourcesMemory, vCPU and storage are three separate dials on one Pressy. Upgrades charge the prorated difference to your card and apply within about a minute; downgrades land at the end of the period so you never pay twice for the same window.
- How to read your usage and healthMemory, storage, vCPU and bandwidth against your own plan's limits, plus throttling and out-of-memory kills. This is the screen that turns "the site feels slow" into a number and tells you which dial to move.
- How billing worksEach Pressy is charged on the day you created it, so several sites means several dates. Cards, VAT and receipts live in Stripe. A failed payment gives you seven days before anything is suspended, and 30 more before anything is deleted.
Fixing problems
- Fixing "connection timed out"Check your pressy.site address first — it tells you in one step whether the problem is your site, your domain, or your own connection.
- Fixing "error establishing a database connection"WordPress cannot reach its database. Restart the container first, then check the credentials in wp-config.php against the Databases screen.
- Fixing "your domain is not pointing here"The records are missing, wrong, or split between two providers. Check what the internet sees rather than what your own computer sees, and give it time.
- Fixing 404 errors on your pagesIf the homepage works and everything else 404s, it is the permalinks. Re-saving them in WordPress fixes it in about ten seconds.
- Fixing a 500 internal server errorAlmost always a plugin, a theme, or PHP running out of memory. Read the error log first, then deactivate the culprit from the Files screen if you cannot reach wp-admin.
- Fixing a slow siteCheck the health panel before spending money — it tells you whether you are short of vCPU, short of memory, or neither. Most slow WordPress sites are neither.
- Fixing a white screen with no error messageA blank page is a 500 with the error hidden. Switch on debug logging to make PHP say what broke, then treat it as a 500.
- Fixing HTTPS when the certificate will not issueThree causes, in the order they happen — the domain is not resolving here yet, a CAA record is blocking us, or the week's issuance allowance is used up.
- Fixing WordPress emails that never arriveWordPress sends mail through PHP by default and it goes to spam or nowhere. Install an SMTP plugin and point it at a real mail provider — the fix takes about ten minutes.
- My site is downFour checks, in order, that tell you which of the specific fixes you need. Most sites that look down are one of five things, and this narrows it in about a minute.
- What to do when you are locked out of wp-adminStart with the one-click sign-in from your dashboard — it needs no WordPress password and gets past a forgotten login. Then work through the four other causes.
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Still stuck?
Write to us and tell us your Pressy’s address and what you were doing when it went wrong. Answered by the people who built it.