Bigscoots Hosting Guide
A step-by-step guide to setting up your first WordPress website with BigScoots WordPress Hosting
This page contains affiliate links! Read my disclosure.
Why do I recommend BigScoots? They’re a great option if you want a fast, powerful host that can grow right alongside your website. They’re known for their performance, reliability, and real 24/7 human support. BigScoots WordPress plans are especially popular for food blogs & other fast-growing blogs, and they have an exclusive partnership with Mediavine, which makes them a top choice for bloggers focused on speed, ads, and long-term monetization.
BigScoots offers both Shared WordPress Hosting and Managed WordPress Hosting (WPO). Shared hosting is more affordable and fine if you’re just starting out, but their Managed Hosting is designed for speed, security, and growth.
Just FYI, for this guide, we’ll walk through setting up a website on the Managed WordPress Hosting (WPO) plan, but the steps are similar for the other plans.
Step 1
Grab a Domain Name
To get started, you’ll need a domain name! A domain name is your unique address on the web, like heartenmade.com. You’ll need to renew your domain name once a year, and the price usually ranges from about $10-$20.
You can purchase a domain name from somewhere like Namecheap. I like Namecheap because the domains are affordable and you get free domain privacy included forever (most people pay for this yearly).
On this page, type in your desired domain name and hit Search.
If the domain name is available, click Add To Cart. You can ignore all of the upsells. Continue to Checkout.
Make sure the free Domain Privacy is enabled. Click Confirm Order.
Lastly, you’ll be directed to create an account and finish your purchase. Create your account, fill out the account details, and then purchase the domain.
Done! Let’s move on…
Step 2
Choose Your Plan
Now it’s time to head to BigScoots and choose a hosting plan!
On this pricing page, you’ll see a few different service tiers.
For most bloggers and small businesses, the Starter plan will be perfect.
Once you’ve selected your plan, click the Get This button to continue.
Next, fill out your order and payment details. You can use promo code HEARTEN20 for 20% off your first month.
Step 3
WPO Access
Once your payment clears, BigScoots will send you a Welcome Email. Inside the welcome email, you’ll see a Get Started button. Click the button to set up your login to the WPO Portal.
You’ll be prompted to create a password.
After that, you’ll be logged into your BigScoots WPO dashboard!
Step 4
Install WordPress
Now that you’re inside the WPO Portal, you’ll see a few options to choose from. Since you’re setting up a brand-new WordPress website, you’ll want to choose Fresh WP Install.
You’ll now be taken to the Add New Site page.
Here’s what you’ll enter:
- What would you like to request?: Select Add domain name
- Domain Info > What would you like to request?: Select Fresh WordPress Install
- Domain Name: Enter the domain name you purchased (example: yourname.com)
- Select Existing Plan: Choose your hosting plan you just signed up for
- Do you want BigScoots to handle your DNS settings?: Enable this option
Once everything looks correct, click Proceed.
Now near the bottom, you’ll notice a toggle labeled Do You Need Help? Enable this so that you can provide your domain registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc) and your login info so BigScoots can manage the DNS for you!
Once everything looks good, click Submit.
That’s it! You’ve successfully submitted your WordPress installation request.
Step 6
Create WordPress Login
When BigScoots is finished installing WordPress on your website, you’ll be able to create your login for WordPress!
- Log into your WPO portal and click My Sites in the left sidebar.
- Click on your domain name.
- On the domain dashboard, click WordPress then Add New Admin. Below you will see an auto-generated admin user. I recommend creating your own login credentials and deleting the default user afterwards.
- Input a username and email, then click Create. Once created, you will see a pop-up with a green check mark indicating that the user was created successfully.
- Now that your admin user has been created, you will want to set up a password for the user. Click the blue pencil button underneath Password, then input a new password into the Update [User Name]’s account popup. Finally, click Update to save the password.
That’s it, you’re done!
You can now log directly into your WordPress dashboard by adding /wp-admin to the end of your url, like yourwebsite.com/wp-admin
Now that your hosting and WordPress site setup are complete, you’re ready for the fun part — choosing your new theme and bringing your website to life. Go back to the Getting Started guide to learn more: