How to Uninstall WordPress (Updated 2020)

Knowing how to uninstall WordPress is useful when you want to start anew or if you’d like to ditch your website altogether. Regardless of your reasons, we will be covering how to completely uninstall a WordPress site from your hosting account.

Backing Up Your Site

First of all, it’s always a good practice to create a backup, in case you want to restore your website someday. While there are plenty of viable methods, the easiest way is to utilize hPanel’s Backups feature, which you can locate by searching Backups in the Hosting tab.

Once there, scroll down, and press Generate a new backup button before clicking Yes when prompted for confirmation.On the list, find the most recent MySQL Database and Website Files, then select Prepare Backup to Download each of them. The number of files depends on how many MySQL databases you have etc.

However, do keep in mind that this action will save your account data in its entirety. If you just want to back up your WordPress files, do so by copying the public_html folder via a File Manager. Right-click on the folder to select Compress, and choose the format of your preference.

Once it’s completed, you can locally save the archive by right-clicking on it or by pressing the Download button from the upper menu.

How to Uninstall WordPress Using Auto-Installer?

If you have installed your WordPress CMS through the one-click installer, you can remove it just as quickly.

1. Log in to your hPanel and open the Auto Installer.
2. In the List of Installed Applications, locate WordPress and simply press Delete
3. The confirmation screen should appear now, so click on Confirm.

WordPress will no longer be a concern to you.

How to Uninstall WordPress Manually?

If you prefer the manual way to uninstall WordPress, it’s doable with the File Manager or an FTP client. Although we’re using the first tool in the following example, the process is similar should you opt for the latter.

Navigate to File Manager in your hPanel and access the public_html directory. Before we proceed with the removal, though, save the website’s database name from the wp-config.php file for later. Afterward, tick the box to select all, and press the Delete button.

Erasing the WordPress Database

Although the software is no longer there, the database still remains. So, let’s remove it as well to uninstall WordPress thoroughly.

Navigate to the MySQL Databases section and locate the name you’ve noted before. Click on it to expand a dropdown where you can select Delete.

Conclusion

Let’s recap the two ways to uninstall WordPress from your hosting account. The first one is by deleting the software using the Auto Installer, while the other is by manually erasing every file.

Additionally, we also learned how to delete the WordPress database for a clean uninstallation. So you can rest assured there are no trace left behind!