ProcessWire's minimal footprint and file-based templates make it well suited for VPS hosting. Unlike shared hosting, a VPS gives you full control over PHP versions, caching layers, and deployment pipelines — exactly what ProcessWire's architecture is designed to take advantage of.

This guide walks through a complete ProcessWire installation on a VPS running Ubuntu 24.04, from server provisioning to automated Git-based deployments with [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com/).

## Choose a VPS Provider

Any provider that offers Ubuntu 24.04 with root SSH access will work. Recommended options:

| Provider | Starting Price | Best For |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Vultr](https://www.vultr.com/) | $6/mo (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) | Global locations, hourly billing, fast provisioning |
| [Hetzner](https://www.hetzner.com/cloud) | €4.51/mo (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM) | Best price-to-performance ratio in EU/US |
| [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/) | $6/mo (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) | Beginner-friendly UI, strong documentation |
| [AWS Lightsail](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/) | $5/mo (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) | AWS ecosystem integration |

For this tutorial we'll use Vultr, but every step applies identically to other providers.

**Provision a server** with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, at least 1 GB RAM, and SSH key authentication enabled. Note the server's IP address once it's ready.

## Step 1: Initial Server Setup

SSH into your server and update packages:

```
ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP
apt update && apt upgrade -y
```

Create a non-root user for deployments:

```
adduser deployer
usermod -aG sudo deployer
```

Copy your SSH key to the new user:

```
rsync --archive --chown=deployer:deployer ~/.ssh /home/deployer
```

From here on, work as the `deployer` user:

```
su - deployer
```

## Step 2: Install Nginx, PHP 8.3 and MySQL

Install the LEMP stack components:

```
sudo apt install -y nginx mysql-server software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php8.3-fpm php8.3-mysql php8.3-gd php8.3-mbstring \
  php8.3-xml php8.3-curl php8.3-zip php8.3-intl php8.3-opcache
```

Verify PHP is running:

```
php -v
# PHP 8.3.x (cli)
sudo systemctl status php8.3-fpm
```

## Step 3: Configure MySQL

Secure the MySQL installation and create a database for ProcessWire:

```
sudo mysql_secure_installation
```

Then create the database and user:

```
sudo mysql -u root -p
```

```
CREATE DATABASE processwire CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'pw_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR_STRONG_PASSWORD_HERE';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON processwire.* TO 'pw_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
```

Replace `YOUR_STRONG_PASSWORD_HERE` with a strong, unique password. Store it somewhere safe — you'll need it during ProcessWire's web installer.

## Step 4: Configure Nginx

Create an Nginx server block for your ProcessWire site:

```
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/processwire
```

```
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com www.your-domain.com;
    root /var/www/processwire;
    index index.php index.html;

    # ProcessWire rewrites
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?it=$uri&$args;
    }

    # PHP processing
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }

    # Protect sensitive directories
    location ~ /site/assets/(cache|logs|backups|sessions|config|install) {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~ /site/(install|config\.php) {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}
```

Enable the site and test the configuration:

```
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/processwire /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx
```

## Step 5: Install ProcessWire

Install Composer if not already present, then create the ProcessWire project:

```
sudo apt install -y composer
cd /var/www
sudo composer create-project processwire/processwire processwire
sudo chown -R deployer:www-data /var/www/processwire
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/processwire
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/processwire/site/assets
```

Open `http://your-domain.com` in a browser to run ProcessWire's web installer. Enter the MySQL credentials you created in Step 3 and follow the setup wizard.

After installation, **remove the install directory** :

```
rm -rf /var/www/processwire/site/install
```

## Step 6: SSL with Let's Encrypt

Install Certbot and generate a free SSL certificate:

```
sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com -d www.your-domain.com
```

Certbot automatically modifies your Nginx config to redirect HTTP to HTTPS and sets up auto-renewal.

## Step 7: Set Up Git-Based Deployments with DeployHQ

Manual file uploads are error-prone. Set up automated deployments so every `git push` updates your live site.

### Prepare the Git Repository

On your local machine, initialise a Git repo for your ProcessWire project:

```
cd my-processwire-project
git init
```

Create a `.gitignore` to keep environment-specific files out of version control:

```
/site/assets/cache/*
/site/assets/logs/*
/site/assets/sessions/*
/site/config.php
/vendor/
.env
```

Commit and push to your Git provider ([GitHub](https://deployhq.com/deploy-from-github), [GitLab](https://deployhq.com/deploy-from-gitlab), or Bitbucket):

```
git add .
git commit -m "Initial ProcessWire setup"
git remote add origin <your-repo-url>
git push -u origin main
```

### Connect DeployHQ

1. [Sign up for DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com/signup) (free tier available — 1 project, 5 deploys/day)
2. Create a new project and connect your Git repository
3. Add your VPS as a server:

4. Add build commands under **Build Pipeline** :

5. Add SSH commands to run **after deployment** :

6. Enable **automatic deployments** for your `main` branch

### Deploy

Push a change and [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) handles the rest:

```
git push origin main
```

[DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) detects the push, runs your build commands, deploys only the changed files via SSH, and clears the cache. If anything goes wrong, one-click rollback reverts to the previous deployment.

For zero-downtime deployments on production sites, see our guide to [zero-downtime deployments with DeployHQ](https://deployhq.com/blog/zero-downtime-deployments-with-deployhq-a-step-by-step-guide).

## Security Hardening

A few additional steps to lock down your VPS:

**Firewall** — allow only SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS:

```
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
sudo ufw enable
```

**Disable root SSH login** — edit `/etc/ssh/sshd_config`:

```
PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
```

Then restart SSH:

```
sudo systemctl restart sshd
```

**Automatic security updates** :

```
sudo apt install -y unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades
```

## Optional: OPcache and Performance Tuning

ProcessWire benefits from PHP OPcache tuning. Edit `/etc/php/8.3/fpm/conf.d/10-opcache.ini`:

```
opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
opcache.revalidate_freq=60
```

Restart PHP-FPM:

```
sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm
```

For sites with heavy read traffic, consider adding [Redis](https://redis.io/) or a CDN like Cloudflare in front of Nginx.

* * *

For a broader comparison of ProcessWire vs WordPress — including when to choose each — see [Deploy ProcessWire as Your WordPress Alternative](https://deployhq.com/blog/deploy-processwire-as-your-wordpress-alternative). And if you're evaluating other PHP CMS options, check out our [Craft CMS vs WordPress comparison](https://deployhq.com/blog/craft-cms-vs-wordpress-why-craft-is-gaining-ground).

Ready to automate your ProcessWire deployments? [Start deploying with](https://deployhq.com/signup)[DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) for free — no credit card required.

Have questions? Reach out at [support@deployhq.com](mailto:support@deployhq.com) or find us on [X (@deployhq)](https://x.com/deployhq).