How to manage websites in the Kiravo control panel

The Websites area in the global sidebar is where you manage every website on your account. This is where you add new ones, find existing ones, and disable or delete sites you no longer need. This guide covers the full lifecycle.

To open the Websites area, click Websites in the global sidebar on the left. You’ll see the Manage websites table with every site on the account.

The Websites list

Each row in the table shows:

• Domain — the website’s primary domain.
• Size — the disk space the site is using.
• A ⋮ menu at the end of the row with quick actions for that site.
• A checkbox on the left for selecting multiple sites for bulk actions.

At the top of the page you have:

• An Add website button (top right) — opens the wizard.
• An All statuses filter and a search icon — narrow the list when you have many sites.

Click a domain to open that site’s dashboard.

Add a website

Click Add website (from the Websites list, or from the Add website button in the Home dashboard’s “Let’s get started” banner). The wizard opens.

1. Choose the website type

At the top of the form, pick one of two website types. Each shows your remaining allowance (for example, 0 of 1 used) so you know whether you still have room on your plan.

• Production website — a live site on its own public domain name. Choose this for a real, public-facing site.
• Staging website — a test site automatically given a Kiravo staging subdomain (mystagingsite.dev). Choose this when you want to build or test a site privately before pointing a real domain at it. See Staging sites for the full staging workflow.

Production is selected by default.

2. Choose how to start the website

Below the website type, three cards let you pick what should be on the new site when it’s created. The selected card is highlighted with a purple border.

Start from scratch

Gives you a blank web space. Choose this if you’ll upload your own files or install an app manually later. The only thing you need to provide is the domain name.

Install an app

The wizard installs an application automatically as part of creating the site, so it’s live and ready to log in to the moment the wizard finishes. WordPress is currently the only app available in the dropdown — pick this option when you want a one-step WordPress install.

Selecting Install an app reveals extra fields:

• Application — choose WordPress.
• Version — pick the version. The newest is marked with a green LATEST badge. The latest version is the right choice unless you have a specific compatibility reason to install an older release.
• Admin account — under “You will use these credentials to log in and manage your application,” fill in:
  • Username — your WordPress admin username.
  • Email address — used for admin notifications and password resets.
  • Password and Confirm password — type a password or click the key icon to generate a strong one. Click the eye icon to reveal what you typed.

The password must include one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one number, one special character, and be at least 10 characters in total. A green confirmation appears when the password meets every requirement and both entries match.

Note

Save the admin username and password somewhere safe. You’ll need them to log in to WordPress directly, though the panel also provides a one-click Admin button from the WordPress Toolkit that signs you in without typing them. The Toolkit is also where you manage plugins, themes, users, debug mode, and maintenance mode after the install.

Already have a WordPress site uploaded manually?

If you uploaded WordPress files yourself (for example, via the Files manager or by migrating from another host), the wizard’s “Install an app” option will reinstall WordPress from scratch and overwrite what you uploaded. That’s almost never what you want.

Instead, pick Start from scratch when creating the website, upload your files, and then go to the website’s Apps tab and click Scan — the panel detects the existing install and starts managing it via the Toolkit, no reinstall needed.

Clone a website

Makes a copy of one of your existing websites — files, databases, and mailboxes included. Useful for duplicating a working setup before a risky change, or for spinning up a near-identical staging site without recreating it by hand. For the full staging workflow (build on staging, push to live), see Staging sites.

3. Enter your domain

In the Domain field, type your domain name. The www. prefix is shown to the left of the field automatically, so just type the rest — for example, mynewsite-demo.com.

For a staging website, the staging suffix is appended automatically; you just choose the part before it.

4. Click Add

When every required field is filled in, the Add button at the bottom-right turns purple. Click it to create the website. To abandon the process, click Cancel.

After creation: the website dashboard

You’re taken straight to the new site’s management page. Here’s what you’ll see:

• Nameserver notice — a highlighted box at the top reminds you to connect your domain. To do this, log in to your domain provider and update your nameservers to the values shown. Each value has a copy icon next to it. See Point your domain to Kiravo.
• Website card — a live preview thumbnail and your domain name, with three action buttons: Preview (open in a new tab), Clone (copy the site), Upload backup (restore from a backup file).
• Quick actions — a row of shortcuts to Backups, File manager, Webmail, New app, and FTP.
• Top tab menu — navigate the site’s settings via Apps, Files, Databases, Emails, Domains, Analytics, Backups, Security, and Advanced.
• At a glance — a summary panel with details like your web server and PHP version.

While the DNS propagates, you can use the PREVIEW address shown on the Domains page to view your site straight away.

Disable a website

Disabling stops the site from serving visitors, but keeps all its data on the server. You can re-enable it any time. Use this when you want to pause a site temporarily — for example, during a redesign or a billing pause.

1. From the Websites list, find the site you want to disable.
2. Click the ⋮ menu at the end of the row.
3. Choose Disable.

The site immediately stops responding to traffic. To turn it back on later, open the ⋮ menu again and choose Enable.

Delete a website

Deleting a website removes everything: files, databases, mailboxes, DNS records, SSL certificates, and any installed apps. There is no undo from the panel. If you have automatic backups, you may be able to restore the website’s contents within your retention window — but the website configuration is gone. Use this only when you’re sure.

There are two entry points:

From the Websites list

1. From the Websites list, find the site.
2. Click the ⋮ menu and choose Delete.
3. Confirm the action when prompted.

From the website’s own page

1. Open the site by clicking it in the Websites list.
2. On the website’s page, click the ⋮ menu at the top right (next to the website name).
3. Choose Delete.
4. Confirm the action.

Caution

Delete is irreversible. Before deleting, take a manual backup and consider downloading the website archive and the mailbox data to your local machine. Once you’ve confirmed the deletion, recovering anything depends on your account’s automatic backup retention — and even then, only the contents come back, not the website configuration.

Bulk actions

If you need to disable or delete several websites at once, the Websites list supports bulk selection:

1. Tick the checkbox on each row you want to act on.
2. The bulk-actions bar appears above the table.
3. Choose Disable or Delete to apply the action to every selected site.

For destructive bulk actions, the confirmation prompt shows you the list of sites about to be affected — review it carefully before confirming.