You want WordPress off a domain — because the installation broke, because you are starting over, or because the site is becoming something else. It is only a few steps, but two things get deleted by accident and do not come back.
If you installed it with the app installer
This is the clean route, and the only one that removes everything at once — files, database and database user.
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Sign in to cPanel and open the app installer you used to install WordPress.
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Find the list of current installations. Your site appears there with its domain beside it.
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Click remove and confirm. Read what the screen asks: it usually lets you choose whether to delete the database too. Leave that ticked, or it stays behind taking up space.
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How to tell whether that is how you installed it. If you followed installing WordPress in a few clicks, it is. If the site was built by someone else, or brought over from another provider, probably not — and then the installation will not be in the list. Use the manual route.
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Manual removal: the three parts
A WordPress installation is three separate things. Deleting only one leaves rubbish behind — and the forgotten database is the usual case.
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The files. In File Manager, open the site’s folder (usually public_html) and delete wp-admin, wp-includes, wp-content and every file starting with wp-, including wp-config.php.
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The database. Before deleting it, open wp-config.php and note the value of DB_NAME — that is its name. Then, in MySQL Databases, delete that database. See databases and phpMyAdmin.
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The database user. It sits on the same screen, in a separate list. If it only served this site, delete it too.
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Note the database name BEFORE deleting the files. The database name lives inside wp-config.php . Delete the files first and you are left with an orphan database and no simple way of telling which of the ones listed was yours. It is the most frequent mistake in this job.
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Careful with shared databases
If you have several sites in the same account, confirm that database served only this one. Some setups share a database between sites using different table prefixes — in which case deleting it takes the other sites down too.
When in doubt, open phpMyAdmin and look at the table prefixes. Prefixes from a single installation mean you can delete in peace.
What is left afterwards
| Still there |
Gone |
| The domain |
The domain registration is untouched — still yours, still renewing |
| The hosting plan |
The account and cPanel remain. Removing WordPress cancels nothing and refunds nothing |
| The mailboxes |
The domain’s e-mail is independent of the site and is not touched |
| The site |
Pages, posts, images and settings — all deleted |
If what you want is to cancel the service, rather than just empty the site, that is done in Meu Interweb and is a different thing — see how to cancel a service and keep only the domain.
And if it was only to start over?
If the goal is a clean WordPress on the same domain, remove it and install again — see installing WordPress in a few clicks. But if the problem was an error rather than the site itself, it is worth trying to fix before throwing away: see common WordPress errors.
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