Installing Pagemint

Pagemint runs on ordinary shared hosting (cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin…). No SSH, no Node.js and no special programs are needed. Installation takes about five minutes.

1. Requirements

Item Needed
PHP 8.3 or newer (choose it in cPanel → Select PHP Version or MultiPHP Manager)
PHP extensions bcmath, ctype, curl, dom, fileinfo, filter, hash, intl, mbstring, openssl, pdo, pdo_mysql (or pdo_sqlite), session, sodium, tokenizer, xml, zip — all enabled by default on most hosts
Database MySQL 5.7+ / MariaDB 10.3+ (or SQLite for small sites)
Cron one cron job every minute (every cPanel plan has this)
Recommended HTTPS (free AutoSSL / Let's Encrypt), PHP memory_limit 256M, upload_max_filesize and post_max_size 32M+

The installer checks all of this for you and tells you exactly what to change.

2. Upload the files

  1. Download the package from your marketplace account (the Downloads page) and unzip it on your computer. Inside you find pagemint/ (the application) and documentation/.
  2. In cPanel → File Manager, upload the contents of pagemint/ (zip it again if your host only accepts one file, then use Extract).

Best: upload into a folder next to public_html (for example /home/you/pagemint) and point your domain's document root to /home/you/pagemint/public (cPanel → Domains → Manage). Nothing but the public folder is then reachable from the web.

Also works: upload everything directly into public_html. The included .htaccess file forwards visitors to the public folder and blocks every private file. Make sure hidden files (starting with a dot) are uploaded too: in File Manager → Settings, tick Show Hidden Files. The installer refuses to continue if your .env file could be downloaded from the web.

3. Create a database

cPanel → MySQL® Databases:

  1. Create a database (e.g. you_pagemint).
  2. Create a user with a strong password.
  3. Add the user to the database with All Privileges.

Keep the three values (database, user, password) for the next step.

4. Run the installer

Open your domain in the browser. You are sent to /install automatically.

  1. Server check — every red item must be fixed first (the page tells you how). Yellow items are advice.
  2. Database — choose MySQL / MariaDB and enter the host (localhost on almost every host), the database, user and password from step 3. (SQLite needs no setup and suits small or test sites.)
  3. Your site and administrator — site name, address and your administrator account. Keep Add sample plans ticked to start with ready-made plans and credit packs you can edit later.

There is no license step and nothing to activate: every feature works on every domain you install, selling plans and credits included. Use Pagemint within the license you bought on Codester (the Regular License covers one website, the Extended License several).

Press Install. After a minute you see Your site is ready. The installer then locks itself: /install no longer exists. If the installation stops half-way (lost connection, timeout), simply open /install again and submit the form again — every step can be repeated safely.

5. Add the cron job (important)

cPanel → Cron Jobs → Once Per Minute (* * * * *), command shown on the last installer screen, for example:

/usr/local/bin/php /home/you/pagemint/artisan schedule:run > /dev/null 2>&1

Use your host's PHP 8.3 path if it differs (for example /usr/local/bin/ea-php83 or /opt/cpanel/ea-php83/root/usr/bin/php). The cron job sends e-mails, renews plans, publishes scheduled blog posts, deletes temporary files after one hour, runs server conversions and refreshes caches. It also works through the background jobs (the database queue), so no queue worker or Supervisor has to stay running. Admin → System → Site Doctor shows a warning while it is not running.

Use the same PHP version for the cron job as for the site: on many hosts the plain php command is an older version.

6. First steps in the admin panel

Sign in at /login, then open /admin:

  1. Settings → General — site name and tagline.
  2. Settings → E-mail — your SMTP details (cPanel → Email Accounts → Connect Devices shows them). Send the test e-mail.
  3. Monetization → Payment settings — switch on the gateways you use (see Payments in the configuration guide).
  4. Ads → Ad settings — paste your AdSense publisher id and the code of each slot you want.
  5. System → Site Doctor — everything should be green.

Continue with configuration.md for every optional feature.