Probably Google Cloud is the third most popular provider for cloud infrastructure after AWS and Azure. As its name suggests, Google Cloud is provided by Google. In this article, we will learn how to install WordPress on Google Cloud Compute Engine. Before going into the details, there are few things to look at.

some technical sugar

There are a few basic terms we need to learn before we get with the tutorial. The idea behind this is to inform you of all the various products Google Cloud has to offer. Once you develop an interest in something you see, you can start building your own apps in them!

Billing accounts

Each project that you create must be linked to a billing account. Google Cloud allows you the flexibility of having multiple billing accounts – each of which can use a different credit/debit card. The idea behind this is to implement the pay-as-you-go policy of the cloud computing environment.

NOTE 1: You cannot use a prepaid credit/cash card in your billing account. I’ve tried this and my account along with all projects linked it was temporarily blocked. I immediately removed the prepaid card and changed it to a valid credit card. The account was re-enabled after a few working days.

NOTE 2: Google is currently offering a $300 USD trial to anyone who signs-up for Google Cloud. Now you’ve got no excuse to not try Google Cloud haha!

Google App Engine

Most software is built using a particular language and (optionally) based on a framework. A classic example would be a to-do list app, which is built on JavaScript and based on the jQuery framework. jQuery, as you can guess, is a framework for JavaScript, which is the language.

Similarly, loads of apps are written in popular languages like Python, Java and PHP. Each of these languages requires an initial setup on the host system, in order to run the apps written in that particular language. For example, apps written in Java requires the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to be installed in the target system.

Google App Engine takes care of this very task. It installs and configures these languages in its cloud infrastructure, so you can simply upload your code and get on with the development process. You don’t have to worry about setting up the language or scaling the host system for your app. Google Cloud’s load balancing algorithms automatically take care of it. With Google App Engine, you simply need to select which language you need and deploy your app in it.

Google Compute Engine

Google Compute Engine (GCE) is another name for virtual machines in the cloud. Each VM is treated as an instance of a GCE. VMs can run almost any software you want it to. It offers more flexibility than App Engine and is intended for personalized environments.

Google API

Google has over 100 APIs for its multitude of products. This cloud feature allows you to access these APIs.

Cloud Storage

As the name suggests, Cloud Storage allows you to save large volumes of unstructured and semi-structured data, called datasets, with high-availability (basically geeky terms for Big Data applications).

BigQuery

BigQuery is Google’s own implementation of a language suitable for handling big data. Although this is not even remotely related to our tutorial, it is a fascinating thing to experiment with!

Pre-Built Software Packages

This is where the fun begins! Forget all those complicated terms. Google has compiled a list of the most popular software, frameworks and languages and offered them as pre-built software packages. Guess what?

Remember we discussed that each of these languages is installed in a virtual machine (or an instance of Compute Engine)? Well, the same holds here as well. When you create or a WordPress software package, you’ll first have to select a virtual machine, its size and region in order to proceed with the installation. The software package is essentially a set of instructions that installs the respective software in a newly created virtual machine.

and wordpress is one of them!

install wordpress on google cloud

Learning how to install WordPress on Google Cloud is a bit more involved than with other web hosts. However, it’s not as intimidating as it might seem. Let’s jump right in!

Step 1: Deploy WordPress instance

Before anything else, you’ll need to sign up for Google Cloud. Setting up your account should only take a few minutes. Once you have access to your console, we recommend you verify the account using your bank or credit card.

Google Cloud offers a free trial for its services and just by verifying your account, they will give you $300 worth of credits to use for your projects.

Whether you decide to sign up for a free trial or not, the rest of the process works much the same. First off, you should launch a new project by going to your dashboard and accessing the menu to the left, then selecting the Marketplace option:

On the next page, use the search feature to look for WordPress, which will give you a list of ready-to-go WordPress configs you can deploy with a few clicks.

Scroll down until you find the WordPress option with Google Click to Deploy as its subtitle:

Once you select this, you’ll get an overview of estimated costs and what stack the package uses:

With this stack, you get 1 CPU and 2 GB of RAM, with an estimated cost of approximately $13.61 per month (you get discounts for each month of full usage). This also includes 10 GB of storage, and it’s enough to run a website that gets a moderate amount of traffic without any difficulties.

When you’re ready, click on LAUNCH ON COMPUTE ENGINE, then proceed to configure your setup.

Step 2: Create and configure your new project

Next up, Google Cloud will ask you to select a name for your new project. Once you hit the Create button, give the service a few minutes to get everything set up.

While you’re waiting, you get the chance to tweak the configuration for your new Google Cloud instance. In the last section, you saw some cost estimates. Now, you get the chance to change every setting, which can increase or reduce costs.

As a rule of thumb, you don’t want to use less than 2 GB of RAM for your cloud instance. Also, the default configuration for this setup uses a shared CPU. If you’re concerned about performance, we recommend setting the Machine type to 1vCPU, which includes 3.75 GB of memory.

With this setup, you increase your monthly costs to $24.75 before discounts. We also suggest you change the Boot disk type from Standard Persistent Disk to SSD Persistent Disk, for increased performance:

The default 10 GB of storage should be enough for most websites. With this setup, your estimate should rise to about $25.97 per month.

Before you proceed, make sure to:

1. Choose a region for your server.
2. Tick the Install phpMyAdmin option.
3. Enable both HTTP and HTTPS traffic.

Now hit the Deploy button and wait for Google Cloud to do its thing, which can take a few minutes. Once everything’s ready, you can check out your new installation credentials from the deployment page:

Note: This section includes your MySQL and WordPress admin users and passwords – you’ll want to change those as soon as possible.

At this point, you’re almost there. You just need to do a few more things before your website is ready for the public.

MAP your domain

Work in Progress!