How to Install PrestaShop on Ubuntu

How to Install PrestaShop on Ubuntu

PrestaShop is a free, open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP. Known for its intuitive back office and multilingual support, PrestaShop powers over 300,000 online stores worldwide. It offers a rich set of built-in features including inventory management, SEO tools, and analytics. This guide covers installing PrestaShop on your Breeze instance running Ubuntu.

Prerequisites

• A Breeze instance with Ubuntu 22.04 or later
• Apache or Nginx web server installed
• PHP 8.1+ with required extensions
• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.4+
• At least 2 GB RAM

Step 1 — Install Required PHP Extensions

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php-curl php-gd php-intl php-json php-mbstring php-xml \
    php-zip php-mysql php-bcmath php-opcache

Adjust PHP settings for PrestaShop by editing /etc/php/8.2/apache2/php.ini:

memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 20M
post_max_size = 20M
max_execution_time = 300

Step 2 — Create the Database

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE prestashop_db;
CREATE USER 'presta_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'secure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON prestashop_db.* TO 'presta_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 3 — Download and Extract PrestaShop

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/PrestaShop/PrestaShop/releases/download/8.1.0/prestashop_8.1.0.zip
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/prestashop
sudo unzip prestashop_8.1.0.zip -d /var/www/prestashop
cd /var/www/prestashop
sudo unzip prestashop.zip
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/prestashop
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/prestashop

Step 4 — Configure Apache

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/prestashop.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/prestashop

    <Directory /var/www/prestashop>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/prestashop_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/prestashop_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite prestashop.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 5 — Run the Installer

Open your browser and navigate to http://yourdomain.com/install. The PrestaShop installer will guide you through language selection, license acceptance, system compatibility checks, store configuration, and database setup. Enter the database credentials you created in Step 2.

Step 6 — Post-Installation Cleanup

After installation, remove the install directory and rename the admin folder:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/prestashop/install
sudo mv /var/www/prestashop/admin /var/www/prestashop/admin-secret-name

Renaming the admin folder adds an extra layer of security since the back office URL will not be guessable.

Performance Optimization

• Enable CCC (Combine, Compress, Cache) in Back Office > Performance
• Enable Smarty cache and set it to file-based caching
• Install Redis or Memcached for session and cache storage
• Enable SSL via Certbot and force HTTPS in PrestaShop settings