How to Set Up PrestaShop E-commerce on a VPS

What Is PrestaShop?

PrestaShop is a free, open-source e-commerce platform designed for building and managing online stores. It includes product management, payment processing, shipping integration, and a comprehensive back office for store administration.

Prerequisites

• A Breeze with at least 2 GB RAM
• PHP 8.1+ with required extensions (intl, gd, curl, zip, mbstring)
• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.4+
• Apache with mod_rewrite enabled

Step 1: Create the Database

sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE prestashop_db;
CREATE USER 'presta_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ShopSecure789';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON prestashop_db.* TO 'presta_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 2: Download 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 3: Configure Apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName shop.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/prestashop
    <Directory /var/www/prestashop>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite prestashop.conf
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 4: Complete Installation

Open your domain in a browser and follow the installation wizard. Configure your store name, admin account, and database connection. After installation, remove the /install directory and rename the /admin directory for security:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/prestashop/install
sudo mv /var/www/prestashop/admin /var/www/prestashop/admin-secret123

Performance Tips

• Enable PHP OPcache for faster page loads
• Configure PrestaShop's built-in caching in Back Office > Advanced Parameters > Performance
• Use SSL for all store pages to protect customer data