Installation guide

You can install Éclair CMS in about 3 minutes: there’s no database to create and no configuration file to fill in. You upload a folder to your hosting, open your site’s URL, and a wizard asks you four questions. This guide walks you through each step with screenshots, then covers the settings to adjust right afterward.

What do you need to install Éclair CMS?

Standard web hosting, like a shared hosting plan for a few dollars a month. No database is needed.

Nearly every shared host works: o2switch, OVH, Hostinger, IONOS, PlanetHoster… And don’t worry: the setup wizard checks all of this for you and explains what to fix.

Step 1: download Éclair

Download the official archive, then unzip it on your computer (double-click it on a Mac; on Windows, right-click › Extract All).

Download Éclair 1.2.0 (402 KB)

You get an eclair folder and three text files (readme, MIT license and third-party notices) that don’t need to be uploaded. Here’s what the eclair folder contains:

Step 2: upload the files to your hosting

The goal: index.php, .htaccess and the app, assets, data, cache and media folders must end up directly in your site’s public folder. Depending on your host, it’s called public_html, www or htdocs, or it’s named after your domain.

With your host’s file manager

This is the easiest method, with no software to install:

1. Open the file manager from your host’s control panel (in cPanel: Files › File Manager).
2. Go to your site’s public folder and upload the eclair-cms-1.2.0.zip archive.
3. Right-click the archive, then choose Extract: an eclair folder appears.
4. Show hidden files (in cPanel: Settings › Show Hidden Files (dotfiles)), open the eclair folder, select all of its contents, .htaccess included, and move them up one level, into the public folder.
5. Delete the now-empty eclair folder and the archive.

With an FTP client like FileZilla

1. Get your FTP credentials from your host’s control panel: server, username and password (and port 22 if your host offers SFTP, which is more secure).
2. Connect with FileZilla, which is free, and open your site’s public folder in the right-hand pane.
3. Turn on Server › Force showing hidden files, otherwise .htaccess may not get uploaded.
4. In the left-hand pane, open the eclair folder, select all of its contents and drag them to the right.

What about a subfolder or a subdomain?

That works too. For a site at example.com/site/, just upload the files to the site folder: Éclair detects the subfolder on its own. For a subdomain like blog.example.com, upload them to the folder linked to that subdomain.

Step 3: answer the wizard’s 4 questions

To install Éclair CMS, all that’s left is to open your site’s URL in your browser: the setup wizard starts, in English or in one of the 6 other languages offered in the top-right corner.

Welcome: checking your hosting

The wizard checks the PHP version, extensions, folder write permissions, HTTPS and URL rewriting. If everything is green, click Let’s go. If an item is red, the wizard explains what to fix with your host.

Question 1: your site

Fill in the Site name, an optional Tagline and the Site language, then pick the kind of site you want. You can change everything later.

The type you choose determines the first pages created for you:

Question 2: your account

Your name, your email and a password of at least 10 characters. Passwords that are too common are refused, and a meter shows how strong yours is.

Question 3: your visibility

• Google and Bing can index my site: uncheck it if you’d rather build your site quietly before showing it.
• AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini…): Welcome (they can read and cite your site, recommended), Citations only (they cite you without training their models on your texts) or No thanks.
• Your admin URL: replace admin with a word of your own, or click Generate a secret URL. A custom URL keeps hacker bots away.

Question 4: the summary

Review your choices, then click Create my site ⚡. Éclair creates your pages, a sample post, your account, the sitemap and the site icons.

It’s live!

Confetti, and your site is published. Write down your admin URL (for example https://your-site.com/studio) and bookmark it: that’s where you’ll log in from now on.

Step 4: your first settings in 10 minutes

The dashboard greets you with a Getting started checklist: each line takes you to the right screen.

1. Add your logo and color (Settings › Appearance): color contrast stays readable automatically.
2. Customize the homepage: replace the sample text with your own offer.
3. Write your first post, with help from the editor’s SEO and GEO scores.
4. Fill in your author profile: a photo, a job title and a bio build trust with Google and AI.
5. Enable two-factor authentication (My profile › Two-factor authentication).
6. Fill in the legal notice, which is mandatory in France as well as in Spain.
7. Connect your site to Google Search Console (Settings › SEO): paste the verification tag, and Éclair extracts the code.

Add an eighth step: in Security, click Verify the site address. Once the address is confirmed, Éclair redirects visitors to the official address (with or without www) and enforces HTTPS.

Each setting is explained in detail in Getting started after installation.

What if the installation doesn’t start?

For everything else, see the troubleshooting guide or send me a message.

Install Éclair on o2switch, step by step