Install, activate and deactivate WordPress plugins with WP-CLI

WP-CLI is a command line tool that helps you perform different actions on your WordPress site. If you're comfortable with using SSH commands, you'll notice that WP-CLI has simplified commands created for WordPress sites. Here's how you can install, activate, and deactivate WordPress plugins with commands available in WP-CLI.

Warning: You should always back up your site before changing your plugin setup.

Required: You'll need the following to complete these steps:

An SSH app. We suggest PuTTY for Windows, or Terminal for macOS.
Your FTP details. If you don’t have them already written down, you should find your FTP host, username, and password:
- For your FTP host, you can use either your domain name or your IP address.
- You can find your FTP username and password in your hosting account for Web Hosting (cPanel) or Managed Hosting for WordPress (steps 1-7).

Note: If you have a VPS or DED Server, you need to install WP-CLI before you can start using it. WP-CLI is not available on our Windows Hosting plans.

Connect to your hosting account with SSH.
Use the bash command ls to list files and folders, and cd and ../ to move through directories until you're in the directory with your WordPress files.
Enter the following commands to see the list of plugins installed on your site, install a new plugin, and activate or deactivate an existing one:
- To list all plugins installed on your site:
```
wp plugin list
```
  You'll also see if a plugin is active or inactive.
- If there are plugins you don’t intend to use, you can delete them with the following command:
```
wp plugin delete plugin-name
```
  In the code above, replace plugin-name with the actual name of the theme you want to delete.
- To install a plugin from the WordPress repository:
```
wp plugin install plugin-name
```
  In the code above, replace plugin-name with the actual name of the plugin you want to install.
- To install a plugin from a .zip file, upload the plugin .zip file to the folder with your WordPress installation using FTP or File Manager. Then, enter the following command:
```
wp plugin install plugin-name.zip 
```
  In the code above, replace plugin-name.zip with the actual name of the .zip file you've previously uploaded.
- To activate a plugin installed on your site:
```
wp plugin activate plugin-name
```
  In the code above, replace plugin-name with the actual name of the plugin you want to activate.
- To activate all plugins installed on your site:
```
wp plugin activate --all
```
- To deactivate a plugin installed on your site:
```
wp plugin deactivate plugin-name
```
  In the code above, replace plugin-name with the actual name of the plugin you want to deactivate.
- To deactivate all plugins installed on your site:
```
wp plugin deactivate --all
```

Note: To install and activate a plugin at the same time, append the install command with --activate. Here is how that command would look:

wp plugin install plugin-name --activate

Once you’ve run the WP-CLI commands to manage your plugins, you can enter the wp plugin list command again if you want to double-check the list of active and inactive plugins on your site.

More info

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Want to know more about WP-CLI? Find developer specific info on their official site.

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Install, activate and deactivate WordPress plugins with WP-CLI

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