Installation

Plume installs through your browser. No command line, no developer tools — if you can use cPanel’s File Manager, you can install it. Set aside about 15 minutes.

What you need first

• Web hosting with cPanel and PHP 8.2+. Almost every shared host offers this; you may need to switch the PHP version (Step 1).
• A MySQL 8 database (or MariaDB 10.6+). Your host provides this — you’ll create one in Step 4.
• The ability to add one cron job. Nearly all cPanel hosts allow this. Plume cannot send email without it.

Have your cPanel login ready — everything below happens inside it.

Step 1 — Set PHP to 8.2 or newer

In cPanel, open MultiPHP Manager. Tick the domain you’ll use, choose PHP 8.2 (or newer), and click Apply.

Do this first — if PHP is too old, the installer stops you at Step 5 anyway.

While you’re there, open Select PHP Version → Extensions and confirm these are ticked: pdo_mysql, openssl, mbstring, ctype, curl, fileinfo, dom. Most hosts enable all of them by default.

Step 2 — Upload and extract Plume

1. In cPanel, open File Manager.
2. Go to your home directory (/home/yourusername) — not public_html. This is deliberate.
3. Click Upload, choose plume.zip, and wait for it to finish.
4. Back in File Manager, right-click plume.zip → Extract.

You’ll now have a plume folder in your home directory. You can delete the zip afterward.

Why not public_html?

Only Plume’s public folder should be reachable from the web. Everything else — your config, your database password — must sit outside it. Step 3 wires this up properly.

Step 3 — Point a domain at Plume

In cPanel, open Domains → Create A New Domain (on some hosts: Subdomains).

• Domain: the address you want, e.g. news.yourdomain.com
• Document Root: untick “share document root”, then enter plume/public

Click Submit. That /public on the end is the most important detail in this guide — without it your site will be broken or unsafe.

Using your main domain instead of a subdomain?

cPanel usually won’t let you re-point the primary domain’s document root. Ask your host’s support to set it to plume/public — it’s a routine request they’ll handle in a minute. Don’t move Plume’s files into public_html yourself.

Step 4 — Create the database

In cPanel, open MySQL® Database Wizard and follow its three screens:

1. Database name: type plume. cPanel saves it as yourusername_plume — that full name is what you’ll need.
2. Database user: pick a username and let cPanel generate a strong password. Copy the password somewhere safe now — cPanel won’t show it again.
3. Privileges: tick ALL PRIVILEGES, then Next Step.

Keep these four values handy for the next step:

Field	Value
Database host	localhost
Database port	3306
Database name	yourusername_plume
Username / password	the ones you just made

localhost and 3306 are correct on virtually every shared host. If your host runs a remote database server, they’ll have told you.

Step 5 — Run the installer

Visit your domain in a browser (e.g. https://news.yourdomain.com). The installer opens automatically and walks you through four screens:

1. Requirements — a checklist. Everything must be green; see Troubleshooting if not.
2. Database — enter the four values from Step 4. Plume tests the connection before continuing.
3. Tables — click the button; Plume builds its database and loads the email templates.
4. Admin account — your name, email, password (10+ characters), and your brand name.

Finish all four screens in one sitting

Until the installer completes, it’s reachable by anyone who visits your domain. On the final screen it locks itself permanently and can’t be re-run. Don’t upload the files and wander off.

Step 6 — Add the cron job (required)

The final installer screen shows a command. Copy it, then in cPanel open Cron Jobs, set Common Settings to Once Per Minute (* * * * *), paste the command, and click Add New Cron Job.

This one job is what actually sends your email. See The cron job for details and the php-path fix if nothing sends.

Step 7 — Turn on email

Nothing sends until you do this.

Go to Settings → Mail, enter your SMTP details (your host’s SMTP, Amazon SES SMTP, or any provider), and click Send test. Confirm the test arrives before touching a real campaign. See Sending email.

Optional, once mail works:

• AI copilot — Settings → AI. Paste your own Anthropic API key to enable the campaign copilot and inline copy help. Plume works fully without it; nothing else needs a key.
• Signup forms — every list has a hosted signup page plus a copy-paste embed snippet for double-opt-in subscriptions on any site. No API key needed.

VPS / Docker

Copy .env.example to .env, fill in your DB_* values, then run:

php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate --force

Create your admin through the same web installer, or run the app behind the included Dockerfile. Point your web server’s document root at public/. Add the same one-minute cron for php artisan schedule:run (the Dockerfile handles this for you).

Troubleshooting

“500 Server Error” on the first visit storage/ and bootstrap/cache/ need to be writable. In File Manager, right-click each → Change Permissions → 755. Use Recurse into subdirectories on storage/.

The requirements screen shows a red “.env writable” or “storage/ writable” Same fix — the plume folder itself must be writable so the installer can save your settings. 755 is enough.

I see a directory listing, “No input file specified”, or Plume’s source code Your document root points at plume instead of plume/public. Go back to Step 3 — the /public is required.

Emails aren’t sending Check the cron job exists and runs once per minute, then read the php-path note on The cron job — that’s the most common cause on cPanel. Then Settings → Mail → Send test.

Confirmation or campaign emails are delayed They queue and drain on the one-minute cron. A missing or broken cron stalls both.

Images I upload don’t appear in emails See Images in email — the storage shortcut didn’t get created, and that page has the fix.

I need to re-run the installer By design, you can’t — it locks after creating your admin. If you genuinely need to start over, delete storage/app/installed.lock and .env in File Manager and empty your database. This wipes your setup.