How to connect to your hosting account via SSH

How to connect to your hosting account via SSH

SSH (Secure Shell) gives you command-line access to your hosting account, which is useful for tools such as WP-CLI, Composer and Git, or for importing large databases.

SSH on our servers uses key-based authentication on port 9284.

Step 1: Create a key pair

macOS or Linux: open Terminal and run:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Press Enter to accept the default location and set a passphrase when prompted. This creates a private key (~/.ssh/id_ed25519) and a public key (~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub).

Windows: use PuTTYgen (installed with PuTTY) or run the same command in PowerShell on Windows 10/11.

Step 2: Add the public key to cPanel

  1. In cPanel, open SSH Access in the Security section and click Manage SSH Keys.
  2. Click Import Key, give it a name and paste in the contents of your .pub file. Leave the private key box empty.
  3. Click Import, go back, then click Manage next to the key and choose Authorize.

Step 3: Connect

ssh -p 9284 cpanelusername@your-server-hostname

On Windows with PuTTY, enter the hostname and port 9284, then load your private key under Connection › SSH › Auth.

Never share your private key. If SSH access isn't enabled on your package, raise a ticket.

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