How to log in to WordPress and find your dashboard

Applies to: All plans.

To log in to WordPress, go to your site's address followed by /wp-admin (for example yourdomain.com/wp-admin), then enter the username and password you set when WordPress was installed. This opens your WordPress dashboard — the control centre for your website's content, design and settings.

Your WordPress login is separate from your Maxinodes client area and your cPanel login. It controls only the website itself, not your hosting account or billing.

Log in to wp-admin

1. In your browser, go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin (replace yourdomain.com with your real domain). If your WordPress site lives in a subfolder, add it — for example yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin.
2. Enter your WordPress Username or Email Address and Password. These are the credentials you chose during installation, not your cPanel or client-area details.
3. Optionally tick Remember Me on your own device, then select Log In.

Result: You land on the WordPress dashboard at yourdomain.com/wp-admin, with a welcome screen and a menu down the left-hand side.

If /wp-admin does not load, try yourdomain.com/wp-login.php instead — it is the same login page.

A quick tour of your dashboard

The dashboard is where you run your site. The most useful items in the left-hand menu are:

• Posts — your blog articles or news entries.
• Pages — fixed pages such as Home, About and Contact.
• Media — images, PDFs and other uploaded files.
• Appearance — your theme, menus and (on many themes) the customiser.
• Plugins — add or remove features. We run the LiteSpeed web server, so the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is the recommended way to speed up your site.
• Users — the people who can log in, and their roles.
• Settings — your site title, address and general options.

The top toolbar lets you jump between the dashboard and the live site, and the menu under your name (top right) is where you Log Out.

Reset your WordPress admin password

If you cannot get in, reset the password from the login page first — this is the quickest route.

1. On the login page, select Lost your password?.
2. Enter your WordPress username or email address and submit the form.
3. WordPress emails you a reset link. Open it and choose a new password.

For this email to arrive, WordPress must be able to send mail. Because we do not host mailboxes on the hosting server, WordPress emails are most reliable when your site uses an SMTP plugin pointed at your Professional Email (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) mailbox. If no reset email arrives, that is the usual cause.

Locked out and the email never comes? You can change the password without email by editing the user in the database:

1. Open phpMyAdmin from cPanel → Databases → phpMyAdmin.
2. Select your WordPress database, open the users table (usually wp_users), and edit your admin row.
3. In the user_pass field, type your new password, set the function dropdown to MD5, and save. WordPress recognises the MD5 hash the next time you log in and replaces it with its own secure hash.

Result: You can log in at yourdomain.com/wp-admin with the new password.

If you are not sure which database belongs to your site, check the DB_NAME value in your wp-config.php file using cPanel → Files → File Manager.

Troubleshooting this task

• "Error establishing a database connection" on the login page — this is a database fault, not a wrong password. See Fixing "Error establishing a database connection".
• A blank white page instead of the login — usually a plugin or theme conflict. See Fixing the WordPress white screen of death.
• No password-reset email arrives — set up an SMTP plugin pointed at your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace mailbox, or use the phpMyAdmin method above.
• /wp-admin will not load at all — check the site is actually online first. See My website is down or showing a 500 error.

Related articles

• How to install WordPress with WP Toolkit
• How to secure and harden your WordPress site
• Fixing the WordPress white screen of death
• How to use phpMyAdmin