While there are a ton of themes and plugins hosted by WordPress itself, there are a lot of cases where you might want to download something from another site. A common alternative that is widely used is GitHub. There are a ton of amazing as well as free WordPress plugins and themes on GitHub, a few of whom aren’t even available on WordPress. If you were wondering how to install WordPress plugins from GitHub then you’ve come to the right place. In this short tutorial, we are going to show you how to download off GitHub to install new plugins and themes to your WordPress site.
For those who are unaware, GitHub is a free online code hosting service. It takes its name from the Git version control system. GitHub is the largest source code host in the world with over 28 million users and 57 million repositories. For developers, it can be especially helpful as it has made collaboration, tracking and code management much easier. It really is an amazing resource, not just for developers but for regular folks as well.
How To Install WordPress Plugins & Themes from GitHub
First of all, you will need to open the GitHub page for the plugin that you want to install. There, look for the Clone or download button and click on it. Just click on Download ZIP to save the plugin as a .zip file. Now you know how to download off GitHub. All that’s left now is to install the plugin is upload this file into your WordPress site.
If you want to download a specific version of the plugin, you can click on the Branch option towards the left. Here, you can check out the various branches and tags that are available here. However, it is generally advised to stick to the master version unless you know what you’re doing.
Downloading Themes from GitHub is essentially the same as well. Just navigate to the GitHub page for the theme you want and repeat the above step.
The next step is to actually install this plugin into your WordPress site. It is basically the same as manually installing a plugin. From your Dashboard, go to Plugins>>Add New from the sidebar. From here, just click on the Upload Plugin button at the top.
Now, just click on Browse to navigate to the zip file from earlier and open it. Click on Install Now and wait for the installation to finish.
Once the plugin has been installed, you can just click on Activate Plugin to start using it immediately. As you can see, it is extremely easy to install WordPress plugins from GitHub.
It is also pretty easy to install WordPress themes from GitHub. Similar to the plugins, it is identical with the method to install WordPress themes manually. Firstly, open up your WordPress Dashboard and go to Themes from the sidebar. Now click on the Add New button at the top. It should open up a page where you can install new themes onto your WordPress site.
Here, use the Upload Theme button to reveal the option to browse your computer for the .zip file. Like before, navigate to your theme file and click on the Install Now button.
To Conclude:
And there you go. Now you should know how to download off GitHub and install plugins and theme to your WordPress site. This method is a very useful alternative to the normal approach from the WordPress repository and can even be of great help in some cases. While you are installing new themes or plugins, you might want to look for tips to consider before changing themes and plugins as well. You also need to carefully choose between a free vs premium WordPress theme or plugin. This can be really helpful to decide whether you want to change them or not. We hope you found this article helped you out. If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments below.
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