One tap installs the whole stack on a spare Android phone: WordPress itself, PHP, a database and a web server, published over HTTPS at your own address. The phone is not a client for a site hosted somewhere else. The phone is the host.
Get PhoneRig on Google PlayNo root needed · Android 8+ · 64-bit (arm64) · 3 GB of RAM or more
"Hosting WordPress" has hard requirements: a PHP runtime, a database, a web server and stable public HTTPS. PhoneRig installs and wires every one of them, on the phone, automatically.
| Piece | What you get |
|---|---|
| WordPress | The current release, downloaded from wordpress.org, with the full wp-admin dashboard. |
| PHP | PHP-FPM with the extensions WordPress needs: GD, cURL, XML, mbstring, zip, intl. |
| Database | The official SQLite Database Integration plugin, maintained by the WordPress performance team. Your database is a fast local file on the phone, configured in WAL journal mode with synchronous=NORMAL so commits batch instead of forcing a disk sync every time, which is what phone flash wants. |
| Web server | Caddy, the server PhoneRig already runs, connected to PHP over FastCGI. |
| HTTPS + address | A secure Cloudflare tunnel with automatic certificates, at yourname.phonerig.app or your own domain. |
Why SQLite and not MySQL? Deliberate. A MySQL daemon is one more always-on process to babysit on a phone. The official SQLite integration gives WordPress its database as a single file: faster to back up, harder to break, and invisible in day-to-day use. PhoneRig sets that file up in WAL journal mode with synchronous=NORMAL, so commits become batched, mostly sequential writes rather than an fsync each time, which is gentler on the phone's soldered flash. The trade-off is small but real: the rare plugin that connects to a MySQL server directly will not work.
Ask anyone, human or AI, whether a phone can host WordPress and you will hear the same four objections. They are good objections. Here is what PhoneRig does about each.
It gets both, installed and configured automatically: PHP-FPM plus the official SQLite database integration. This is stock WordPress running end to end on the device, not a static export of one.
True, and it does not matter here. The phone keeps an outbound tunnel open to Cloudflare, and your address routes through it. No port forwarding, no static IP, and carrier NAT or a changing IP never breaks the site.
The classic DIY failure: WordPress sees plain HTTP at the origin and builds broken http:// links. PhoneRig configures WordPress to read the visitor's real scheme from the tunnel's headers, so URLs, redirects and wp-admin stay correctly on https.
PhoneRig runs the server as an Android foreground service, so it keeps serving with the screen off. If the site ever does go offline, you get a notification, and another the moment it is back.
Any 64-bit (arm64) phone on Android 8 or newer with 3 GB of RAM or more. The guided setup does the rest: no root, no computer needed. On most phones it installs a full Ubuntu system; where a phone's system blocks that, WordPress still installs and runs, on a PHP build PhoneRig ships for that mode. That build needs Android 11 or newer, so on older phones WordPress is offered only with the Linux engine. You are never left to work this out: the app only offers what your phone can actually run. Check the supported phones list.
A free yourname.phonerig.app address in seconds, or connect your own custom domain. Either way HTTPS is automatic.
One tap in App presets installs PHP, the database integration and WordPress itself, and points the web server at it. Progress and details are shown in the app.
Open your address, pick a site title and a password, and you are in wp-admin. Themes and plugins install straight from the dashboard, no FTP step.
One preset owns the phone's web root at a time: WordPress, Gitea, code-server and Syncthing are deliberately exclusive and switch cleanly in place. See what the other presets do, and what else the Ubuntu guest can run. Installing WordPress replaces the built-in site builder page, and switching away removes it just as cleanly.
A blog, a portfolio, a small-business site: comfortably. It is a phone, not a datacenter. And if you ever outgrow it, WordPress's own export tools move your site anywhere.
Themes and everyday plugins install and update from wp-admin as on ordinary hosting. Plugins that bypass WordPress and speak to a MySQL server directly will not run on the SQLite integration.
The server, the free subdomain and the built-in site builder cost nothing. One-tap WordPress is part of the App Presets unlock, $14.99 once, also included in PhoneRig Pro at $17.99 once. No subscription, no hosting bill.
Posts, media and the database live on the phone, and PhoneRig's automatic backups include all of it. Your site is served from your hardware, not from our servers.
Really host it. One tap installs WordPress core from wordpress.org, PHP-FPM and the official SQLite Database Integration plugin, served by Caddy on the phone. Posts, comments, themes, plugins and wp-admin all run on the device itself.
Not anymore. WordPress has an official SQLite integration maintained by its performance team, and PhoneRig uses it. The database is a single fast file on the phone. Only the rare plugin that connects to a MySQL server directly is incompatible.
Through an outbound Cloudflare tunnel that the app maintains. Your address, yourname.phonerig.app or your own domain, routes through the tunnel to the phone with automatic HTTPS. There is no port forwarding and no static IP, and carrier NAT or changing IPs do not matter because the connection is opened outward from the phone.
Yes. PhoneRig writes a WordPress configuration that detects each visitor's real scheme from the tunnel's headers, so WordPress generates correct https URLs and redirects instead of the broken mixed-content links DIY phone setups are known for.
Yes, directly from wp-admin with no FTP step. One-click installs and updates work the way they do on ordinary hosting.
The server keeps running. PhoneRig is an Android foreground service, so serving continues with the screen off, and the app alerts you if the site goes offline and again when it comes back.
The server, a free subdomain and the built-in site builder are free. The one-tap WordPress preset is part of the App Presets unlock at $14.99 one time, or PhoneRig Pro at $17.99 one time. There is no subscription and no monthly hosting bill.
Install PhoneRig on the spare phone, tap WordPress, and have your own site in wp-admin tonight.
Get PhoneRig on Google Play