# How to delete a WordPress site for good, not halfway

To delete a WordPress site for good, you close three things: its files, its database and its bills. That's about 15 minutes on a self-hosted site and 6 steps on WordPress.com.

It's easy to stop after the first part. You delete the files, the site disappears from the browser, and it looks finished, while the domain quietly renews next year.

**Deleting the files is the visible third of the job, not the whole job.** The files are what you see in the file manager. The database is where your posts, users and settings actually live. And the bills are the hosting plan and the domain, which nothing in WordPress will cancel for you.

[Kitepod](/wordpress-mcp) can't delete a WordPress site, because it works through a plugin inside the site. This is a job for your host's panel.

## Before you delete anything

Deleting is permanent on a self-hosted site. There's no trash folder on your server. So take 5 minutes first:

1. In wp-admin, go to Tools → Export, choose All content and click Download Export File. That gives you an XML file with your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and users. It doesn't include your images or theme.
2. Download a copy of `wp-content/uploads` from the file manager if you want the images.
3. Export the database from phpMyAdmin, or use your host's backup tool, if you might ever want the site back exactly as it was.

If you're deleting because you want the site offline for a while, you probably don't want to delete it. [Maintenance mode](/guides/wordpress-maintenance-mode) hides it without losing anything. And if you're moving it to a new address, that's a [domain change](/guides/change-wordpress-domain), not a delete.

## Delete a self-hosted WordPress site (cPanel)

These steps use cPanel because it's common on shared hosting. Other panels have the same two pieces under different names.

### 1. Find the database name

Open `wp-config.php` in the site's folder and look for this line:

```
define( 'DB_NAME', 'example_wp123' );
```

Write that name down. On a shared account with several sites, it's the only reliable way to know which database belongs to this one.

### 2. Delete the files

1. Open File Manager in cPanel.
2. Go to the folder the site lives in. That's `public_html` for your main domain, or a subfolder like `public_html/shop` for an addon domain or a site in a subdirectory.
3. Delete the WordPress files: the `wp-admin`, `wp-content` and `wp-includes` folders, the `wp-*.php` files, `index.php`, `xmlrpc.php` and `.htaccess`. Turn on hidden files in File Manager's settings or you won't see `.htaccess`.

Check twice before you delete in `public_html`. Other sites on the same account often live in folders inside it, and deleting the parent takes them too.

### 3. Delete the database

1. Open Manage My Databases in cPanel (older versions call it MySQL Databases).
2. Find the database with the name from step 1 and click Delete.
3. Confirm.

cPanel's own docs say to use this screen rather than deleting the database by hand, because a manual delete can corrupt cPanel's database map and break your backups. While you're there, delete the database user that went with it.

### 4. Cancel the bills

Deleting the files doesn't cancel anything. Cancel the hosting plan in your host's billing area if nothing else runs on it, and turn off auto-renew on the domain, or point it somewhere new.

On managed WordPress hosts, the site usually has its own delete button in the host's dashboard that removes files and database together. Your host's help docs will name it; the plan and domain still need cancelling separately.

## Delete a WordPress.com site

WordPress.com is a different animal: there's no file manager and no database to find. As of October 2026, the steps are:

1. Go to my.wordpress.com and click the site's title.
2. Select Settings in the left sidebar.
3. Scroll to the "Delete site" section and click Delete.
4. If the site still has paid upgrades, you'll be asked to remove them first. Click Manage Purchases and cancel each one.
5. Type the site's full address to confirm.
6. Click Delete Site.

WordPress.com gives you 30 days to change your mind. Restore it from your sites list by adding the Deleted sites filter and choosing Restore site from the ⋮ menu. After 30 days it's gone, and you can never reuse that WordPress.com address.

Deleting the site doesn't close your WordPress.com account or cancel a custom domain. WordPress.com's own docs warn that a domain keeps renewing until you cancel it.

## What goes wrong

The usual half-delete leaves the database behind. The files are gone, the site no longer loads, and the database still holds every user's email address and password hash on a server you're about to forget about. If that's you, go back to Manage My Databases and finish the job.

The second one shows up on your card a year later. Domains are billed separately from the hosting and from the site, so the domain renews unless you turn off auto-renew wherever you bought it.

The scary one is deleting a folder in `public_html` that held another site's addon domain. If that happens, ask your host to restore that folder from their backups today, while the backup still exists.

And Google will keep showing the old pages for a while. They drop out on their own once Google sees them return 404 or 410. If you need them gone sooner, Search Console's Removals tool hides them for about six months, which gives the 404s time to do the rest.

## Finer points

### How do I delete a WordPress site and start over?

On a self-hosted site, delete the files and the database as above, create a new empty database in Manage My Databases, then upload a fresh copy of WordPress from wordpress.org and run the installer. Many hosts also have a one-click installer that does the upload and database for you. On WordPress.com, delete the site and create a new one.

### Does deleting a WordPress site delete my domain?

No. On a self-hosted site the domain lives with your registrar, and on WordPress.com a domain keeps renewing until you cancel it. Cancel it separately if you don't want it.

### Can I recover a deleted WordPress site?

WordPress.com sites can be restored for 30 days after deletion. Self-hosted sites can only be restored from the backup you took first. There's no undo on a server.

### Do I need to delete the database too?

Yes. The files are only half of a WordPress site. The database holds your posts, users and settings, and it stays on the server until you delete it.