5 Reasons to Avoid One-Click Installs

One-click installs make it easy to install some of the most common scripts around, including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, phpBB and Cube Cart.

The install takes just a few minutes.

But one-click installers may not always give you the best result.

Let’s look at some reasons to install manually.

1. Familiarity

Installing a script via one-click makes it easy to get started. But when it’s time to fix a fault, you’re going to be less familiar with the script.

Even if you can maintain the script, one-click installs make it more difficult because you didn’t configure it yourself.

2. Defaults

One-click installs usually only allow for very limited customisation.

If you want to do something non-standard, such as installing in a folder, you might be out of luck.

3. Security

Most one-click installs do a decent job of making sure there are no security issues.

But hardening – improving security – has to be done by hand to ensure all of the permissions are correct.

4. Updates

When a script like WordPress is made available for download, someone has to turn it into a one-click installer, and that can take a while. So your install may be out of date.

This could affect security unless you force a manual update yourself.

5. Learning Curve

Most major platforms and scripts are simply not that hard to install.

WordPress, for example, can be installed in five minutes, and you might feel more confident with your skills if you don’t take that extra short cut.

When to Use One-Click Installers

One-click installers are useful if you’re familiar with an application and want a quick route to a default setup.

But for custom installs, or if you want to learn more about the application, take the time to read the documentation and install it by hand.