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TYPO3 installation and setup instructions

How to install TYPO3 on a server

Setting up or installing TYPO3 only requires a few prerequisites, which almost all providers offer at relatively low cost, and these instructions. This means that a TYPO3 installation can be operated for well under €10 per month.

Many hosting providers offer automatic installation of various systems. However, I would like to explain the manual TYPO3 installation here.

TYPO3 requirements

The server:

Before setting up the correct requirements on the server, you should be clear about which TYPO3 version you want to install. It should undoubtedly be as up-to-date as possible, but this also depends on the extensions you want to use. TYPO3 version 13 has been available for a few months now (September 2025), but not all extensions have been tested with this version yet.

  • The LINUX server should be running a current version of PHP. You can find out which TYPO3 version requires which PHP version here.
  • Databases (usually MySql or MariaDB) should be available.
  • ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick should either already be installed on the server or at least be executable as a static version.
  • If a few PHP settings are not quite correct, they can usually be adjusted in the .htaccess file or in the provider's backend. You can find out how to do this from your provider.

If these requirements are met on the server, you can set up TYPO3 there.

Getting ready:

TYPO3 installation: Setting up a database for TYPO3
Convert database to UTF8

To ensure that the TYPO3 setup does not stall, you should already have set up the database in the provider's backend. Either leave the window open immediately after setup to transfer database access with CTRL-C and CTRL-V, or copy the data to a text file.

With many providers, each domain can run under its own PHP version. So check beforehand which version your domain is running under—the more recent, the better—and which TYPO3 version works with it.

When setting up the database, depending on your provider, you should make sure that it is set to UTF8. With allinkl, for example, new databases are always set to Latin1. This is actually no longer up to date.

The TYPO3 files

Selecting and downloading TYPO3 files

You can download the selected version from the official TYPO3 website at https://get.typo3.org/. There are always two versions available here:

  • The “symlink version” with typo3_src-<Typo3 version>.tar.gz:
    You should use this version if
    • you have shell or SSH access (e.g., with Putty) to the web space,
    • the host offers this option in the web FTP tool, or
    • you can unpack the archive with a PHP script and create the symlinks with
      symlink(<path to TYPO3 system>, ‘typo3_src’);
      symlink(‘typo3_src/typo3’, ‘typo3’);
      symlink(‘typo3_src/index.php’, ‘index.php’);
  • You should use the zip version if you “only” have FTP access.

In any case, download the package first. If you have shell access to your web space, you can transfer the package directly to the server. If you have a zip version, you should first unzip it on your computer and then upload these files via FTP.

Installing TYPO3

TYPO3 installation Start
TYPO3 installation incorrect PHP setting
Database selection
TYPO3 installation Enter database access
TYPO3 installation first backend user
TYPO3 installation: Backend login

After that, you can start the TYPO3 system by simply calling up the URL. For the first installation, you will now be prompted to create the file “FIRST_INSTALL” in the root directory of the installation. The file has no extension and does not need to have any content.

Now reload the page. TYPO3 will complain about a PHP setting (max_execution_time=30), which I can change in the .htaccess file. To do this, I must first activate it by removing the underscore (rename “_.htaccess” to “.htaccess”). Then open the file and enter the line

php_value max_execution_time 240

at the very top or very bottom and save it again on the server. After clicking on “Fixed. Check again!”, you can continue by clicking on “System looks good. Continue!”.

Now you need to enter the database access details. These are usually

  • The username,
  • the password, and
  • the host (often localhost)

After entering the data, you must specify the database in which the standard TYPO3 tables will be created.

Now you can create the first backend user. This will be the system administrator. To assign a secure password, I like to use the website https://www.passwort-generator.com/. In the “Site name” field, enter what you want to appear at the top of the TYPO3 system's page tree (e.g., “My new TYPO3 page,” or whatever you like).

You can now log in to the TYPO3 system with your login details.