WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems used today by more than 22 percent of the Web. Coming a long way from its humble beginning as an easy-to-use blogging system, it comes with gazillions of great themes, plugins, and other useful enhancements.
Most WordPress themes nowadays don’t directly link to the login page or the admin panel from the main WordPress page. This leads new users to become easily lost when trying to log in.
So how do you log into a WordPress system if you don’t know the URL links for these pages?
Finding the WordPress Login URL
The table below shows the three basic options that will influence your admin and login URLs.
- Determine where you installed WordPress (the options shown in the left column).
- Find the matching admin URL (both the admin panel and the login page).
If you are unsure where WordPress might be installed, you can try the options one at a time by just replacing “example.com” with your domain.
Note that if you are trying to access the admin panel directly and you are not logged in yet, WordPress will direct you to the login page first.
Default WordPress Login URL Paths
Below you’ll find the default login URL paths for WordPress.
WordPress Install PathAdmin PanelLogin Page
WordPress installed in the root directory example.com/wp-admin example.com/wp-login.php
WordPress installed in a sub-directory example.com/blog/wp-admin example.com/blog/wp-login.php
WordPress installed in a sub-domain blog.example.com/wp-admin blog.example.com/wp-login.php
The WordPress default login URLs direct you to the login page.
Useful WordPress Login URL Plugins
Change the WordPress Admin URL
The HC Custom WP-Admin URL plugin allows you to customize the URL of the wp-admin page.
By changing the name from “wp-admin” to “admin,” it can be easier to remember how to log in.
The WordPress HC Custom WP-Admin URL Plugin Lets You Change How You Access the Admin Dashboard
This plugin can also help protect you from brute-force user/password attacks on the admin URL.
Brute-Force Attack Security
A brute-force attack is a common problem with web applications. A malicious attacker can simply go through a list of thousands, millions, or even billions of different variations on common usernames or passwords.
Since your website is available from anywhere in the world via the Internet, an attacker could simply direct a bot to keep trying to log into your site until they come across a username/password combination that lets them in.
The Login Security Solution plugin secures your WordPress system against brute-force attacks.
The WordPress Login Security Solution settings page allows you to adjust your security options.
More WordPress Plugins
One of the great things about WordPress is its huge amount of users. If you’re looking for WordPress to do something it doesn’t do right out of the box, chances are you can find someone who’s figured it out already.
Need some other feature for your WordPress system? Check out the thousands of other plugins.