H5P has a free plugin available for WordPress, Moodle, and Drupal, but these content management systems require a self-hosted website. This beginner guide will show you the steps for getting a self-hosted website, so you can create interactive content with H5P.
Table of Contents
Overview
This guide covers the initial steps for obtaining a self-hosted website for the purpose of getting access to the free open-source H5P plugin. Security and maintenance of a self-hosted website is an ongoing process, which is not covered here.
Step 1 – Purchase a website domain name
This service provides the street addressof your website.
- Conduct a global trademark search to ensure that your domain name does not use any trademarked business names, which could cause legal troubles.
- Domain names offered for free with the purchase of other website services are usually only free for the first year, so budget for this cost in following years.
- Add Whois Privacy Service to your domain. All website domain services maintain data about the owner of each domain name purchased through them. This data can be found by the general public in online Whois lookup searches. The Whois Privacy Service hides your personal or business contact information from Whois lookup searches by providing a forwarding service.
Step 2 – Purchase website hosting
This service provides the property and storageof your website.
- Website domains and website hosting can be purchased at the same time from the same provider. However, one benefit of buying separately is less risk if the service provider has an extended outage or goes out of business.
- Monthly or yearly payments allow you to try out a service before committing to them long-term. However, hosting packages are significantly cheaper when purchased for longer terms such as 3 years.
- For small websites that don’t have a lot of visitors yet, shared hosting is the most affordable option. Start with the smallest plan and upgrade in the future.
- Look for companies that have servers in physical locations near your country or offer a content delivery network (CDN). This will help with quicker load times for your webpages.
- Please note that https://wordpress.com offers a very limited free plan and only the paid WordPress Pro plan will allow you to install the free H5P Plug
Step 3 – Connect your domain name to your website hosting
Your service provider(s) will have step-by-step instructions on how to edit the Domain Name System (DNS) records.
- If you purchased the domain name and website hosting from separate companies, you will need to update the nameserver records in both accounts.
- Any changes to DNS records can take a few hours, but sometimes 2-3 days. Your website will not be liveuntil these changes have updated.
Step 4 – Install WordPress, Drupal, or Moodle
This is the building type of your website. Most service provider(s) will have a one-click installer option for these systems/apps.
- For website hosts using CPanel, these installers are found under the Softaculous App Installer.
- For SiteGround hosting, these installers are found under Site Tools > Dev > App Installer.
Step 5 – Install the H5P Plugin
Plugins are add-on applications that enhance the functionality your website. Drupal uses the term modules instead of plugins.
- Plugins can be installed in 2 ways:
- From your website dashboard, navigate to the plugins area and use the search to find the H5P plugin.
- Using the links below, select Download. Then go to your website plugins area and upload the zip file that was downloaded to your local computer.
- Here are the official plugins supported by H5P:
- WordPress: Interactive Content H5P
- Moodle: Interactive Content H5P
- Drupal: H5P Create and Share Rich Content and Applications
- Additional steps for installation and setup of these plugins can be found at https://h5p.org/installation.
Recommended Services
I only recommend services and software I have personally used and had a good experience with. Some of the items below are affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you use these links to make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
Domain Names
- NameCheap
Popular service with frequent sales. - PorkBun
Smaller US-based company with consistently affordable prices.
Website Hosting
- SiteGround
- Popular service with discounted multi-year packages.
- Very fast and knowledgeable customer service.
- Server locations in USA, UK, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, & Singapore.
- iWebFusion
- Smaller US-based company with affordable monthly pricing and alternative payment options including PayPal and Bitpay.
- Good customer service.
- Server locations in USA.
H5P Paid Service
- H5P.com (paid software as a service)
- If you don ‘ t want a self-hosted website, you can get the paid version of H5P which comes with exclusive features such as live multi-player games and drill-down data when used with compatible LMS integrations.