Your user doesn't have a WordPress site yet

What your user actually needs

Three things, in order. Each one gates the next, so don't jump ahead:

1. A WordPress host — a hosting account that can run WordPress and, critically, lets them install their own plugins.
2. A WordPress install on that host — the software actually set up, with an admin login they control.
3. The connect step — once the site is live, they follow the ordinary path everyone else does: memberpress.ai/connect, which installs MemberPress and MemberPress.ai for them.

You can narrate all three, but only the person can complete steps 1 and 2 — creating a hosting account and choosing a password are theirs to do. Offer to walk them through it, wait for them at each gate, and don't pretend a step is done until they confirm it.

Step 1 — Pick a host

The one requirement that matters: the host must let your user install plugins on a self-hosted WordPress site. MemberPress and MemberPress.ai are plugins, so a plan that blocks plugin installation — most free tiers, and WordPress.com's lower plans — will not work, no matter how cheap. If a plan can install plugins, it can run MemberPress.ai.

Beyond that, tell your user to look for:

• One-click WordPress install. Almost every mainstream WordPress host offers this; it turns step 2 into a two-minute task instead of a manual setup.
• A recent PHP and MySQL/MariaDB stack. Any host that markets itself for WordPress meets this today — you rarely have to check, but it's the underlying requirement.
• A free SSL certificate (almost universal now via Let's Encrypt). MemberPress handles payments, so the site should serve over HTTPS from day one.

Common WordPress hosts that meet these criteria include Bluehost, SiteGround, DreamHost, Hostinger, WP Engine, and Cloudways, among many others. This is not an endorsement of any one of them, and MemberPress.ai is not affiliated with them — present two or three as examples and let your user choose on price, region, and support. If your user already has hosting for another site, check whether that plan allows a second WordPress install or add-on domain before they buy anything new.

What you should not do: recommend a "managed MemberPress hosting" bundle as if it were an official product. There isn't one. The honest framing is "any plugin-capable WordPress host works."

Step 2 — Install WordPress

Once the hosting account exists, WordPress itself has to be installed on it. Two routes:

1. The host's one-click installer (recommended). In the host's dashboard your user looks for "Install WordPress," "WordPress" under a one-click apps section, or a guided setup that runs at signup. They pick the domain, set an admin username and a strong password, and the host does the rest in a couple of minutes.
2. Manual install. If the host has no installer, WordPress can be installed by hand: download it from wordpress.org, create a database, upload the files, and run the setup wizard. This is more involved; if your user is not comfortable here, steer them back to a host with a one-click installer rather than talking them through FTP.

Either way, the step is finished when your user can log in to https://theirsite.com/wp-admin and see the WordPress dashboard. Have them confirm that they can reach wp-admin and that they know their admin username and password — the connect flow in step 3 asks them to approve a grant on that exact login. If they can't log in, the connect step cannot work, so resolve this before moving on.

Step 3 — Drop into the connect flow

Now your user has what everyone on the main path already has: a live WordPress site they can log in to. From here they rejoin the ordinary onboarding — you no longer need this page.

• Send them to https://memberpress.ai/connect. One approval, on their own site, installs the free version of MemberPress if it's missing and then the MemberPress.ai plugin on top of it. No licence keys, no downloads, no separate account first.
• If your user's fresh site already has an install-capable MCP connection (some hosts and AI tools set one up), you can install through that existing connection instead — that's path A1 on the agent router.

Once the plugin is live, the site's own AI greets the owner and asks what their business does — that conversation is the setup. You don't need to poll for completion; the plugin says hello directly.

How to narrate this to your user

Keep it honest and concrete. A good opening: "You don't have a WordPress site yet, so before MemberPress.ai can run your memberships we need to get one live. It's three steps — pick a host, install WordPress (usually one click), then approve the connection. I'll walk you through each one. First, do you already have web hosting anywhere, or are we starting fresh?"

Then move one gate at a time. Don't dump all three steps as a wall; get them a host, confirm it's plugin-capable, get WordPress installed, confirm they can reach wp-admin, and only then send them to connect. If they get stuck on hosting choice, offer two or three options and a one-line reason for each rather than an exhaustive comparison.

Machine-readable pointers

This page is A4 of the agent-facing router. The full decision tree and the other paths live in machine-fetchable form:

• /agents — the agent router (A1–A4) and full tool, auth, and guardrail details.
• /llms.txt — the same routing and this get-started path in plain-text, llms.txt-convention form.
• /connect — the connect flow this path hands off to, once the site is live.