How to Find Your WordPress Login URL
If you’re new to WordPress and wondering, “How do I log into my site?”, or you have a client who is always forgetting the web address for logging in, then this is the tutorial for you.
It’s common for new users to have trouble locating their login URL after installing a self-hosted WordPress site for the first time. And it’s all too easy to personally forget or misplace your own login URL.
So in this article, we’ll show you how to easily find your WordPress login URL, along with some techniques so you never lose it again!
Note: If you’re still having trouble logging in after reading this post, let us help! Our highly rated support team is available 24/7/365, for any WordPress issue, big or small. For free!
You might also want to consider hosting with us and make use of our Single Sign-On feature, which as you will soon discover, is a real time-saver when it comes to logging into your WordPress site. We offer feature-packed hosting plans backed by a 30-day, money-back guarantee, so give it a try…completely risk-free!
Logging in to WordPress
The login page is where you go to access the backend of your website. Once logged in, you can see your dashboard, create new posts and pages, update themes and add new plugins, as well as make other customizations to your site.
On a typical WordPress site, all you need to do is add /login/ or /admin/ to the end of your site’s URL.
For example:
www.example.com/login/
or
www.example.com/admin/
Both of these URLs will take you to your login page where you can enter your username and password. Once logged in, you will be taken directly to the admin area, or dashboard, of your site.
Logging into a Subdirectory
If your site is installed in a subfolder or subdirectory, then you need to add /login/ or /wp-login.php to the end of your site’s URL.
www.example.com/wordpress/login/
or
www.example.com/wordpress/wp-login.php
Logging into a Subdomain
If your WordPress install is on a subdomain, then your URL will lead with the subdomain name:
subdomain.example.com/login/
or
subdomain.example.com/wp-login.php
Directly Accessing the WordPress Admin
Once logged in, you can directly access the admin area of your site using these URLs:
www.example.com/admin/
or
www.example.com/wp-admin/
Both of these URLs check that you are still logged in to your site and redirect to your site’s admin area.
Methods to Remember Your Login URL
You don’t have to remember your login URL by heart. There are a number of ways to save your URL login for handy access at any time.
Save While Surfing
The easiest way to ensure you never lose your login URL again is to simply bookmark it in your browser. See below for how to bookmark it in the most popular browsers.
Chrome
From the toolbar 3-ellipses icon dropdown, select Bookmarks > Bookmark This Tab.
Or, click on the star icon in the URL field, then select Add Bookmark. The star turns blue when the page is bookmarked, and a window will pop up so you can name it, and/or select folder location.
Safari
- Click Bookmarks from the toolbar, then choose Add Bookmark.
(Or, press Command+D). - Choose where to add the bookmark (default is Favorites), and rename it if you like.
- Click Add.
Firefox
Click on the star in the address bar.
Once bookmarked, you’ll have a quick and easy direct link to login to your site without having to commit your login address to memory. (If you’re like me, that’s a very flimsy commitment.😜)
Bonus with Branda
We also have a great plugin to help you stay logged in. Using the Remember Me feature in Branda, you can set the login page to remember you by default.
To do this, go to the Branda Dashboard > Front-end > Customize Login Screen, and click the Activate button.
Select a pre-designed theme (or create your own), then from the same dashboard area, navigate to Content, then click on Form.
Under the “Remember Me” checkbox setting, make sure Show & Checked are highlighted blue. Lastly, click on Save Changes.
Now you will stay logged into your site, without having to login repeatedly. (Of note, your cookie settings will affect the duration of your remaining logged in.)
The Widget Way
Another method is to add a login link widget to your website, either in the navigation menu, the sidebar, or the footer.
To add a link to your menu:
- From your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Menus.
- In the Menu Name text field, enter your chosen name, then click Create Menu.
- Click the dropdown arrow next to Custom Links; enter your site’s login URL and give the menu item a name of your choosing in Link Text.
- Click Add to Menu, then Save Menu to finish your new item.
To add a link to your footer:
WordPress comes with widgets that, when used, add a link to the login page, or your site’s RSS feeds.
Go to Appearance > Widgets, and click on the Add block icon (white plus sign in blue square). This will open the widget menu.
Scroll down to see the Navigation widget we created. Then click and drag it to the widget-ready area in the footer where you want to display the login link.
From the Navigation block this creates, click on the six vertical dots to open the menu. Type in your Title in the text field, then select “Navigation” from the Select Menu dropdown arrow. (It’s the only choice at this time, since we only created one.)
Now if we do a site preview, we’ll see the Login widget is active on your page footer. Click on it, and it will take you to the site you entered. Pretty cool.
The Navigation widget includes a link so you can log into your website with one-click ease.
Single Sign-On Simplicity
As mentioned earlier, you could use our SSO (Single Sign-On) feature, which is part of WPMU DEV’s hosting package. With this, you get a secure one-click login from The Hub―a quick, intuitive all-connected-sites access area, with a streamlined, appealing UI.
SSO allows members to access their connected sites securely without having to sign in separately to each one. It is particularly handy when managing multiple sites.
Each time you create a new site, or when you connect an existing site to your WPMU DEV account for the first time, you will be given an opportunity to enable SSO when prompted to enter your WordPress credentials (by clicking the corresponding toggle button).
And don’t worry about security. SSO uses your WPMU DEV API to access your connected sites, not your admin username and password. Your WordPress admin credentials are never stored by us for any reason.
Leveling-up Your Login Page
Now that we’ve got the WordPress signin handled, you might want to personalize your login page.
If that appeals to you, but is outside the scope of your abilities, check out our blog post on How to Completely Customize the WordPress Login Page.
This in-depth tutorial will guide you through how to add a custom background to your site, replace the WordPress logo with your own, customize the look of the login form, and remove the lost password link.
Better yet, try out our Branda plugin (it’s free!), which lets you make the same customizations without having to dig around in code.
As you can see, there are a number of really good options for always being able to find your WordPress login URL. Never again will you have to deal with the “Where’s Waldo” of login experiences.
Editor’s Note: This post has been updated for accuracy and relevancy. [Originally Published: April 2019 / Revised: October 2021]
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