Getting Started

Installation

May 8, 2026 docsadmin 3 min read

Installation

This page walks through every install scenario for the Best Classifieds theme and Pro plugin — fresh install, migrating from another classifieds theme, multi-site, and licensing setup.

Requirements

Component Minimum Recommended
WordPress 6.0 6.4 or newer
PHP 7.4 8.1+
MySQL / MariaDB 5.6 / 10.1 8.0 / 10.6
HTTPS Required for Stripe/Razorpay Always
Memory limit 128 MB 256 MB
Permalinks Pretty (/%postname%/) Pretty

Best Classifieds is not block-theme-only — it works on classic and hybrid setups. It does not require WooCommerce, BuddyPress, or any other plugin to function.

Architecture overview

Best Classifieds (free theme) listings, hero, footer, search Best Classifieds Pro (licensed plugin) submission, payments, dashboard WOW Feeder (optional) demo content + images WordPress core posts → become listings · taxonomy → categories · users → members · postmeta → price/location/etc.

The free theme stores listings as standard WordPress posts under a “Listings” parent category. Pro adds richer fields, frontend submission, payments, and (optionally) a custom listing post type. WordPress remains in charge — your data is portable to any other theme if you ever move.

Installing the theme

  1. Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme
  2. Select best-classifieds.zip
  3. Install Now → Activate

Method B — SFTP

  1. Unzip best-classifieds.zip locally
  2. Upload the best-classifieds/ folder to /wp-content/themes/
  3. Appearance → Themes → click Activate on Best Classifieds

Method C — WP-CLI

wp theme install /path/to/best-classifieds.zip --activate

After activation, WordPress sets sensible defaults via after_setup_theme. You’ll see a dashboard notice prompting you to import demo content — that’s the WOW Feeder cue.

Installing Best Classifieds Pro [Pro]

The Pro plugin extends the theme. Install order: theme first, then plugin. Activating Pro before the theme will surface a notice and refuse to bootstrap until the theme is active.

  1. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
  2. Select best-classifieds-pro.zip
  3. Install Now → Activate
  4. You’ll be redirected to the Classifieds Pro dashboard with a “Activate your license” banner

License activation [Pro]

Your license unlocks Pro features and enables auto-updates from FasterThemes.

  1. Appearance → BC Pro License
  2. Paste the license key from your purchase email — it looks like KB1Q7AQGSQRRUJE4TS0Q7JY1L
  3. Click Activate License

You should see:

  • A green Active pill
  • The license key masked as KB1Q••••••••JY1L
  • An “Active Pro Features” grid with all unlocked capabilities listed
  • “Last verified” showing seconds ago

The license is tied to this exact site URL (home_url()). If you move to a new domain, deactivate on the old site first, then activate on the new one. Your single-site license allows unlimited domain changes — just one active install at a time.

License never reaches the server? Common cause: the host blocks outbound HTTPS to fasterthemes.com. Try a curl -I https://fasterthemes.com from SSH. Some shared hosts require allowlisting — see Troubleshooting for the workaround.

Multi-site notes

Best Classifieds works on WordPress Multisite as a per-site theme, not network-activated. The Pro license activates per-site. If you need a multi-site license, contact support — we provide a network license for agency customers.

Migrating from another classifieds theme

If you’re moving from Listify, ClassiPress, AdForest, etc., your existing listings can be migrated:

Source Target Migration approach
Custom post type (job_listing, ad_listing, etc.) post (Best Classifieds default) Bulk-edit post type with WP-CLI: `wp post list –post_type=job_listing –format=ids xargs -I {} wp post update {} –post_type=post`
Custom taxonomy (job_category) category Map terms manually under Posts → Categories
Listing meta (_price, _location) _bc_price, _bc_location SQL UPDATE or our migration helper (contact support)
Featured image Featured image Already compatible

For complex migrations with thousands of listings, we offer a paid migration service. Open a ticket via your account dashboard.

Where everything lives

/wp-content/
├── themes/
│   └── best-classifieds/        — the free theme
│       ├── assets/css/main.css   — main stylesheet
│       ├── assets/js/            — live-search, contact-reveal, navigation
│       ├── inc/                  — template tags, customizer, widgets
│       └── template-parts/       — hero, categories, listings cards
└── plugins/
    ├── best-classifieds-pro/             — main Pro plugin
    │   ├── includes/                     — license, frontend, payments, dashboard
    │   └── licenses/                     — WPDigiPro adapter + update checker
    └── best-classifieds-wow-feeder/      — demo content populator
        └── demo-content/                 — 48 listings, taxonomy, customizer JSON

Next steps

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