How To Install PhpMyAdmin on Ubuntu/Debian Linux Server

What Is PhpMyAdmin

PhpMyAdmin is a free software tool written in PHP, designed to manage MySQL over the Internet. phpMyAdmin supports a wide range of operations on MySQL and MariaDB databases. Frequently used operations (managing databases, tables, columns, relationships, indexes, users, permissions, etc.) can be performed through the user interface, while you still can directly execute any SQL statement.

Let’s Set PhpMyAdmin

Install phpMyAdmin from default Ubuntu repositories

sudo apt update
sudo apt install phpmyadmin php-mbstring php-gettext
sudo phpenmod mbstring
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Customize user authentication and privileges

sudo mysql

Configure the root account for password authentication and don’t forget to change the password password:

SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user;
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit```

> **Security note:** Never expose phpMyAdmin publicly on the internet. Restrict access with Apache `.htaccess` (using `Allow from` directives) or Nginx `auth_basic` to trusted IPs only. For occasional database access, consider [Adminer](https://www.adminer.org/) — a single-file, lighter alternative. On modern servers you can also use the `mysql` CLI directly or a desktop GUI client like DBeaver or TablePlus.

### Security note

Never expose phpMyAdmin on a public IP without authentication. Add an .htaccess password or nginx auth_basic before the phpMyAdmin location block. For quick database queries, consider [Adminer](https://www.adminer.org/) — a single PHP file alternative with no installation required and a smaller attack surface.