Installing Gentelella is mainly a process of downloading the archive, extracting it into a clean project folder and confirming that the included front-end paths work before customization. Rushing directly into edits can make later errors difficult to trace.
The safer approach is to keep an untouched copy, inspect the source structure and establish a working local baseline. Once the original pages load correctly, you can remove examples and adapt components in controlled steps.
Download and preserve the archive
Use the dedicated download section
The main website Download section contains the only external archive button. Save the ZIP in a folder created for this project.
Keep an untouched copy
Duplicate the extracted folder before editing so you can compare original markup, styles and scripts when troubleshooting.
Run the first local check
Open the entry page
Open the relevant HTML page directly and confirm that the interface, styles, images and scripts load without missing-file errors.
Check relative paths
Review references that use parent folders or nested directories. These paths must match the final location of each page.
Prepare for deployment
Remove unused examples carefully
Delete components in small groups and retest after each change.
Test live hosting
Upload the project, verify case-sensitive filenames and confirm that rewrite rules do not break the working static files.
Final checklist
- Confirm all local asset paths.
- Remove unused examples and dependencies.
- Test navigation, forms and tables responsively.
- Verify live hosting paths and clean URLs.
- Keep private credentials outside front-end files.