How to see what a website is built with
Every site leaves clues. A WordPress site loads files from wp-content. A Shopify store sets its own cookies. Next.js pages carry a telltale script tag. Response headers name the server or CDN. You can spot some of these by viewing the page source, but it is slow and easy to miss things.
The Tech Stack Detector does it for you:
- Open the tool on Apify and paste one or more websites. A bare domain like example.com is fine.
- Leave the DNS check on if you also want email and hosting providers, which come from public DNS records.
- Run it. Each site takes about a second, because it is a plain web request, not a full browser.
- Download the table and filter by the column you care about, such as cms or ecommerce.
What it detects
- CMS and site builders, such as WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, Wix and Squarespace.
- Ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and BigCommerce.
- Analytics and tag managers, such as Google Tag Manager and Microsoft Clarity.
- CDN, hosting and servers, such as Cloudflare, Vercel, Nginx and Varnish.
- Frameworks and libraries, such as React, Next.js, Ruby on Rails and jQuery, with versions when the site shows them.
In total it knows more than 3,600 technologies, using the open fingerprint data that tools like Wappalyzer made popular.
A real sample
These are results from a run on November 11, 2026. We trimmed each list to the most useful items.
| Website | What we found |
|---|---|
| wordpress.org | WordPress 7.2, Gutenberg 24.3.1, PHP, MySQL, Nginx, Google Tag Manager |
| allbirds.com | Shopify, Cloudflare, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, PayPal, Apple Pay |
| nextjs.org | Next.js, React, Node.js, Vercel, Webpack |
| gov.uk | Ruby on Rails, GOV.UK Frontend, Nginx, Varnish |
| python.org | jQuery 1.8.2, jQuery UI 1.12.1, Modernizr, Nginx, Varnish, Amazon Web Services |
And one row as the tool returns it, shortened:
{
"url": "https://wordpress.org/",
"statusCode": 200,
"technologyCount": 11,
"cms": "WordPress",
"server": "Nginx",
"technologies": [
{ "name": "WordPress", "categories": ["CMS", "Blogs"], "version": "7.2" },
{ "name": "Gutenberg", "categories": ["WordPress plugins", "Editors"], "version": "24.3.1" },
{ "name": "PHP", "categories": ["Programming languages"], "version": null }
],
"status": "ok"
}Who uses this
Agencies use it to find prospects running an old platform they specialize in. Sales teams use it to qualify lead lists, for example keeping only Shopify stores. Developers use it to learn how a site they admire was put together.
How it compares
For one website, free lookups are everywhere. The price jumps when you want a whole list checked.
| Tool | One site | A list of sites |
|---|---|---|
| BuiltWith | Free lookups | Lists from $295 a month (Basic plan) |
| Wappalyzer | Free lookups | Lead lists from $250 a month (Pro plan) |
| Apinoa | 5 free lookups a day | Prepaid API |
| Tech Stack Detector (we built it) | A fraction of a cent | $0.50 per 1,000 sites, failures free, no subscription |
Prices and limits are from each company's public page, checked November 11, 2026. If one has changed, email [email protected] and we will fix it.
Our honest take: BuiltWith and Wappalyzer are bigger products. They track far more technologies, keep years of history, and add company and contact data, which we do not collect. If you need that, they are worth the money. If you just need to know what a list of public sites runs on today, our tool does it for cents. Checking 2,000 sites costs about $1.00.
What it costs
$0.50 per 1,000 analyzed sites. A 2,000 site lead list costs $1.00. Sites that fail to load, or that block our crawler in robots.txt, are free. You can cap the number of sites per run.
Questions
How can I tell what CMS a website uses?
Paste the address into the Tech Stack Detector. It reads the page HTML, headers, cookies and scripts and matches them against fingerprints for thousands of technologies. If a known CMS such as WordPress, Shopify or Webflow leaves a trace, it shows up in the cms or ecommerce field.
Is checking a website's technology legal?
The tool only reads what any browser receives when it opens the public homepage, and it respects robots.txt by default. It does not log in or try to get past anything.
Why are some technologies missing?
Detection works from visible signals. Anything that runs only on the server and leaves no trace in the page or headers cannot be seen from outside. A site can also hide or strip version numbers, so versions appear only when the site exposes them.
Can it check a list of websites?
Yes. That is what it is built for. Paste hundreds or thousands of domains, one per line, and get one row per site to filter by CMS, ecommerce platform, analytics or hosting.
Is there a browser extension?
No. Extensions such as Wappalyzer work well for one site at a time while you browse. Our tool is for lists, exports and automation.
How do I tell if a website is WordPress?
View the page source and search for wp-content, or look for a generator meta tag that says WordPress. Many WordPress sites also answer at /wp-json/. Our guide how to find out what CMS a website uses walks through the signs for WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Webflow.