Many times we are curious to know what technology a website is built with, especially if it is of a competitor.
If you have ever wondered how to find what technology is used on a particular website.
Let me tell you, you are not the only one.
Probably, there are three reasons you would like to know what’s that site running.
- First is a curiosity to learn how to find and to understand what are the technologies are used to build that website.
- Second, you are an IT security professional and doing surveillance.
- Third, you are doing market research.
There are many free online site reporting tools available, which let you know the email address behind a website, what operating system, web server, web technologies are being used.
Let me show you my favorite lists.
Tools to Check What Technology a Website is Built With
Netcraft
Netcraft Site Report is probably one of the oldest tools in the market, which helps you in finding various useful information as following.
- Background – first seen, title, ranking, language, description
- Network – IPv4/IPv6 address, domain registrar, network owner, hosting country
- SSL/TLS – vulnerability status like POODLE, heart bleed, SSL cert details, protocol negotiation, public key, certificate type & chain details
- Hosting – who host the website
- SPF details
- Security – risk rating, block list
- Site technologies – CDN, CMS, software, RSS, compression, character encoding
and much more… I really like its interface since it is simple and easy to use.
BuiltWith
BuiltWith, an online Internet research tool, is quite impressive to let you know technologies are used to make a website, and it also provides you related technology trend statistics in a beautiful chart.
Along with technology, it also lets you know if any advertising is used. Interesting to see how it tracks the website at the broader level to reveal each component.
Go ahead and try it yourself to believe.
Wappalyzer
Easily figure out what technology your competitor’s websites are utilizing with the help of Wappalyzer. This solution specializes in peeking through technologies like advertising networks, eCommerce platforms, CMS, analytics, and others, while also reporting them back to you instantly, so you never get left behind.
You can look up any website on the internet and also make a list of them within the solution. This helps you in researching, staying organized, and taking the required action on your own projects.
To save a massive amount of time, you can check up to 1,000 websites at once. Simply upload your list of websites and upload them for bulk research. You can also use their API for programmatic access.
The best thing about Wappalyzer is that it notifies you whenever your competitor’s websites’ technology changes. For example, when they move to a new eCommerce platform or content management system, you’ll be the first to know about it.
Apart from all these amazing features, this solution also has a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge so you can get a quick view of the technologies used by the websites you visit.
Whatruns
Whatruns is a free Chrome browser extension that reveals the technologies used on a website. The fact that this is just a browser extension makes things a lot simpler and less to worry about. It makes every website on the internet as transparent as glass, allowing you to view everything, such as their fonts, CDN platform, WordPress plugins, analytical tool, and so much more.
You get the option to follow/unfollow websites and be notified whenever they stop using or start using any technologies. Whatruns has thousands of apps and technologies under their belt to help you instantly recognize who might be using them.
The interesting thing is, you don’t even need to register an account to use their service. Just download the Chrome extension and get started.
PageXray
Another chrome extension that serves the same purpose, PageXray, displays a website’s plugins and other technologies in an organized manner. Just click a button, and there you’ll have the icons displayed, which indicate what the website is using.
It’s free, seamless, and does the job pretty well. It’s not the fanciest solution out there, but you can be sure you’ll get what it advertises.
W3Techs
W3Techs Site Info tool lets you know the following detailed information in tabular format.
This consists of the following:
- Popularity ranking
- CMS used like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc
- The programming language used like PHP, Node.js, JavaScript, etc
- Markup
- Character encoding
- Image file formats
- Site elements – external CSS, inline CSS,
- Compression, SPDY, HTTP/2, HSTS, SSL cert details,
- Analytics, Web server, analytics, reverse proxy details
and at the end, you will get a technology score based on popularity and traffic.
SimilarTech
I am not sure how it’s calculated, but SimilarTech gives technologies score and lists out like an advertisement, analytics, widget, social sharing, mobile, CDN, CMS, media, open graph, schema, and meta tags details.
You can also install their extensions in the browser for quick website profiling.
RESCAN
Simple but easy way to find out technologies stack used on a particular website with RESCAN.
It only lists out the technology, but also the respective category like CMS, widgets, video libraries and font scripts.
WhatCMS
WhatCMS doesn’t give you all technologies but just which CMS is being used, like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Blogger, and 138 more.
Once you understand the technology, go ahead and attend web development courses to make a similar or better website.
These tools should help you get an understanding of the technologies that are required to create a website that works towards your goals. By studying competitor sites and choosing what you like, you will have at least a starting point for your ideas that can be further built upon.
Final Words
I hope the above tools help you find the technology stack behind any website for your research, curiosity, or just fun!
I have found them to be an asset when it comes to improving upon the design of my website and those of my clients, I hope it does for you too!