How to Tell What Platform a Website Is Built On

You can usually tell what a website is built on in under a minute, either with an extension that detects it for you or by looking at the page's source code for telltale signs.

The quick way: a detector extension

• Wappalyzer shows the platform, plus analytics, payment, marketing and hosting tools, for any site you visit.
• BuiltWith has a website and extension that list a site's technology in detail.
• For online stores, Shopify Theme Detector confirms whether a store runs on Shopify and shows its theme and installed apps, which is useful if you want a store that looks or works the same way.

The manual way: check the source

Press Ctrl + U (Cmd + Option + U on Mac) to view the page source, then press Ctrl + F and search for these clues:

• Shopify: cdn.shopify.com or Shopify.theme.
• WordPress: wp-content or wp-includes. Many WordPress sites also have a login page at /wp-admin.
• Wix: wix.com or wixstatic.
• Squarespace: squarespace in script or image addresses.
• Webflow: webflow in scripts or a data-wf-site attribute.
• BigCommerce: bigcommerce in script or image addresses.

Also look for a <meta name="generator"> tag near the top, which some platforms fill in with their name.

More clues

• Footers sometimes say "Powered by Shopify" or similar.
• Checkout pages often reveal the platform in their address or design.
• Response headers: in DevTools (F12) → Network, click the first request and look at the headers. Some platforms and hosts identify themselves there.

When you can't tell

Large companies often build custom sites, or use a "headless" setup where the visible site is custom code and the store or content system sits behind it. Detectors may then only show the framework (such as React or Next.js) and hosting, not the store platform.

Why it's useful to know

• Choosing a platform for your own site, based on sites you admire.
• Competitive research: knowing a competitor's tools tells you what they can and can't do easily. See how to research ecommerce competitors with extensions.
• Pitching services, if you build or market websites.

Detectors aren't always right, so treat a single clue as a hint and look for two or three before you rely on the answer.