WordPress Detector
Check if a website is built with WordPress and detect its theme and plugins
What is a WordPress Detector?
A WordPress Detector is a specialized analysis tool that identifies whether a website is built using WordPress and reveals its themes, plugins, and other technical details. With over 43% of all websites powered by WordPress, this tool helps you uncover the technology stack behind any website, providing valuable insights for research, competitive analysis, and security assessments.
Our free WordPress Detector tool scans websites for WordPress-specific signatures, helping developers, marketers, and security professionals understand how websites are built. Whether you're researching competitors, looking for inspiration, or conducting security audits, this tool provides accurate, detailed information about WordPress implementations.
Why Use Our WordPress Detector Tool?
- Competitive Research: Discover which themes and plugins your competitors are using to enhance their websites
- Design Inspiration: Find out which WordPress themes power websites you admire
- Security Assessment: Identify potentially vulnerable plugins or outdated WordPress versions
- Technical Verification: Confirm whether a website is truly built with WordPress
- Professional Development: Learn which plugins successful websites in your niche are utilizing
How to Use the WordPress Detector
Using our WordPress Detector tool is straightforward and requires no technical expertise:
Step 1: Enter the website URL
Type or paste the complete website URL you want to analyze into the input field. For best results, use the root domain (e.g., "example.com" rather than "example.com/page"). The tool accepts URLs with or without the "https://" prefix.
Step 2: Click "Detect WordPress"
Click the "Detect WordPress" button to initiate the scan. Our tool will analyze the website, looking for WordPress-specific indicators such as theme files, plugin signatures, and WordPress core elements.
Step 3: Review the results
The tool will display comprehensive results organized into three tabs:
- Overview: Shows whether WordPress was detected, the confidence level, and basic website information
- Evidence: Lists the specific WordPress indicators found during the scan
- Technology: Details the WordPress theme and plugins detected on the website
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Using incomplete or incorrect URLs
Always enter the complete website URL, including the domain extension (.com, .org, etc.). For subdomains, ensure you're analyzing the specific subdomain you're interested in (e.g., "blog.example.com" instead of just "example.com").
Misinterpreting confidence levels
The confidence percentage indicates how certain our tool is that the site uses WordPress. A lower confidence doesn't necessarily mean the site isn't using WordPress—it might be using techniques to hide its WordPress implementation or have a highly customized setup.
Overlooking security implications
If you're analyzing your own website, remember that publicly visible plugins and themes can potentially reveal security vulnerabilities. Consider using security plugins that hide WordPress indicators if this concerns you.
Assuming all plugins will be detected
Some plugins don't leave easily detectable signatures or may be custom-built. Our tool detects common and popular plugins, but cannot guarantee detection of all installed plugins, especially those that are heavily modified or custom-developed.
Use Cases for WordPress Detector
Web development research
Web developers can use this tool to study how successful websites are built, identifying popular themes and plugins to inform their own development decisions.
Digital marketing analysis
Marketers can analyze competitors' websites to understand which WordPress tools they're using to enhance their online presence and user experience.
Theme and plugin discovery
If you find a website with a design you admire, use our tool to discover which WordPress theme and plugins they're using to achieve that look and functionality.
Security auditing
Security professionals can identify potentially vulnerable WordPress installations by detecting outdated versions or plugins with known security issues.
- What is the WordPress Detector tool and how does it work?
The WordPress Detector tool is an online utility that analyzes websites to determine if they're built with WordPress and identifies their themes and plugins. It works by scanning the website's HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and HTTP headers for WordPress-specific signatures and patterns. The tool follows a systematic approach to detect WordPress installations, even when site owners have taken steps to hide the CMS identity.
- How accurate is the WordPress detection?
Our WordPress Detector tool provides a confidence percentage with each scan. For standard WordPress installations, accuracy typically exceeds 95%. However, heavily customized WordPress sites or those using security plugins to hide their WordPress identity may result in lower confidence scores. We use multiple detection methods to maximize accuracy, including checking for WordPress-specific files, directories, meta tags, and script patterns.
- Can the tool detect custom or premium WordPress themes?
Yes, the tool can detect many custom and premium WordPress themes. It identifies themes by analyzing stylesheet references, theme-specific directories, and other theme indicators. While detection of popular premium themes is quite reliable, highly customized themes or white-labeled themes might be more difficult to identify precisely. In such cases, the tool will still detect WordPress but might not provide the exact theme name.
- Will website owners know if I scan their site with this tool?
Website owners may see the scan in their server logs as a normal visit to their website. Our tool behaves like a standard web browser when accessing the target site. We don't perform aggressive scanning or actions that would trigger security alerts. However, sites with advanced security monitoring might detect any automated analysis tool, including ours. The tool is designed for legitimate research purposes only.
- Why would I need to check if a website uses WordPress?
There are several legitimate reasons to check if a website uses WordPress: 1) Competitive research to understand what platforms your competitors use, 2) Learning purposes to see how websites you admire are built, 3) Client work to verify platform claims, 4) Inspiration for your own WordPress projects by discovering themes and plugins others use, and 5) Technical troubleshooting when helping others with their WordPress sites.
- Can the tool detect WordPress versions?
Yes, in many cases the tool can detect WordPress versions by analyzing specific files and meta information that WordPress installations typically include. However, version detection may not always be possible if the site owner has removed version numbers from the source code or implemented security measures to hide this information. Additionally, the detected version represents what's publicly visible, which might not always reflect the actual version if custom modifications have been made.
- Does this tool work with WordPress.com sites as well as self-hosted WordPress?
Yes, our WordPress Detector works with both WordPress.com hosted sites and self-hosted WordPress.org installations. The tool can identify WordPress regardless of hosting platform, though WordPress.com sites may show different plugin patterns since they have limitations on which plugins can be installed compared to self-hosted WordPress sites.
- Is it legal to scan websites to check if they use WordPress?
Yes, it's legal to scan publicly accessible websites to determine if they use WordPress. Our tool only accesses information that's publicly available and doesn't attempt to bypass any security measures or access protected areas. It's similar to viewing a website's source code through your browser, which is standard practice for web developers and researchers. However, you should always use this tool responsibly and respect website terms of service.