How to tell what platform a website is using (in 2 easy steps)

Learn how to discover which platform a website was built on

Figuring out which platform a website was built on is incredibly easy and even a little fun. We'll show you how. After reading this post, you'll be checking the platform of every website you visit.

Step 1: Right click + view page source

Right click on the background of the website. Make sure it is the background and not an element otherwise you'll see a different set of options. 

Click on "View page source"

Step 2: Search web builder identifiers

A web page should load in a new tab with a whole bunch of intimidating coding on it. Now, it's a matter of searching popular website builder names in the coding. The one you find in the coding is the platform the website was built on.

Note: If a website was not built with a popular website builder you won't be able to identify its platform. This is an indication that the website was coded by hand from the ground up by a web developer.

Here is a list of popular website builder platforms to search for in a website's page source code:

As you can see, searching the term 'Wordpress' identifies it within the source code. The term "wp-content" would also be found in the code.

Here's an example for a website built with Squarespace:

Here's an example for a website built with Hubspot:

Sometimes, if a website was built on a Wordpress platform, you can also identify the wordpress plugin that was used to build the website. 

Here is a list of popular wordpress website builder plugins you can search:

For example, a search for the term "wp-content" reveals this website was built on a Wordpress platform and a further search for the term "themify" reveals the wordpress plugin used to build the website. 

And here's an example of a website built with Elementor

That's basically the entire process, right click on a web page, view the page source code and then search different website platforms until one is identified.

Why identify the platform a website was built on?

Knowing a website's platform could reveal both its strengths and its weaknesses. For example, most websites built with SaaS drag and drop website builders  (such as Wix, Shopify and Squarespace) have limited upgrade potential, but CMS platforms like Wordpress and Hubspot can be built out to a much higher complexity.  

So if you have a Wordpress website and your competitors are using a SaaS platform, you could potentially surpass them with a savvy web developer  by your side. 

Knowing the particular Wordpress plugin that was used to build a Wordpress website reveals similar intel. If you discover that a competitor website was built with Themify, you know you'll have an advantage if you build your website with Elementor , which is a more powerful and more capable drag and drop builder. 

Final thoughts

Some websites prevent access to their source code, but most are happy to keep it public. That means discovering the platform a website was built on is always just a click and a quick search away.