There’s a lot of amazing looking websites out there. And sometimes we want specific features that other websites have.
Luckily, there are many quick and easy ways to find out what technologies a website is using, including whether or not it’s using WordPress in the first place.
For some, this might be common knowledge, but if you’re new to WordPress, here are a few ways to check what WordPress theme and plugins a website is using.
I’ll also be talking about whether or not you should hide the fact that your website is using WordPress at the end of this post.
Use A Free WordPress Site Detector Tool
The internet is filled with awesome tools that make our lives easier.
The following websites are tools that find the name of the theme or plugins a WordPress website is using, including what other technologies it runs on:
WPThemeDetector.com – Free tool that lets you find out what plugin and theme a site is using.
BuiltWith.com – Not exactly WordPress specific, but this tool shows you what technologies a website runs on, such as whether or not it’s using a CMS like WordPress. And if so, what plugins and themes they’re using.
View the HTML Source Code
Another way of finding out if a site runs on WordPress but without the use of any tools is by checking the source code.
Here’s how:
Right-click > view page source
Press CMD + F (Mac) or CTRL + F (Windows)
Enter the following: “wp-content/themes” (without quotes).
To find plugins, replace the word themes with plugins.
If wp-content is not found, the website most likely isn’t using WordPress; otherwise, you should be able to see the plugins or theme name like this:
“http://website/wp-content/themes/ThemeName/css/colorbox.css”“http://website/wp-content/plugins/PluginName/css/colorbox.css"Contact The Site Owner and Ask
If the above methods don’t work, you could try the most difficult and time-consuming method out of all, which is to ask the site owner directly.
I know, asking is hard. Am I right?
How To Hide WordPress Theme Name and Plugins Used
Sometimes you might come across a website that’s using a cool feature only to find out it’s not powered by WordPress.
When this happens, you can try and find a plugin with a similar feature from the WordPress plugin directory, or you can hire an expert developer to code the feature from scratch and turn it into a WP plugin.
If you don’t want people to know what plugins and themes you’re using, there’s a premium plugin you can use called HIDE MY WP, which will hide the fact that your website is using WordPress.
How?
By renaming core folders, files and URLs used by WordPress. And it does it in such a way that detectors won’t be able to know what is being used.
However, the downside of using such plugin is that it will often cause errors on the front-end of the site (broken navigation, styling, etc). Or worse, it can even crash your site completely.
This is something to think about if you’re considering hiding your plugins and themes from the public.
In addition, any person who knows how to read code can still find out what your website is using just by analyzing the CSS and Javascript files.