Website Technology and CMS Checker: See What Any Site Runs On

Knowing what a website is built with saves time. When you audit a site, it tells you where the fixes will live; when you study a competitor, it shows what they invest in; when you plan a migration, it tells you exactly what you are moving away from.

This CMS checker reads a site’s HTML and HTTP headers and detects the CMS (WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Ghost and others), JavaScript frameworks such as Next.js, Nuxt, React, Vue and Angular, CDNs, analytics and tag managers, web servers and SEO plugins.

How to find out what CMS a site uses

1. Enter the website

   Type a domain or page URL. The home page is usually enough, though blogs and shops sometimes run on separate systems.

2. See the detected stack

   Technologies are grouped by category: CMS, framework, CDN, analytics and tag managers, server, SEO plugin.

3. Plan your next step

   Use the result to find the right settings, plugins or developers for the fixes your audit uncovered.

How CMS detection works

Platforms leave fingerprints in the code they generate. Here are some you can spot yourself in the page source or the response headers:

Technology	Typical fingerprint
WordPress	/wp-content/ and /wp-includes/ paths, <meta name="generator" content="WordPress …">
Shopify	Assets on cdn.shopify.com, a Shopify.theme object in inline scripts
Wix	Files on static.wixstatic.com and static.parastorage.com
Squarespace	Files on static1.squarespace.com or images.squarespace-cdn.com
Webflow	data-wf-site and data-wf-page attributes on the html element
Drupal	An X-Generator: Drupal header, /sites/default/files/ paths
Next.js / Nuxt	Assets under /_next/ or /_nuxt/
Angular	An ng-version attribute on the root element
Cloudflare	server: cloudflare and cf-ray response headers
Yoast SEO / Rank Math	HTML comments naming the plugin around the meta tags

The checker combines signals like these and reports what it can confirm.

Why the platform matters for SEO

No CMS ranks better by itself, but each has habits worth knowing:

• WordPress: most SEO settings live in a plugin. Make sure only one SEO plugin is active, and that thin tag and attachment pages aren’t indexed.
• Shopify: products are reachable under collection paths as well as /products/. Themes canonicalize them, so internal links should use the canonical path. robots.txt is edited through a robots.txt.liquid template.
• Wix and Squarespace: server-level access is limited, so redirects and some headers are managed in the platform’s dashboard.
• React, Vue or Angular without server rendering: the HTML can be nearly empty until JavaScript runs. Google renders JavaScript, but many other crawlers, including a number of AI crawlers, are reported to read only the raw HTML. Server-side rendering or static generation with Next.js or Nuxt avoids the problem; see JavaScript SEO.

Hiding your own stack

Version numbers in public code tell attackers which known vulnerabilities to try. Trim the obvious ones:

# php.ini
expose_php = Off

# Nginx (http or server block)
server_tokens off;

# Apache
ServerTokens Prod
Header unset X-Powered-By

In WordPress, remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator'); in a small plugin or the theme’s functions.php removes the generator tag. Treat this as hygiene, not protection: the platform usually stays recognizable from its file paths, so keeping core, themes and plugins updated matters far more. Review the rest of your setup with the security headers checker and the HTTP header checker.

Tips for using technology detection

• Check a few page types, not just the home page; a blog or shop in a subfolder sometimes runs on a different system.
• Confirm the CMS before sending fix instructions to a client, so the steps match the admin screens they actually use.
• If a site shows only a framework such as Next.js, it probably uses a headless CMS behind it; ask the team which one.
• Compare competitors’ analytics and tag managers to see how heavily they measure and test.
• Before a migration, list every detected plugin and integration so nothing is forgotten on the new platform.

Limits to keep in mind

Detection relies on fingerprints in the HTML and headers our server receives, without running JavaScript. Custom builds, headless setups, removed generator tags and tools that load only after a cookie banner is accepted can go undetected or show only part of the stack, and version numbers are often hidden. Treat a result as strong evidence rather than proof, and confirm with the site owner when it matters. For a full SEO review of the same page, run the SEO analyzer.

Last updated Oct 30, 2026 by the Yes SEO team.