Ever landed on a website and wondered, "What is this built with?"
Maybe a competitor's site loads absurdly fast. Maybe a client wants you to rebuild something similar. Whatever the reason, figuring out a site's tech stack is easier than most people think.
I build detection tools for a living, so let me walk you through every method I know.
The 30-second answer
Enter any URL into a tech stack detector and you get a categorized breakdown: CMS, frameworks, analytics, CDN, hosting, the works. Free, no signup.
But if you want to understand what you're looking at, keep reading.
View the page source
Right-click any page, "View Page Source" (Ctrl+U / Cmd+Option+U).
Look for:
- Meta generator tags: WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla all announce themselves here
-
Script and link paths:
/wp-content/= WordPress,/sites/default/files/= Drupal,cdn.shopify.com= Shopify -
Framework attributes:
data-reactroot(React),data-v-prefixes (Vue),ng-directives (Angular)
Won't catch server-side tech, but surprisingly effective for frontend and CMS detection.
Use browser DevTools
Press F12 to open DevTools. This shows what's running, not just what was served.
Network tab: Reload with it open. Watch every request. Calls to api.stripe.com? They use Stripe. Scripts from cdn.jsdelivr.net? Open-source libraries.
Console tab: Test for frameworks directly:
javascript
window.React // React
window.Vue // Vue.js
window.angular // AngularJS
window.jQuery // jQuery
window.__NEXT_DATA__ // Next.js
window.__NUXT__ // Nuxt`
