One of the most common questions among online marketers, developers, SEO specialists, or security researchers has got to be – ‘What CMS is this website using?’ If this sounds familiar to you, you’re most probably wondering how to know what platform a website is using!
So, without wasting any more time, let’s jump straight into the article and learn the different ways to check the CMS or technology of a website!
Before anything else,
What is CMS?
In a nutshell, Content Management System (CMS) is a software that a company uses to build, modify, and manage its website and content. It contains two separate branches – CMA or Content Management Application and CDA or Content Delivery Application. The former helps you create and manage content on your website, while the latter acts as a back-end interface, where you can store and upload the content to your website.
When you detect the CMS of a particular website, you can start performing vulnerability scanning. For instance, if your competitor uses a WordPress website, you can try to exploit well-known WordPress security vulnerabilities.
Some of the most popular CMS include Shopify, WordPress, Wix, Magento, Joomla, etc.
Now, let’s take a look at the two broad ways to find out what Platform or CMS a website is using:
The Quick Way:
If you want to instantly identify technology on websites or what eCommerce platform and CMS a website is using, you can install the RivalScan browser extension. Our browser extension will easily help you check sites that you visit and let you know the website’s technologies.
Or, you can also make use of our online technology lookup feature if you don’t want the hassles of installing an extension. If you’re into some sort of market research for any kind of software product, the online technology lookup tool can be a great way to identify prospects.
You can expect the search results to be instant and find more detailed information along with the list of identified technologies.
The Hard Method:
RivalScan can identify CMS or technologies by some other complex ways like inspecting HTTP headers, websites’ source code, JavaScript variables, cookies, and many more. This method is not as straight-forward and easy, but you can still do it by hand. Here are a few examples:
How to find out if a website is using Shopify:
Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce solutions meant for setting up online stores. Several websites make use of this popular platform today. You can easily identify a website using Shopify by checking its subdomain “shopify.io” However, note that more professional websites often use a custom domain.
The most reliable way of finding out if a website is using the Shopify platform is to check whether the page has the global “Shopify” JavaScript variable. To do this, you can follow the following steps:
Open the developer tools (Shift + CTRL + I on Windows/Linux or, + ⌘ + I on macOS)
Type “Shopify” in the space provided, followed by return.
If the website uses Shopify, it will reveal a JavaScript object in the output.
If Shopify is not in use, an error will pop up saying ‘Shopify is not defined.’
How to find out if a website is using WordPress:
WordPress is another popular CMS used by thousands of businesses. It is quite easy to identify a website using WordPress through its source code. In general, a CMS usually puts a meta tag with the name and version of the CMS used.
To check this, you can right-click on the website and select ‘view page source.’ Then, simply search for the generator meta tag.
<meta name=”generator” content=”WordPress 4.9.8″ />
Several other platforms use this tag as well. Hence, looking for this tag can be a good starting point to find out the CMS used by a website.
How to find what CDN or web server a website is using:
To find out what CDN a website is using, you start off by inspecting its HTTP headers. To view the headers of a web page, simply open the developer tools and select the ‘Network’ option.
Then, refresh the page to view all the network requests. If you only want to find out what CDN or web service the website is using, you might want to stick to the top requests and not the entire list.
You can click the first request option, which will then reveal a section of response headers. In this list, you’ll see a header under the title ‘server’ along with the name of the used CDN or web server.
How RivalScan Detects What a Website is Built With?
Currently, RivalScan can detect more than 2,500 different technologies, which is only increasing by the day. We also provide Full Website Stack Information, custom scans, easy API integration, and lots more. And the cherry on top is you get to enjoy all these benefits at a much lower price than other companies. We are able to achieve reasonable pricing with our unique Credit Based System.
The best thing about RivalScan is that we use Advanced Machine Learning/ AI for detecting technologies. We are the first companies in the field of technographics to incorporate Machine Learning. Thus, we can achieve a better technology detection rate than other similar companies in the market.
With our advanced Machine Learning/ AI System, we are able to automate and monitor the addition of new technologies in all kinds of websites and businesses.
In Conclusion:
You’ll find several ways and tools to find out what framework or CMS is used by a particular website. However, if you’re looking for a reliable, easy, and advanced technology checker, RivalScan is the go-to!
You can use our RivalScan APIs for easy integration and adding technology lookups into your own websites and projects. Or, you can even use the RivalScan lead lists to create a list of all the websites using a certain framework or technology.
