When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell them apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s becoming more difficult to tell the difference between what applications are being used to build the two. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of web design and also being able to tell what’s under the surface.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are Built With?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the things that the majority of website owners are deeply concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you picked site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that will usually cost far less to build than websites which use web-building software … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS platform that is ideally suited for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of coding to use and manage, and offers an array of helpful add-ons that make your web site more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world currently being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your site is also driven by the WP CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great to show your web developer an existing site with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get something similarly built quite inexpensively?
Does My Website Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read wonderful things about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, or some other CMS application.
Also, have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing to try and get better results online?
Knowing if your competitor’s site is built with WordPress can tell you a few things about their strategies and methods, such as what themes or plugins they are using.
Here are some simple ways to tell if a site is powered by WordPress:
View The Page Source Code
If you know how to check the source code of a web page (e.g. Firefox Menu > Web Developer > Page Source if using Firefox, or Google Menu > More Tools > View Source if using Google Chrome), you can look for a tell-tale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing the page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a website that you like, and you’re wondering if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if it has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net late at night and would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the template has not been modified, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Site Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can check very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really simple. Just paste the URL of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will go through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site has not been built using WordPress, you will get a message similar to the one shown in the screen shot below …
To use this tool, go here:
Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori
(WordPress Theme Detector)
WordPress Theme Detector by Satori Studio is a free tool that can help determine whether or not a website uses WordPress as its CMS engine; it will also tell you which theme the site is using and provide a link to the theme’s official page.
To use this tool, paste the URL of a web page (it doesn’t have to be the home page) into the ‘Enter website URL’ field and click on the ‘What WordPress theme is that?’ button …
(Enter website URL and click the button)
The Theme Detector will automatically scan the website and output its theme information …
(WordPress Theme Detector displays theme results)
If a website is built with WordPress but the theme is too customized to contain any traces of its origins, the Detector will still let you know it’s a WP site by outputting a message on the right.
(Modified WordPress theme message)
If the website is not using WordPress at all, the tool will also let you know …
(This website is not WordPress)
You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:
Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browsers and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what software is installed in the sites while you are browsing.
According to their website …
“Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.”
It’s also an easy to install and easy to use browser add-on.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will show up in your web browser allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
To download and install Wappalyzer go here:
SpyBar
(SpyBar – Browser Addon For WordPress)
SpyBar is a browser addon that lets you ‘reverse engineer’ any WordPress site you visit and see which WordPress plugins and themes are being used, right inside your web browser …
(SpyBar – Discover WordPress Plugins And Themes Used By Your Competitors)
SpyBar can be installed as a browser extension on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and is compatible with PC and Mac.
To download or learn more about SpyBar, visit the site below:
Plugin Sniper
(Plugin Sniper – Find out what plugins a WordPress site is using)
Plugin Sniper lets you find out what plugins a WordPress site is using. This is a useful tool if you want to know what WordPress plugins are being used by your competitors.
Plugin Sniper is also a useful tool for researching what kinds of plugins businesses in certain niches are using …
(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)
To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, go here:
We hope you have found this information useful.
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