Are you confused about whether that website which you recently visited is using WordPress or not? Well, that’s relatable. We’ll help you out.
WordPress is a popular and free Content Management System. It is a platform that lets its users create, edit, archive, collaborate, report, publish, and distribute content. Various leading websites use WordPress as their CMS. BBC America, Tech Crunch, and The New Yorker are some famous brands that use WordPress. The list is endless…
WordPress powers 29% of all the websites on the internet and has over 60% market share. WordPress has a strong user base and an active support community. It does get the latest security patches as an update whenever a vulnerability is detected.
Across the Internet, there are many websites we surf but there are few we can’t take our eyes off and want to know what’s really its made up of? What Theme is it using? and more.
You may want to know this information for various reasons, it may be your business competitor and you want to replicate that feature/function into your own website or, you just want to review its security or you are a web developer and want to explore how the website was built. It is fine to do that until your intentions are good and your actions won’t harm anyone.
You can check this by Self-examination, or by using Third-party tools or Browser Addons. Many online websites/tools can help you achieve your goal. Websites like IsItWP, BuiltWith, Wappalyzer, Detect My WP, ScanWp, WP Theme Detector, What WordPress Theme Is That, Gochyu Theme Detector will help you achieve just that.
These websites though have different names but have the same moto. They try and detect if the target website uses WordPress CMS and can also detect its theme along with many other details.
Self Examination
One of the best and easiest ways is to self examine the target website with the available tools. You just need a web browser and you are done. Head to the target website and right-click anywhere on the page and click view page source, also you can press CTRL+U or COMMAND+U on your keyboard. It opens up the source code. Now hit CONTROL+F or COMMAND+F and find “wp-” in the code.
If it shows some results then the target website uses WordPress. “wp” files as in wp-content or wp-uploads, is used by almost every WordPress site to serve content to the readers.
Also, you can try to access the following pages on any website by typing- URLOfTheWebsite.com/wp-login.php or URLOfTheWebsite.com/wp-admin.php in the browser. If you’re lucky this should take you to a WordPress login page if the website uses WP. But, Most of the websites change the login URL for security reasons to the most uncommon path.
Third-Party Online Tools/Websites
As discussed above, websites like IsItWP, BuiltWith, Wappalyzer, Detect My WP, ScanWp, WP Theme Detector, What WordPress Theme Is That, Gochyu Theme Detector. They can help you find if the website you listed uses WordPress or any other CMS.
These websites scan through the target website and look for clues. They follow a complex process to explore the website in and out and eventually end up with a response.
It can detect Content Management System, Analytics and Tracking Information, Widgets, Frameworks, Content Delivery Network, JavaScript Libraries and Functions, SSL Certificates, Web Hosting Providers, Email Hosting Providers, Syndication Techniques, Web Master Registration, etc. Check out the below examples.
The above screenshot was taken from the IsItWP tool which showcases that the target site uses WordPress. Along with a host of other details like WordPress Theme Details, WordPress Plugin Details, etc.
Above is a screenshot of Detect My WP in action, it detects WordPress on the target website with the help of various other sites and displays the results.
Browser Addons/Plugins
Browser Addons/Plugins are another way of incorporating great functionalities without having technical experience. They are easy to install and simple to use. Personally, I use various browser addons they help in productivity and are a great way to manage activities.
Addons for Topic Research, to take screenshots, Content Blocking, and to view the website’s Alexa ranking. Addons like Wappalyzer and BuiltWith Technology Profiler help you find the CMS behind the target website. Along with it, other details like Widgets used, Analytics, Blogs, Web Frameworks, Programming Languages, Databases, Advertising, Tag Managers, JavaScript libraries, Caching, and more miscellaneous stuff.
How to hide WordPress from these tools and techniques?
Well, now you know that literally, anyone with an internet connection and limited tools can exploit your website with ease. It won’t take much time to damage your hard work and cause harm to your website. With so much data visible, attackers and hackers can easily attack your website causing monetary and reputational harm to your online presence/business.
What if you could stop them at the very beginning? What if you didn’t let them know about how your website’s backend looks like? What if you hide the fact that your website uses WordPress?
This is now possible with Hide My WP WordPress Security Plugin, Hide My WP is a WordPress Plugin that is easy to install and comes with a user-friendly interface. Hide My WP hides your WordPress from a variety of online themes and plugin detectors.
Hide My WP is used by 27000+ websites and is a trusted WordPress Security Plugin that handles all of WordPress security needs. It’s a feature-rich security plugin and houses many essential security features covering all aspects.
- It Hides common paths like /wp-login.php and /wp-admin. Replaces all instances of WordPress, practically hiding that WordPress is being used. Also, it can Rename wp-login.php, Rename wp-admin, Rename plugin folders, Rename theme folders, Disable direct PHP access, Access control login page with key.
- Smart Intrusion Detection System engine autoblocks attacks like SQL Injection, Command Injection, OWASP Top 10 Attacks, XSS, Automatic Trust Network, Bad IP Address Reputation
- It auto-blocks attackers with a robust trust network that proactively protects WordPress from unknown attackers with Dynamic list of bad IP addresses, Protects from new attack patterns, etc.
The Plugin has two variants Regular and Extended, the Hide My WP Regular supports only one website whereas Hide My WP Extended supports up to 5 websites. You can try installing the Hide My WP Lite for free before buying the main Plugin.
The plugin receives regular updates with the latest security patches. It’s been tested with a number of Plugins for compatibility, and also has an active support team to handle all the support queries.
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