Community driven content discussing all aspects of software development from DevOps to design patterns.
Have you ever wondered how a particular website was built?
There are plenty of reasons why someone might be curious about the different technologies someone used to build a website.
Fortunately, there are a number of fast and easy ways to find out.
Here are five easy ways to check the technologies that were used to build a website:
1. Look at the URL extension.
2. Use a website technology checker.
3. View the webpage’s source code.
4. Look at the GitHub repository.
5. Do some social engineering.
The easiest giveaway to the technology a website is built with is the extension of individual webpages. For example:
This is certainly the fastest way to identify the core technologies with which a website is built. Unfortunately, it’s not as effective today as it may have been in the past.
Today, most websites map the .asp or .jsf extension to .html, which hides the fact that their website is built with JavaServer Faces or Active Server Pages.
In the example below, you can tell by the .php extension that the website for the Texas House of Representatives was built with PHP:
The file extension on webpages can reveal the technology used to build a website.
If you don’t mind installing a Firefox or Chrome extension in your web browser, there are several popular website technology checkers you can use to find out what technology a website is built with, including:

I ran the Wappalyzer Chrome extension on my personal website and it correctly reported that my website was built with the following technologies:
The website technology checker was even able to identify that my website is hosted on GitHub Pages, and uses the Fastly content delivery network.
Chrome plugins are an easy way to check the technologies used on websites.
Another easy way to check the technologies a website is built with is to view its source code in the browser.
To view the raw HTML used to create a website, just right-click on any webpage and select View Source.
The source code of a web page lists all of the CSS files and JavaScript libraries used to make the page work.
A quick View Source of my personal webpage reveals it is built with the following website technologies:
Meta tags in the source code also reveal the technologies used to build a website.
Meta tags often specify the name of a WordPress theme that the page uses, or the name of the vendor that created the website’s template.
The source code of a webpage reveals JavaScript and CSS technologies used to build the website.
Many websites’ content is stored in a public repository hosted on GitHub or GitLab.
This is unlikely to be true for a bank or insurance company, but many open source projects and hobbyists alike store their source code in a publicly accessible repo.
If you can find a website’s GitHub repo, you can learn significantly more about how that website was built.
GitHub even lists all of the programming languages used to build the site on the landing page of the repository.
GitHub breaks down the programming languages that built the Twitter algorithm.
If you find the website’s GitHub repository, look for either a build file or a .gitignore file.
Every technology stack has its  own targeted .gitignore file, and entries in the .gitignore file reveal the types of technologies being used. For example:
Build files are also a rich source of information about the libraries and frameworks that developers use to build a website.
For example, a Maven POM or Gradle build file reveals all of the different libraries used for a Java application.
A package.json file reveals the different libraries a JavaScript app uses.
A look at the package.json file in my flashcards repository shows that my application is built with React and web-vitals, which the previously listed approaches didn’t reveal.
A GitHub repo enables you to see the various technologies a website uses.
The methods listed so far are good ways to identify the technologies a website is built with. However, they are not foolproof, and they rarely identify back-end technologies used for the following tasks:
One way to find out more about a company’s backend technologies is to look at want ads they post on job boards such as Monster or Indeed.
If a company is looking for web developers with skills in Servlets, JSPs and Apache Tomcat development, then it’s a good bet that a Jakarta EE-based stack powers their back end.
Find a disgruntled employee on LinkedIn and bribe them
— JMFT (@jftsang) March 19, 2023

Many companies’ careers page list the required qualifications for job candidates. This can be a good way find the technologies a company’s website is built with.
Also, look for developers on LinkedIn who work for that company and review their skillsets. If they have a history with Spring Boot and SpringMVC, it’s a good bet that those are the technologies their website is built with.
You could even message one of the website’s developers on LinkedIn and ask them what they use. Assuming there is no non-disclosure agreement about such things, you’ll probably find someone eager to talk about the technologies they use every day to build websites.
 
TOGAF offers architects a chance to learn the principles behind implementing an enterprise-grade software architecture, including…
Haskell and PureScript each provide their own unique development advantages, so how should developers choose between these two …
While not particularly prescriptive, alignment with a MACH architecture strategy can help software teams ensure application …
Akita’s discovery and observability will feed undocumented APIs into Postman’s design and testing framework to bring them into …
Specification-based techniques can play a role in efficient test coverage. Choosing the right techniques can ensure thorough …
GitHub’s public beta of Copilot Chat rolls out GPT-4 integration that embeds a chat assistant into Visual Studio, but concerns …
AWS, Google, IBM and Microsoft offer machine learning certifications that can further your career. Learn what to expect from each…
Keeping track of cloud bills from multiple clouds or accounts can be complex. Learn how to identify multi-cloud billing …
Cost is always a top priority for enterprises. For those considering Google Cloud, or current users, discover these optimization …
Incident response firm Coveware said 34% of ransomware victims paid the ransom in Q2 2023, a sharp decline from last quarter and …
Mandiant researchers attribute the supply chain attack to a North Korean threat actor that abused JumpCloud’s commands framework …
BrightTALK’s virtual experience at Black Hat 2022 included live-streamed conversations with experts and researchers about the …
Many organizations struggle to manage their vast collection of AWS accounts, but Control Tower can help. The service automates …
There are several important variables within the Amazon EKS pricing model. Dig into the numbers to ensure you deploy the service …
AWS users face a choice when deploying Kubernetes: run it themselves on EC2 or let Amazon do the heavy lifting with EKS. See …
All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2000 – 2023, TechTarget

Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences
Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

source