When you come across a website and think, "WOW that's a great website!" and wonder what platform it was built on, but then you're stumped as to how you can find out - wouldn't it be helpful if there was a simple way to find out? Yep! It totally would!
There are also times when a new client asks me if we can fix their website and my first question, "what platform is your site built on" is often answered with, "I have no idea!" ... cue the little tricks to find out how and with what platform it was made on.
Sometimes you find a font and just think, "that's the one for me!" but with all the searching through google fonts, you just can't figure out which one it is.
I figured it would be helpful to share these little tricks with you, so you can find out exactly what platform a site is built on, what fonts they're using, and other little tidbits as well.
How to find out what FONTS a website is using:
- Open your browser inspector.
- In Chrome or Firefox, right-click then choose INSPECT
- Ctrl+Shift+I (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+I (Mac) should also work.
- Navigate to the element whose font you’re curious about.
- Once you’re on the correct element, navigate to the COMPUTED or STYLES tab in the inspector and scroll down to the font-family attribute.
- There's your font!
OR you may want to take the easier road (by using WhatFont Chrome extension)
- Add WhatFont to your Google Chrome browser extension
- Just turn on the extension whenever you want to check a website's font
How to find out what PLATFORM a website is using:
- Open your browser inspector.
- In Chrome or Firefox, right-click then choose INSPECT
- Ctrl+Shift+I (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+I (Mac) should also work.
- Navigate to SOURCES
- The source code's file extensions and URLs can tell you what type of platform the website is built on.
- If you search the code and find WP-CONTENT, it was built on WordPress, if you see WIX-DOM it's Wix, CDN.SHOPIFY it's Shopify (and so on).
There are other ways you can find out too;
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Often in the footer of a website, you'll see the design agency who created that website, and if you navigate over to that website you'll see which platforms they build with. Sometimes this takes a bit of super sleuthing!
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You could use a site such as builtwith.com and put in a website address, then they break down the technologies by category. Web server, email services, SSL certificate and the platform or content management system.
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You can download a browser add-on like Wappalyzer, which is pretty much the same idea as the suggestions above if you use Firefox or Chrome. I love Wappalyzer for EASE and CONVENIENCE!
