How to determine the CMS (engine) of a website

An important part of SEO – promotion is to determine the cms of competing web resources. Knowing what others are using, and having analyzed their work, it is easier to make an informed decision and correctly determine the platform of the site for further work on it.

Every business owner wants their goods and services online to be represented by a unique resource with the most user-friendly interface possible. It is desirable that it was better than the competitors: prettier, more convenient, more functional, easy to develop and manage. Ideally, working with it should be like playing with Lego cubes: build here, take away here, add here, and everything functions perfectly.

Web creators today have a lot to choose from. However, before deciding which engine to work with, it is necessary to clearly formulate what is required of it and what functions it should perform. Let’s take a deeper look at the very concept of CMS, its main functions, and types of management systems. After that we will proceed to consider the most popular ways how to find out on what platform is made competitors’ site or your own, if over time such information has been forgotten or initially it was not given importance.

A website engine is a “content management system”

To begin with, let’s understand what is an engine for a web resource and what tasks it should perform. Website engine is the operating system of a web resource, the main task of which is to perform the same functions as the OS of a desktop computer or laptop. Content Management System or CMS for short means “content management system”. Among programmers it is usually called simply and beautifully – “engine”. This script is used exclusively for creating dynamic websites and is necessary for them to function properly. The very name of the script says that thanks to it, pages are generated for viewing, users have access to resource files, mailing is performed, videos are scrolled, etc. Simply put, a website engine is the very set of Lego cubes from which you can create the product of your dreams.

Typically, a control system consists of two components:

• A content management application for adding, modifying, and removing content from resource pages;
• A content delivery application for compiling content and updating resource pages.

The role of such a script is to perform the following functions:

• content publishing;
• managing large amounts of documentation;
• managing everything the resource contains through storage, enforcing access regimes;
• working with content.

The engine can store absolutely different data: phone numbers, medical data of private clinic clients, photos, videos, etc.

Why you may need to know what cms your competitors’ site is built on

What is the purpose of knowing the cms that we try to define in different ways? Let’s say you are a business owner in need of your own web resource. Through it, it is planned to sell goods or services and provide advice to users. Perhaps the idea of creating your own blog or news site has come up. For the service of creating such a resource usually turn to special agencies or web-developers on freelance. Before starting the work, the performer will ask you to specify 3-5 sites that the customer likes to understand your tastes and preferences. So that the performer could fulfill the order as accurately as possible, it is desirable not just to give a list of links, but to indicate which platform was used to create a sympathetic customer resource. It is necessary to take into account that each CMS has its own set of peculiar to it functions, and capabilities of the administrative panel. In addition, each engine has a different cost for subsequent revision of the resource and differs in the complexity of publishing content.

The question of determining the engine of the site is pondered by people responsible for updating and finalizing web products. In addition, the need for this information may arise when new contractors start working on an existing site.

The ability to determine the resource management system can be useful for everyone whose work is somehow connected with Internet resources. In short, information about CMS can be useful not only for webmasters but also for business owners.

Find out on what engine the site: what are the different types of CMS

Before we start looking at the different ways to get data, we need to know what types of cms exist that we need to identify for further work. All existing website engines can be categorized into 4 types:

• boxed. The most popular since they are essentially turnkey solutions. Working with them is pretty easy: download, install, open and work. Examples of boxed scripts are the well-known Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, OpenCart;
• self-written ones are made to order by developers for each specific project. It is almost impossible to identify them because they are unique and not in the public domain;
• CMS from resource builders is given as a gift to everyone who registers with Tilda or Wix. The engine is usually included in the functionality of the service, among the most famous and popular you can also name Shopify, Jimdo, Weebly, Google Sites;
• studio control systems have similarities to self-written control systems. They are created by specialized companies either for sale or for other commercial use. For example, to write web resources with their help to customers.

Identify boxed or from automated scripting services is easiest. The only way to get information about self-written and studio ones is to ask the developers directly.

Determining the engine resource remember that on different sections of the site can be used different scripts. So it makes sense to check specific pages rather than the site as a whole.

Two ways to determine the cms of a website

No matter how much time an SEO specialist devotes to external and internal methods of promotion, it is the quality of the promoted resource itself that determines the success and speed of the promotion. If the product is well-designed, contains creative, attention-grabbing ideas for the user, then people will be interested in it. Developing a web resource promotion strategy starts with gathering information about the market niche and competitors. Of course, seeing the successful websites of others, there is a legitimate desire to create something even better. But before that, it is necessary to find out on what platform the competitors’ site is made, what lies at its basis, how it is administered, and what possibilities its cms provides. The easiest way to determine the platform of the site through the introduction in the search box query that corresponds to your future project and learn the engine of other resources from the first positions of the output. These are the scripts you should focus on when choosing a platform for yourself, as search engine algorithms assign the status of leaders only to qualitatively assembled web constructions.

All possible ways to find out the cms of a web resource can be divided into two groups:

• chiropractic ones take quite a bit of time. In addition, not every squeak can be recognized with the naked eye;
• automatic methods allow you to more accurately determine the engine of the site, but even they can not recognize all existing web resource management scripts.

Whichever option you choose to define the platform of the site, it will be easier to do it if its creators used one of the most common scripts. In case of failure, the only option left is to ask the developers.

How to determine the site engine manually through viewing the source code of the page

To date, determine cms site-manual through viewing HTML markup or page code can be considered the easiest and quite fast way. You can do this through browsers such as Chrome or Mozilla. What needs to be done? The step-by-step instructions are pretty straightforward.

1. Open the URL of the resource of interest in one of the browsers mentioned above.
2. Go to the main page or any other page (remember that different pages may have different engines) and press the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl+U” in Windows or “Option+Command+U” in macOS. Alternatively, right-click on the page and select “View Page Code” from the menu.
3. A page with HTML code will open in front of your eyes. Even if the user is not a developer and does not understand programming languages, seeing the tag <meta name=”generator” content=”engine name” /> дIt’s quite easy if you activate the search bar by pressing “Ctrl+F” and typing the name of each engine you know one by one into the text.

The most popular CMSs name themselves in a tag <head>, which specifies the path to the most important files.

It is worth noting that using this method does not always give the expected result. Predominantly, in this way you can check the engine of an old-style site. Creating modern web resources developers can specifically remove the name of the script from the code. This is done to make it difficult for specially created programs and bots to collect data about the resource.

Determine the platform of the site by the contents of the robots.txt file

In order that the process of SEO-promotion was not involved the technical part of the resource, programmers create a file robots.txt and place it in the root folder of the site. A close examination of the folders contained in the file may yield information of interest. For example, you can find out what engine the site is on has been created. You can open the document by entering “site name/robots.txt/ in the URL of the page. The content consists of a list of files and folders closed from indexing, in the name of which you can see familiar prefixes. For example, the WordPress engine uses the prefix “wp-“. Experienced SEO-specialists can determine the cms site by a set of standard, inherent only to certain engines rules. For example, Bitrix can be calculated by the presence of the word “bitrix” in the names of file components, and Drupal contains the line Disallow:/?q=admin/.

The main thing when working with this method is not to rush, and in a calm environment consistently study the file robots.txt.

Check site engine via footer and HTTP headers

If a user wants to know the engine of a website, it is not necessary to know what HTTP headers are. Nevertheless, a few words are worth saying, for those who are interested. The abbreviation HTTP defines the order in which data is exchanged between users and the network. Consequently, these headers may contain information to help identify the site’s engine. In order to search for such data, it is advisable to use Chrome Sniffer, iTrack, Wappalyzer, RDS Bar, Headers browser extensions.

A good option to find out what engine the site is on manually is to look at cookies, which may also contain references to platforms.

Considering the different options to find out the engine of the site, it is impossible not to say about, perhaps, the most obvious option. This is to drop down into what’s called the page footer, or footer. This is a block of additional information containing information about current vacancies, a travel map, contact details, etc. At the very bottom, next to the mentioned information, the name of the cms may be indicated in small print. Unless, of course, the developers chose to hide it.

Identify cms through files with site design themes

If the admin has hidden the information and there is no way to determine the engine of the site through viewing HTML markup and meta tag “generator”, then you can try to determine the engine script through links to the design files. Usually, this information is specified at the top of the page source code. Each engine has a folder structure that is unique to it. For example:

• WordPress – /wp-content/themes/;
• Drupal – /sites/default/files/.

Alternatively, you can run a search via the script type tag. It looks like this: <script type=”text/javascript” src=”engine name”></script>. The mentioned option to learn the site tsms works only with boxed versions.

How to recognize cms via admin panel

A good option to find out what cms sitekompetitors experts consider the selection of the address of entry to the administrative panel of the resource. To do this, use adding to the exact website address (url) a special particle that is peculiar only to a certain script. In the case of the Bitrix script, this is /auth. This combination looks like this: url/auth. If the prefix is selected correctly, the admin panel window will open, requiring you to enter your password and login. If it did not happen, we pick up another attachment and so leave the site terms. There is no guarantee this method will work. but it’s worth a shot. In order to recognize cmsIf the addresses of the admin offices coincide, you can recognize the cms by the appearance of the opened page. Even if you can not determine this way script, do not despair, there are many other ways, using which you can get the necessary information for further SEO-promotion.

How else can you recognize the site engine manually

Before we start looking at automatic ways to find out cms competing sites online, let’s talk about a few more options to get the information you need manually.

If there is no possibility to talk to the creators of the resource, and manually find out what engine the site is on, online services, server and desktop parsers, as well as special extensions for browsers come to the rescue.

How to find out cms of competitors’ web resource with the help of automatic services

There are a large number of tools and methods designed to check the website engine. It is quite difficult and pointless to list everything in one article. Therefore, let’s look at the most popular and effective ways to identify competitors’ cms web resources. There are three types of them:

• free online services. With their help, you can find out in a few minutes what platform the site is made on. To get the necessary result, you should do the following: enter the URL of the resource of interest in the search bar. Today, Whatcms, Built with, Itrack are popular among experts;
• Extensions for browsers Sniffer, Wappalyzer, RDS Bar are great for those who are engaged in SEO – promotion and they have the need to learn on what cms made site competitors regularly;
• server and desktop parsers are paid programs that can be used after purchasing from the product developers and installing them. The most popular is A-Parser, which can be used to identify over 550 types of control systems.

Which method to use – each specialist chooses independently depending on the goals, functionality of the resource and usability. Let’s take a closer look at each of the options for checking the site’s tsms.

The most popular online services that allow you to find out the terms site

The advantage of this method is that you can find out the engine of the site in a couple of seconds online. It is very convenient if you are professionally engaged in SEO-promotion of client resources and there is no time to recognize cms of competing resources manually. Especially if such work is to be done not for one web site, but for several. There are many different services available today, with new ones popping up regularly with the development of digital marketing. There is no sense to consider all of them, so we will pay attention only to those that have won the trust of users and are best able to cope with the task at hand. To date, there are four such services among the online services.

• Whatcms is as easy to use as possible, no registration required, which is why it is loved by seoshniks. To check the site’s engine, you need to type the name of the site in the search bar, click “Detect CMS” and in a few seconds, the answer will appear on the screen. The developers of the service claim that the resource is able to identify more than 500 of the most popular content management systems.
• BuiltWith is a large-scale service that provides a lot of different information about the resource of interest to the professional. Thanks to it you can not only define cms, but also find out what trackers and widgets are installed, what language versions, and provide analytics. All of these can be useful to know when developing a promotional marketing strategy.
• iTrack can work as an online service, as a plug-in and as a browser extension. The service allows you to determine the cms of competitors’ sites literally in two clicks. He distinguishes more than 80 control systems.
• Be1 is useful when you need to check multiple resources and determine their management system. To do this, on the main page you need to insert the addresses of interest in the special field and click the “Check” button. The link with the test results can be copied.

These tools need to know everyone who is involved in the promotion of sites, because without researching the market niche and analyzing competitors is very difficult to build a competent and effective promotion strategy.

What is the site cms determine the site will help special extensions for browsers

In addition to online services, browser extensions are popular among SEO-promotion specialists. In some ways it is more convenient in the work because the necessary tool is always at hand – check cms site competitors can at any time, without going into special programs. The most commonly used by specialists are:

• Itrack для Google Chrome. To use the extension, you need to go to the resource of interest, right-click and select the appropriate action in the menu that opens. The extension can be installed on Chrome, Firefox, and Opera;
• Wappalyzer can be installed on Chrome and Firefox. Once installed, the corresponding icon will appear among the extension icons. Using the extension is very easy. Go to the main page or any other page of the resource, click on the Wappalyzer icon and in a few seconds you will get the necessary data;
• Chrome Sniffer is a product for Google Chrome, it allows you to find out the cms of a resource and determine which JavaScript libraries it uses. You can download the extension from the official extension page in the Google Chrome Web Store. You can work with the tool in the same way as with Wappalyzer;

RDS Bar is designed to determine SEO metrics, but can also be used to find out what cms a competitor’s site is building on. Among other things, the tool can provide information about the ISP that issued the IP address. Registration is required to fully work with the service. The extension works with Firefox.

You can find out what platform the site is made on through parsing

Another way to find out the tsms of a website is to use parsers. The parsing process itself involves automated collection and analysis of information from web resources. Thanks to it, you can solve a variety of tasks for different activities: marketing, SEO, analyzing trends and user sentiment, filling and promoting web resources. Parser makes it possible to quickly and efficiently process a huge number of records, saving the specialist from tedious and time-consuming manual work. Parsers are usually not used just to find out the engine of the site, it is just one of the details that can be obtained as a result of working with such programs. Therefore, for one-time use, there is no need to purchase and install this product.

A-parser Enterprise is considered to be the most popular product among developers, SEO specialists and marketers. It gives you the opportunity to get information about more than 600 CMS. The program is paid, that to use its functionality, you will have to pay $199. The features of the product are quite a lot. Among them:

• analyze the results of output in different search engines;
• determining the position of the site in the search engine rankings by keywords;
• keyword collection;
• analyzing search cues;
• determining the number of backlinks;
• counting display statistics;
• possibility to check the resource for its presence in blacklists;
• captcha recognition, etc.

Parsers are fast, can process large amounts of information, and allow you to automate processes. However, it does not make sense to use them for a one-time definition of a web resource management system. For digital marketers and seoshniks, such products are a must have as a working tool.

Cheat sheet: how to check the tsms of the site

We have considered all the popular ways to find out on what engine the site you like or competitors’ resource is made. Which one to use depends on your goals and how often you need to perform such actions. To avoid confusion, we have prepared a small cheat sheet for those who are just starting to learn tools for defining web page management systems.