CMS or a website engine is a program framework a website is written on. Administrators hardly ever write their own engines, they tend to use the popular ones: WordPress, Drupal or Joomla.

You don’t know what CMS is used by your website, or you want to detect the CMS of that cool website? Try one of the methods below:

Method 1. Look for the CMS name in source code

The easiest way to detect CMS is to look for references in the website’s code. You can often come across a CMS name in plugins, internal links or meta tags:

• Open a website and press Ctrl + Shift + I. The source code will open.
• Now press Ctrl + F and search CMS by name one by one: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Bitrix, etc.

On the first try! Yes, this one is on WordPress, the most popular CMS

Method 2. Detect CMS through Robots.txt

Robots.txt is a special file for search engines. In there, administrators specify what Google bots can and cannot index. Most CMSs generate this file on their own and leave a reference to themselves.

• Follow the link: Website_address /robots.txt
• Press Ctrl + F and search the file for popular CMS names: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Bitrix, etc.

This robots.txt showed Joomla

Method 3. Try to enter the admin panel

Almost all website configuration processes take place in the admin panel. Many administrators leave a standard login page. Don’t do this on your website — you’ll only make it easier for hackers to crack your password.

We won’t tell you the details of the cracking process but we’ll leave standard login links to the admin panel. Try to follow them in order to detect CMS of your website:

The WordPress admin panel login pages

Method 4. Use special services

You don’t want to search by yourself? Try special services, they will show you CMS and other helpful info about a website in a couple of clicks:

1. Whatcms.org is the most convenient of them all. Two seconds of waiting, and you will see the website info.

The info about CMS is in the first row of results

2. Builtwith.com is the most thorough among the tested servers. It will tell you about the installed CMS, NS servers, the SSL certificate, the web server, and other details about the website. It is also very simple, all you need to do is specify a domain in the address bar and find the CMS description in the middle of the page — point Content Management System.

Can you see Content Management System? This website is on WordPress

3. Wappalyzer.com has really convenient Chrome and Firefox extensions. Once you open a website, the extension icon will show you what CMS is installed. It’s very convenient if you need to detect the CMS of several websites.

This website is on WordPress — see, the extension icon has changed to the WP logo. Click to find out the details

Now you can find out what CMS is used by a website you are interested in. Tell us in the comments which service you liked the most and also read other helpful articles:

• Website services: 35 free webmaster tools
• SSL certificate for a website: what, why and where
• What website backups are, and why nobody makes them (+3 backup services)