Tech Stack Detector

Tech Stack Detector identifies the technologies used on any website — including frameworks, CMS, analytics, CDN, and hosting providers. WordPress powers 43% of all websites, React runs on 4.5 million sites, and Shopify hosts 4.6 million online stores. This actor detects all of these and 40+ other technologies from a single HTTP request, making it a fast and affordable alternative to BuiltWith and Wappalyzer.

What does Tech Stack Detector do?

Tech Stack Detector fetches a website and analyzes its HTML, scripts, meta tags, and HTTP headers to identify the technologies it uses. It detects 45+ technologies across categories like JavaScript frameworks, CMS platforms, analytics tools, CDN providers, and more.

Use it for competitive analysis, lead qualification (find companies using specific technologies), security audits, or technology market research. Each detection includes a confidence level, and technologies are grouped by category for easy filtering.

Who is it for?

• Sales teams -- qualify leads by identifying companies using specific technologies (e.g., find all Shopify stores or WordPress sites)
• Competitive analysts -- discover what frameworks, analytics, and hosting competitors rely on
• Security auditors -- identify outdated or vulnerable technologies across a portfolio of websites
• Market researchers -- survey technology adoption trends across industry verticals
• Developers -- quickly understand the tech stack of any website before starting a project or integration
• Agency teams -- profile client websites to recommend technology improvements or identify compatibility requirements

Why use Tech Stack Detector?

• 45+ technologies detected -- covers frameworks, CMS, analytics, CDN, hosting, CSS frameworks, customer support tools, and more
• Batch processing -- analyze hundreds of websites in a single run
• Confidence scoring -- each detection includes a confidence level (high, medium, low)
• Categorized output -- technologies grouped by category for easy filtering
• Fast and lightweight -- HTTP-only requests, no browser overhead
• Pay-per-event pricing -- cost-effective at scale, starting at $0.002 per URL

Detected technologies

Category	Technologies
JavaScript Framework	React, Next.js, Vue.js, Nuxt.js, Angular, Svelte, Remix, Gatsby, Astro
CMS	WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Ghost, Webflow, Wix, Squarespace, Hugo
E-Commerce	Shopify
Analytics	Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, Segment, Mixpanel, Plausible
CDN / Hosting	Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, AWS, Fastly, Akamai
Web Server	Nginx, Apache, IIS
CSS Framework	Tailwind CSS, Bootstrap
Customer Support	Intercom, Zendesk, Crisp, Drift
Marketing	HubSpot, Mailchimp
Security	reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha

How do I detect a website's tech stack?

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
urls	string[]	Yes	--	Website URLs to analyze. Domain names without protocol are auto-prefixed with https://

Example input

{
    "urls": ["apify.com", "github.com", "shopify.com"]
}

What technologies can Tech Stack Detector identify?

{
    "url": "https://apify.com",
    "technologies": [
        { "name": "Next.js", "category": "JavaScript Framework", "confidence": "high" },
        { "name": "React", "category": "JavaScript Framework", "confidence": "high" },
        { "name": "Vercel", "category": "CDN / Hosting", "confidence": "high" }
    ],
    "categories": {
        "JavaScript Framework": ["Next.js", "React"],
        "CDN / Hosting": ["Vercel"]
    },
    "server": "Vercel",
    "error": null
}

How much does it cost to detect a website's tech stack?

Event	Cost	Description
Run start	$0.035	One-time per run
Per URL analyzed	$0.002	Per website analyzed

Example costs:

• 10 URLs: $0.035 + 10 x $0.002 = $0.055
• 100 URLs: $0.035 + 100 x $0.002 = $0.235
• 1,000 URLs: $0.035 + 1,000 x $0.002 = $2.035

How to detect a website's tech stack

1. Go to Tech Stack Detector on Apify Store
2. Click Try for free
3. Enter one or more website URLs or domain names
4. Click Start and wait for the analysis to complete
5. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel

How to find out what technology a website uses

There are several ways to identify what technology a website runs on, ranging from free manual methods to automated bulk detection:

Method 1: Use Tech Stack Detector (fastest for any volume)

Tech Stack Detector analyzes any website and returns a structured list of detected technologies in seconds. It covers 45+ technologies including JavaScript frameworks, CMS platforms, CDNs, analytics tools, and more. No browser extension or manual inspection needed.

• Single site: Enter the URL and get results in under 5 seconds.
• Bulk detection: Paste a list of 100–1,000+ URLs and analyze them all in one run.
• API integration: Connect to your CRM, lead enrichment pipeline, or competitive monitoring system.

Method 2: Check HTTP response headers (free, manual)

Open your browser's developer tools (F12), go to the Network tab, reload the page, click the first request, and look at the Response Headers. Useful headers include:

• Server: nginx or Server: Apache — reveals the web server
• X-Powered-By: PHP/8.1 — reveals the backend language or framework
• X-Generator: WordPress 6.4 — CMS signature
• Via: cloudflare — CDN provider

Method 3: Inspect page source (free, manual)

Right-click any page and choose View Page Source. Search for:

• wp-content/ → WordPress
• Shopify.theme → Shopify
• _next/static/ → Next.js
• __nuxt → Nuxt.js
• ng-version attribute → Angular

Method 4: Browser extensions

Tools like Wappalyzer (browser extension) detect technologies on the active tab. Useful for one-off lookups, but not practical for analyzing lists of websites. Tech Stack Detector is the better choice when you need to profile more than a handful of sites.

Which method should you use?

Goal	Best method
Check one site quickly	Browser extension or Tech Stack Detector
Analyze 10–1,000 websites	Tech Stack Detector
Integrate into a sales/CRM pipeline	Tech Stack Detector API
Understand what you found	Manual header/source inspection

Using the Apify API

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/tech-stack-detector').call({
    urls: ['apify.com', 'github.com'],
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('automation-lab/tech-stack-detector').call(run_input={
    'urls': ['apify.com', 'github.com'],
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
for item in items:
    print(f'{item["url"]}: {[t["name"] for t in item["technologies"]]}')

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~tech-stack-detector/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["apify.com", "github.com"]}'

Integrations

Tech Stack Detector integrates with your existing workflow through the Apify platform. Connect it to Make (formerly Integromat), Zapier, or n8n to automate technology profiling across lead lists. Export results to Google Sheets for team analysis, send notifications to Slack when a target website changes its tech stack, or use webhooks to enrich CRM records with technology data automatically.

Common integration patterns include:

• Lead enrichment -- trigger a detection run from your CRM whenever a new lead is added, and write the tech stack back to the lead record
• Competitive monitoring -- schedule monthly runs on competitor websites and alert your team in Slack when technology changes are detected
• Market research pipeline -- combine with a web scraping actor to build a list of company websites, then profile their tech stacks in bulk

Tips and best practices

• Use domain names -- you can pass just apify.com instead of https://apify.com; the actor auto-prefixes the protocol.
• Combine with lead lists -- feed a list of prospect websites to identify companies using a specific technology for targeted outreach.
• Schedule regular runs to track technology changes over time, such as competitors migrating from one framework to another.
• Filter by confidence -- focus on high-confidence detections for reporting, and investigate medium/low confidence results manually.
• Pair with Website Contact Finder -- detect the tech stack first, then extract contact information from matching websites.

Use with Claude AI (MCP)

This actor is available as a tool in Claude AI through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Add it to Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible client.

Setup for Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com"

Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code

Add this to your MCP config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com"
        }
    }
}

Example prompts

• "What technologies is apify.com built on — framework, CDN, and analytics?"
• "Check the tech stacks of these 10 SaaS competitor sites and tell me which ones use React"
• "Find all Shopify stores in this list of company websites"

Learn more in the Apify MCP documentation.

Is it legal to detect website tech stacks?

Yes. Tech Stack Detector only analyzes publicly visible information — HTTP response headers, meta tags, JavaScript libraries, and DNS records that every browser already sees. No authentication is bypassed, no private data is accessed, and no terms of service are violated.

Technology detection is a standard practice in web development, cybersecurity, and competitive analysis. Tools like BuiltWith and Wappalyzer have operated in this space for over a decade.

Key points:

• Only publicly accessible data is analyzed
• No login credentials or private APIs are used
• The tool behaves like a regular browser visit
• Results contain technical metadata, not personal data

For more details, see the Apify guide on ethical web scraping.

FAQ

How does it detect technologies? It analyzes HTML source code, inline scripts, meta tags, HTTP response headers (Server, X-Powered-By), and known file patterns. Each technology has specific signatures that the actor matches against.

Can it detect technologies loaded via JavaScript? It detects technologies referenced in inline scripts and script tags in the HTML source. Technologies loaded entirely via client-side dynamic imports after page load may not be detected, since the actor does not run a browser.

How accurate is the detection? Each detection includes a confidence level. High-confidence detections are based on strong signals like unique HTTP headers or framework-specific HTML attributes. Lower confidence detections are based on heuristic patterns.

How is this different from BuiltWith or Wappalyzer? Tech Stack Detector offers a lightweight, API-first alternative with pay-per-event pricing. You can integrate it directly into your workflows via the Apify API, schedule automated runs, and process results programmatically. There are no monthly subscriptions or per-seat fees.

How many websites can I analyze in one run? There is no hard limit. The actor processes URLs concurrently, so runs with hundreds or thousands of websites complete efficiently. Each URL is billed separately at $0.002.

The actor detects no technologies for a website I know uses React/Next.js. Sites that server-render and strip framework-specific markers from the HTML may not be detectable via HTTP-only analysis. Technologies loaded entirely via client-side JavaScript after page load are harder to detect since this actor does not run a browser. Try checking the HTTP headers and source code manually.

A URL returns an error instead of results. Common causes include: the domain is unreachable, the server blocks non-browser requests (returns 403), or the URL redirects to a login page. Verify the URL is publicly accessible in a browser first.

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