# Website Technology Detector (`landlordtools/website-tech-detector`) Actor

Finds the CMS, frameworks, hosting, CDN, analytics, payments and other technologies a website uses, from one request per site. Fingerprints written from vendor documentation; robots.txt honoured.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/landlordtools/website-tech-detector.md
- **Developed by:** [LandlordTools](https://apify.com/landlordtools) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 sites

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Website Technology Detector

See what a website is built with: CMS, framework, web server, CDN, hosting, analytics, payments and more. One page request per site and no browser, so 1,000 sites take minutes. Every rule comes from the vendor's own documentation.

### What it does

- **One request per site**: robots.txt is read first (once per site) and obeyed [1]. Then the page is fetched with GET, following redirects. Headers, cookie names, `<meta name="generator">`, script and stylesheet URLs, and page markup are matched against 45 technologies.
- **Evidence you can check**:
  - `matchedBy` names the kind of signal, for example `header server` or `meta generator`;
  - `documentation` links the vendor page the rule was written from;
  - versions are given where the signal carries one (`nginx/1.27.0` gives 1.27.0).
- **Clean-room rules**: written from vendor documentation only; no third-party fingerprint database. A script re-checks every cited quote live.
- **No personal data**: the output never contains header values, cookie values, tracking IDs or page text, only technology names.
- **Safety**: only http and https. Private, loopback, link-local and cloud metadata addresses are refused [2][3], including after DNS and on every redirect.

### Quick start

The prefilled input checks two GOV.UK sites:

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.gov.uk/",
    "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/"
  ]
}
```

The first row, from the run on 4 October 2026:

```json
{
  "index": 0,
  "url": "https://www.gov.uk/",
  "finalUrl": "https://www.gov.uk/",
  "status": 200,
  "technologies": [
    {
      "name": "Fastly",
      "category": "CDN",
      "version": null,
      "matchedBy": [
        "header x-served-by"
      ],
      "documentation": "https://www.fastly.com/documentation/reference/http/http-headers/X-Served-By/"
    },
    {
      "name": "GOV.UK Frontend",
      "category": "Design system",
      "version": null,
      "matchedBy": [
        "page HTML"
      ],
      "documentation": "https://design-system.service.gov.uk/get-started/production/"
    },
    {
      "name": "nginx",
      "category": "Web server",
      "version": null,
      "matchedBy": [
        "header server"
      ],
      "documentation": "https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_core_module.html"
    }
  ],
  "categories": [
    "CDN",
    "Design system",
    "Web server"
  ],
  "technologyCount": 3,
  "error": null
}
```

### Input

| Field | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `urls` | (required) | Sites or page URLs, up to 1,000; `example.org` means `https://example.org/` |
| `timeoutSecs` | 20 | Per site |
| `maxConcurrency` | 5 | Sites at once (1–10) |

### Output

One row per site, with `index` giving its position in `urls`.

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `technologies` | `[{name, category, version, matchedBy, documentation}]` |
| `categories`, `technologyCount` | Summary |
| `finalUrl`, `status` | After redirects |
| `error` | Why a site couldn't be checked (robots.txt, timeout, HTTP error, blocked address) |

### What it recognises

- **Advertising**: Google AdSense, Google Publisher Tag, Meta Pixel
- **Analytics**: Cloudflare Web Analytics, Google tag (gtag.js), Matomo
- **CDN**: Amazon CloudFront, Azure Front Door, Cloudflare, Fastly
- **CMS**: Ghost, WordPress
- **Consent management**: Cookiebot
- **Design system**: GOV.UK Frontend
- **E-commerce**: Shopify
- **Error monitoring**: Sentry
- **Fonts**: Adobe Fonts, Font Awesome, Google Fonts
- **Hosting**: Vercel
- **JavaScript framework**: Gatsby, Next.js
- **JavaScript library**: jQuery
- **Live chat**: Intercom
- **Maps**: Google Maps JavaScript API, Leaflet, Mapbox GL JS
- **Marketing**: HubSpot
- **Payments**: PayPal JavaScript SDK, Stripe.js
- **Programming language**: PHP
- **Security**: Cloudflare Turnstile, Google reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha
- **Static site generator**: Astro, Hugo
- **Tag manager**: Google Tag Manager
- **UI framework**: Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS (browser build)
- **Video**: YouTube embedded player
- **Web framework**: ASP.NET, Express
- **Web server**: Apache HTTP Server, Kestrel, nginx

### Use from code

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/landlordtools~website-tech-detector/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://www.gov.uk/"]}'
```

```js
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('landlordtools/website-tech-detector').call({ urls: ['example.org'] });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0].technologies.map((t) => t.name));
```

### Use with AI agents

Agents can call it through Apify's MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com).

### Accuracy

Tested on 4 October 2026 against sites the vendors themselves list as built with their product. The declared technology was found on 79 of 98 sites that answered (Astro 71 of 84, Next.js 3 of 4, Gatsby 5 of 10). The details are in `tests/benchmark/`.

### Limits

- One page, no JavaScript: technologies added only after the page loads in a browser aren't seen.
- Sites can hide or change signals, so a missing technology isn't proof it's absent.
- Sites whose robots.txt disallows the page (or returns a server error) aren't checked.

### Integrations

Power Platform, OpenAPI, Excel and Google Sheets files are in [`integrations/`](integrations/README.md). Apify's Zapier, Make and n8n apps work too.

### Pricing

Pay per event: $4 per 1,000 results ($0.004 each), plus Apify's minimal start fee. A result is one website checked. Sites that can't be checked are free, and the run stops at your spending limit [4].

### Related Actors

- [Sitemap URL Extractor](https://apify.com/landlordtools/sitemap-extractor): list every page on a site.
- [Link and Citation Checker](https://apify.com/landlordtools/link-citation-checker): check links and quotes.

### Sources

1. [RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309). Accessed 4 October 2026.
2. [IANA IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry](https://www.iana.org/assignments/iana-ipv4-special-registry/). Accessed 4 October 2026.
3. [IANA IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry](https://www.iana.org/assignments/iana-ipv6-special-registry/). Accessed 4 October 2026.
4. [Apify: pay-per-event pricing](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize/pay-per-event). Accessed 4 October 2026.

[1]: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309

[2]: https://www.iana.org/assignments/iana-ipv4-special-registry/

[3]: https://www.iana.org/assignments/iana-ipv6-special-registry/

[4]: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize/pay-per-event

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Home pages or any page URL, up to 1,000. A bare domain such as example.org means https://example.org/.

## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Default 20.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Default 5.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.gov.uk/",
    "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/"
  ]
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `result` (type: `string`):

No description

## `output` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.gov.uk/",
        "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("landlordtools/website-tech-detector").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": [
        "https://www.gov.uk/",
        "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("landlordtools/website-tech-detector").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.gov.uk/",
    "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/"
  ]
}' |
apify call landlordtools/website-tech-detector --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,landlordtools/website-tech-detector"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/27g4cgz4jM6fb20Gp/builds/afMvu052AB1biifIB/openapi.json