WordPress Theme Detector

Paste a website address to see which WordPress theme it runs: the theme name, version and author, the parent theme if it’s a child theme, and the plugins that show up on the page. If the site isn’t built with WordPress, the detector tells you what it is built with.

Free, no signup. Reads only what the site shows every visitor.

What the detector finds

  • The theme: name, version and author, read from the theme’s own style.css file.
  • The parent theme, when the site runs a child theme.
  • Free or not: whether the theme is in the WordPress.org directory. If it isn’t, it’s a premium theme sold elsewhere or one built for that site.
  • Plugins that load files on the page you scanned. The plugin detector explains which ones can’t show up.
  • The platform when the site isn’t WordPress: Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Framer, Carrd, Ghost, Joomla, Drupal and more. The CMS detector lists what gives each one away.
  • Hosting hints from the server’s response, such as Hostinger, Kinsta, WP Engine or a Cloudflare CDN.

How WordPress theme detection works

Every WordPress theme lives in its own folder under /wp-content/themes/. When a page loads, the browser downloads the theme’s styles and scripts from that folder. So the folder name sits in plain sight in the page’s source code.

WordPress requires every theme to have a style.css file that starts with a header block. The only required field is Theme Name. Most themes also fill in Version, Author, Author URI and Description (WordPress Theme Handbook, “Main Stylesheet”).

The detector finds the folder, opens that style.css and reads the header, the same way WordPress itself does. That’s where the name, version and author come from. It doesn’t guess from screenshots or a lookup table.

How to find a WordPress theme by hand

  1. Open the site and view the page source: Ctrl+U on Windows, Cmd+Option+U on a Mac.
  2. Search the source for wp-content/themes/.
  3. The word right after /themes/ is the theme’s folder name.
  4. Open https://thesite.com/wp-content/themes/FOLDER/style.css. The theme name, author and version are in the first lines.

If two different folders show up under /themes/, the site probably runs a child theme. Read on.

Child themes: the theme behind the theme

A child theme changes a parent theme without editing the parent’s files. Its style.css carries one extra field, Template, which must match the parent theme’s folder name exactly (WordPress Theme Handbook, “Child Themes”).

When the detector finds a Template line, it shows both: the child theme the site runs and the parent it’s built on. The child is usually specific to that site. The parent is the one you can download or buy.

When detection fails

  • The theme was built for that site. You’ll see a name, but there’s nothing to download.
  • The folder was renamed. Some agencies rename a commercial theme’s folder. The header often still names the original author.
  • A plugin hides the paths. Security and “white label” plugins that rewrite /wp-content/ URLs hide the theme from everyone, including this tool.
  • The site blocks automated visits. Cloudflare and similar services can show a security check instead of the page. The detector tells you when that happens.
  • It isn’t WordPress, or WordPress runs “headless” behind a separate front end. The detector then names the platform it recognizes, if any.

About PressWork

PressWork started in 2011 as a free, open-source theme framework for WordPress, built by Chris Bavota and Brendan Sera-Shriar. It launched at WordCamp Montreal, was approved in the WordPress.org theme directory in August 2011, and Matt Mullenweg showed it in his State of the Word at WordCamp San Francisco that year. The original posts are kept in PressWork history.

Today PressWork is an independent site about how WordPress sites are built. This detector is its main tool.

Questions

Is the WordPress theme detector free?

Yes. There’s no signup and no paid tier. If you scan a lot of sites in a short time, the detector asks you to wait before the next scan.

Can it detect premium themes?

Yes, as long as the theme loads its files on the page. The detector reads the name from the theme’s own style.css, so premium themes show up the same way free ones do. It also tells you when a theme isn’t in the WordPress.org directory, which usually means it’s premium or custom.

Why does it say the site isn’t WordPress?

Either the site is built on another platform (the detector names it when it recognizes it), a plugin hides the WordPress file paths, or the site shows a security check to automated visitors instead of the page.

Does it show the site’s plugins?

It lists the plugins whose files load on the page you scanned. Plugins that only work in the background, such as security, backup or redirect plugins, never show up to visitors. Scanning a few different pages of the same site finds more. The plugin detector explains the limits.

Do you keep the websites I scan?

No list of scanned sites is kept. The detector counts scans per day and which platform they found. A result is cached for up to six hours so a repeat scan is instant, then it’s deleted.

Is it OK to check which theme another site uses?

The detector reads the same files your browser downloads when you visit the site: the page and the theme’s public style.css. It doesn’t access anything that isn’t already public.