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Builder lead evidence

How to find out who built a website

Start with the credits the site leaves about itself, then follow public records. The checks below are the ones that usually name a builder. WhosBuilt runs the on-site and domain-record checks for you and labels how strong each clue is.

Likely owner

Stripe

Public clue

Stack clues

Framework, CMS, host, DNS

Evidence-labeled

Contact route

About, footer, social, email

No private scan

Public evidence only. Confidence-labeled clues, no private scanning, no hidden access.

Seven places to check by hand

  1. 1.Footer and credits page. Look for "Site by", "Designed by", or "Website by" links, plus /credits or /colophon pages. A direct credit is the strongest public clue.
  2. 2.Page source. Search the HTML for meta author and generator tags, theme folder names, and builder attribution. These name a person, agency, theme, or platform.
  3. 3./humans.txt. Some teams list the people who designed and built the site in this plain-text file.
  4. 4.Structured data. JSON-LD blocks can name an author, creator, or publisher organization. Usually this is the owner, sometimes the maker.
  5. 5.Domain records. RDAP or WHOIS shows the registrar and creation date. Registrant details are often redacted, and they identify the owner rather than the builder.
  6. 6.Wayback Machine snapshots. Older captures can keep a footer credit that was removed later and show when the current design launched.
  7. 7.Agency portfolios. Search the domain in quotes with "case study" or "portfolio". Agencies often list client sites the client never credits.

No credit anywhere usually means the site was built in-house or on a template. In that case, the stack and hosting clues show who is likely to maintain it.

Likely builder clues from credits, humans.txt, about pages, metadata, and maker profiles
Contact paths from public emails, social links, brand pages, and visible organization data
Stack and hosting evidence that explains who may maintain or rebuild the site
Confidence labels from public-only clues, with no private scanning or hidden access

How WhosBuilt finds builder signals

Direct credits are rare, so WhosBuilt also reads indirect clues: CDN headers, hosting DNS, analytics scripts, domain age, Wayback history, registrar data, and SSL certificate details.

It combines those signals into one scan so you can move from "who built this website?" to a practical answer: who likely owns or built it, which evidence supports that, where it is hosted, and which public contact path is visible.

When to use it

  • Qualify rebuild prospects before outreach
  • Find the agency, vendor, or maker behind a site
  • Turn competitor domains into evidence-backed lead notes
  • Check whether a site exposes enough public contact paths

If you mainly need framework, CMS, hosting, or CDN details, use the website tech stack checker. For the broader report, use what is this website built with.

Run an evidence report

Or try an example