Have you ever stumbled on a cool website and wondered what was the theme the site was using? In this post, I will show you an easy way to check the theme a WordPress site is using with the built-in feature of your web browser. No extra tool involved.
In WordPress, a theme is the clothing of a website which plays a role in determining the look of the website.
And just like clothing in real life, there are also tons of clothing brands around. Each WordPress theme has its own brand/name to make it easy for the identification and marketing process.
You can easily check the name of a theme using a theme detector. Alternatively, you can use the built-in feature of your web browser which I will cover shortly below.
Shortcuts ⤵️
- Do you need a theme detector?
- Steps to check the theme a site is using
- Is WordPress theme still relevant?
- Summary
Do You Really Need a Theme Detector?
The easiest way to check the theme used by a WordPress-based website is by using a theme detector.
What is a theme detector?
A theme detector is a tool designed specifically to find out a WordPress theme used by a website. With a theme detector, you can simply enter the URL of the website you want to find out the theme of.
After you hit the search/analyze button, the tool will usually display the information you need. From theme name, theme version and theme author.
Unfortunately, not all theme detectors display accurate information. Some even can’t recognize the theme a website is using even if you have entered the site URL.
So, rather than using a theme detector, finding out the theme a website is using with the built-in feature of your browser is more logical. It’s super easy, after all.
Steps to Check the Theme a Site is Using
Every web browser has a feature to show the HTML code of a web page. You can utilize this feature to find out some technologies a website is using. Including its theme if the website is built with WordPress.
But how to find out if a website is built with WordPress? Easy enough.
WordPress has a recognizable file name pattern. In WordPress, every core file has the prefix of “wp-” in its name. For instance, the file responsible for handling user login has the name of wp-login.php and the file for storing site configuration has the name of wp-config.php.
The same naming pattern also applies on folders, as you can see below.
To find out whether or not a website is built with WordPress, you can simply view the HTML code of the website.
To do so, you can right-click anywhere on the website you want to check and select View Page Source.
Take a look at the HTML code. If you find a line that has wp- characters, you can conclude that the website is built with WordPress.
If you are still not convinced, you can find some lines that have the characters of wp-content.
wp-content is a folder in WordPress where all content is stored. To ease your job in finding the lines, you can use the search feature on your browser (by pressing the Ctrl+F/Command+F on the keyboard).
As you can see on the following screenshot, there are 99 lines on the HTML code that contain the character of wp-content. Meaing that the website is built with WordPress.
Checking the Theme Name
Once you get the information that the website you are curious about is built with WordPress, you can proceed with the next steps to find the theme it is using.
Remember again. WordPress uses the prefix of “wp” on its folders and files.
In WordPress, all installed themes are stored in a sub-folder called themes. You can find it under the main folder of wp-content.
With the same method you used earlier above, you can find out the theme a site is using by learning the HTML code.
This time, you can find the lines that have the characters of wp-content/themes/. The characters between the slashes is the name of the theme a website is using.
As you can see on the screenshot above, the name of the theme is Divi.
Divi itself is one of the most popular WordPress themes. It comes with tons of useful features. Including a built-in page builder, which is the main feature.
A little note. When you are checking a theme of a website, you might find a strange name or a name that is the same as the site name.
For instance, if you check the theme of the Kinsta website, you will find that Kinsta uses a theme called “Kinsta”. This doesn’t always mean Kinsta develops a custom theme. Instead, it creates a child theme based on a certain theme (parent theme).
Is Theme Still Relevant?
In the past, before the page builder era, a WordPress theme played a significant role in determining the type of design you can apply to your website.
Nearly all customization settings were defined by a theme. From typography, homepage layout to header color.
The role of a theme has significantly reduced today. You can control every single design aspect of your website using a plugin like Elementor or Breakdance. All without CSS knowledge.
You can even create a custom header, custom footer and custom homepage using Site Editor, a built-in WordPress feature (requires a block theme).
Even so, theme is still relevant because it is a required component in the WordPress system. You can’t run a WordPress website without a theme. However, no longer need to rely on what’s your theme offers to customize the look of your website.
If you are not interested in installing an extra plugin to customize the look of your website, you can use Divi which comes with a built-in page builder. You can use it (the page builder) without needing to install an extra plugin.
Summary
Curiosity is good because it is what makes your knowledge increase. Even if it is as simple as a curiosity about the theme a WordPress website is using.
Using a theme detector is the easiest way to find out the theme a website is using. But, since the outcome is not always accurate, you can find out yourself manually using the built-in feature of your web browser.
Every web browser has a feature to view the HTML code of a website, which you can utilize to find out the theme a website is using.
You can find out what theme a WordPress site is using by understanding the file name pattern, which always contains the prefix of “wp-“.
