Ran into a WordPress website whose visuals captivated your attention? It’s most likely a combination of heavy modifications, an eye for detail, and a base WordPress theme they installed. While copying is unethical and even illegal with copyright and/or a trademark, getting inspiration isn’t. And, as they say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” So, you have to start from the point they did, the default WordPress theme. While it’s also possible they started from scratch, you’ve got nothing to lose. Here’s how to know which theme is used in a WordPress website.
1. Find the theme a WordPress website uses via third-party websites
We’re starting with the quickest and simplest technique. There’s a host of free online resources, but we’ll demonstrate the process with one of the most popular ones. Do this to discover which theme a WordPress website uses:
- Visit WPBeginner’s WordPress Theme Detector page.
- Enter the target website URL and click on Analyze Website.
- One of the following things will happen:
1. It’s a popular or lightly modified theme
You’ll get a Good news! We’ve found theme: [theme name] notification. It will be accompanied by its logo, author, or screenshot. You can also click on Get This Theme and it’ll take you to the download page.
2. It’s a custom, lesser-known, or heavily modified theme
You’ll only see a theme name, with or without the author’s name, and a screenshot or logo, and without the download button.
3. It didn’t find a theme
This means the website owner(s) created their WordPress theme. Or, they might have altered the base theme significantly, so it has no resemblance to its core.
2. Learn which theme is used in WordPress website via browser extensions
To present multiple options, we feel obligated to mention this. There are browser extensions that let you know which theme a WordPress website uses. When we tested a few, the one named WordPress Theme Detector and Plugin Detector by themesinfo.com on Chrome worked best. Since we have no affiliation with the developer, we can’t promise it will keep working long-term. So, we recommend the methods above and below.
3. Know which theme is used in WordPress website manually
There are times when the website owner manually changes the theme name. So, even if the content remains almost unchanged, it will still throw off the tools above. Here are 2 ways to learn which theme is used in WordPress website:
1. Check the website footer and header
If you’re lucky, there might be a name of the original theme listed somewhere in the header of the footer of the target WordPress website.
2. Inspect the source code
This one is a little more labor-intensive, but also your best chance. Here’s how to find which theme is used by a WordPress website:
- Right-click anywhere on the target website page.
- Select View page source.
- A source page will open in a new tab. Press Control (CTRL) + F on Windows or Command (Cmd) + F on Mac.
- Search for “style.css”.
- You might find multiple matches, but look for one resembling this:
<link rel='stylesheet' id='theme-name style-css' href='https://www.examplewebsite.com/wp-content/themes/theme-name/style.css?ver=1.2.6' type='text/css' media='all' /> - Click on the style.css link, and you’ll see a header block at the top with the following parameters:
Theme NameTheme URI/URLAuthor NameAuthor URI/URLDescriptonVersionLicenseLicense URIText Domain:Tags:
- Find the information about the theme from Theme, Author, Description, or Text Domain.
Tip. If the WordPress website installed a WordPress child theme, which most do, there’ll be an additional parameter named Template, which mentions the parent theme name. Furthermore, you might be able to find a secondary style.css link on the source page (step 4).