Let’s face it, when you have a website and you see all the other cool websites powered by WordPress, you have to wonder where it came from. Was the theme downloaded for free from the WordPress theme directory? Was it bought from a premium WordPress theme company? Or was it developed by a very talented WordPress designer and developer?
I’m sure you might wonder why would someone even want to look up this information. Well, it could be because a person really likes the site and is genuinely interested in finding out who designed the site. If the site is custom designed by an individual, and it’s really that amazing, it actually is a nice calling card if the developer had filled out their theme information within the theme. In fact, the information for the developer is typically recommended. In many cases it is done, but there are some cases where the theme is designed under a privacy or non-disclosure agreement.
Here are some ways to find out what WordPress theme is being used in a site.
How To Find Out What WordPress Theme Is Being Used In A Site?
There is a way to find out what theme a person is using on their website. In fact, there are a couple methods to doing this.
The harder way would be to view the page source of a site and view the style sheet. The style sheet is named style.css and is typically seeing between the head tags ( >header< ) and comes in a long URL path much like
yourdomain/wp-content/themes/theme-name/style.css
In many browsers, to get to the style sheet, this is a 2- step process. You have to view the source of the page, and then click the link to the style sheet to view the theme’s information.
The problem with this method is that not everybody is well versed in HTML code.
Easy Way On How To Find Out What WordPress Theme Is Being Used In A Site
The easiest way to find out WordPress theme a site is using is WordPress Theme detector ( http://www.wpthemedetector.com/ )
All you have to do is put the URL of the site into the form field and click the button that says Detect WP Theme. It’s really easy and takes a moment to do.
What this does is find the style.css and read the theme’s info. I can detect and tell you if a theme is actually a child theme, and even lists some of the plugin’s that the site uses.
Have you ever wondered what theme a site was using? Have you tried the WordPress Theme Detector site?
Nile,
I’m not much of a WordPress developer but I do like the idea of being able to determine the theme of a site that hits me favorably. With your advice this will now be an easy task to accomplish. Thank you.
RICK
Hi Nile,
The way I find that out is, simply right click and see the view code. Then, I search for the term “themes” and it tells me the theme (in most cases). But what you said is also interesting. I will check out the theme detector.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Kumar
On the other hand, is there a way to hide the identity of the theme from the public?
This is a cool tool! I like my theme, but often wish I could tell what theme someone else is using. I’ve bookmarked this site, and am having fun right now playing with it. Thanks, Nile! 🙂
What a great little tool – I’m always looking at sites – figure out that they’re WordPress and then wonder what theme they used – especially when I’m trying to show a client a few examples of good looking sites.
So many times a client will say “I really don’t like that theme” but when you show them a completed site using that theme they’re totally sold. It’s so easy for clients to be influenced by what they see in the Theme preview and not understand that it’s just the architecture and not what the site will actually look like when the designer is finished – it can be really shocking what a good designer can do with a theme!
Very cool Nile, as some sites are just so cool and I am always up for a theme change…so good to know I can find out easily!
I didn’t know I could find this out.. Cool… NOt that I make the time on line to do it, but if I was curious I am glad that I now know how to do it!! Never thought that it would be really necessary. So much available to us on the internet!!
In all honesty I am so glad you wrote this. I cannot tell you the endless amount of times I am always wondering what themes people are using. I always feel awkward contacting just to ask about their theme (not sure why i feel that way). I checked it out and found out some themes I have been wanting to know for awhile. Thanks!
WordPress is the only winner in my book. But I’ve also not used all the other options. I’ve used Blogger but its too limiting. And if I want to build a professional business blog, WordPress makes a lot of my work easier. And it also comes with a lot of plugins to improve functionality!
Hi Nile,
Actually that tool doesn’t get the name of the theme from that style.css file 😉
Here’s an experiment: I just removed from that file all information related to the theme. The tool still detects the name of the theme. It takes that piece of info from the URL itself. The folder that includes the file style.css has the same name as the theme.
@Adam: Yes, you can hide the info. Remove it from the file style.css and rename the folder mentioned above. However, be careful, when you rename that folder you may need to change also other codes. Otherwise, instead of your blog you may see some error messages only. I suggest that you don’t try it 😉
Adrian- You can also deny it with permissions in htaccess.
Hi Nile! I haven’t tried that site. I use http://whatwpthemeisthat.com/ to determine what theme they are using. It’s a fun way to stumble upon new themes!
i prefer use page source than using another site because internet speed is not good around here
to make it easier use ctrl+f and type .css
you’ll find one
Hi Nile,
Sometimes its really difficult task to do but you made it so simple, I guess one can now easily find out about theme and can use same theme for improving engagement with blog audience.
Hi Nile,
It is an awesome tool. I use whatwpthemeisthat.com to find what WordPress theme is being used in any site. Using these tools we can easily detect theme of any desired WordPress site and we can use it on our site.
Nice tool and is better than whatwpthemeisthat. Thanks for sharing.
I was looking for this from a long time but never find a good solution. Thanks for this great trick. I am gonna use this.
Nice Information. I always look up on for those sites who using a attractive theme on their blog. But can’t find or understand what wordpress theme they are using. You’ve putted here a clear info about it. Thank for you Tips.
Really a nice tool, In fact I was asking bloggers “What theme they are using” in comments,
Thanks for this