WordPress plugins are quite tempting because you get to display awesome features on your website without having to code it manually. Just install and play with a little configuration settings, if needed.
If you’re visiting websites and suddenly see some interesting element on a popular website, all you want to know is the plugin or code they’ve used to create it.
There isn’t any way to know the complete list of plugins a WordPress site is using unless they’ve kept the WP content folder publicly accessible.
So, in this tutorial, I’ll share some tricks to get the list of plugins a WordPress website is using.
3 Ways to Find The WordPress Plugins Used By Any Site
Trick #1 Google Search to Find Plugins
This is one of the quickest hack methods but this might not work on popular blogs since they’ve already implemented the essential security settings and blocked access to their WP content folder.
Anyways, if the WP content folder is still accessible for a particular site, type the following query in Google search bar.
site:http://www.xxx.com/wp-content/plugins/
(Make sure to replace xxx.com with the domain name for which you want to know the list of plugins).
Let me show you a real-life example.
I typed one of my friend Harleena’s blog aha-now.com with the above Google search query and got the results as shown in the screenshot above. It lists most of the plugins used by the blog.
If you want to remove this from the search results, login to Google Webmaster Tools and block WP content/plugins folder from the search engines using the robots.txt file.
Trick #2 Use WP ThemeDetector to Get the Name of Plugin
WPThemeDetector detects the theme and plugins a site is using. Just enter the URL of the site for which you want the list and hit enter. Wait for few seconds for the request to process and you’ll see the list of plugins used by the site.
I’ve used PastMasterBlogger to see if it works correctly and found it detected 13 plugins. I’m not sure why it did not list all the plugins but still a good match, showing almost 70% plugins.
Trick #3 Check Source Code
This trick works most of the time, especially if the blog is using a premium theme. Right click on the blog, select View Page Source and a new page with the source code will open up. Navigate to the page and hit CTRL + F. A search box will open up. Type wp-content/plugins and scroll down one by one. You will find the plugins used by the blog as wp-content/plugins/**name of the plugin**/.
I use the above tricks occasionally to find the plugins I love on other sites. Do share with us via comments if you know of any other tricks.
Hi Mainak,
This is a great article. I had no idea you could get that information, especially so easily. I’ll test it out on my blogs first. 🙂
It’s good to know and quite useful. Thanks for sharing.
Have a nice evening.
Great to know June that you’ll start testing it out with your own blog first, and then test on other sites too that you love.
Thank you for stopping by and enjoy your weekend! 🙂
Hi Mainak,
a few times already I used WP ThemeDetector to find out what plugins are installed on a blog. I can confirm that it works like a charm. As you said, it’s not always 100% accurate, however, it gets most of the plugins analyezd.
And best of all, it shows right away more information about a plugin such as if it is a free or a premium pl;ugin including the link to the plugins page.
Have a great day,
Torsten
Yes Torsten, you pointed it right, I liked the part where WP Theme Detector detects if a plugin is free or paid. For me, it did not show up all the plugins but showed 70% of them, which I think is good enough.
BTW, I love when I see some interesting feature being used by another site or blog and if it fits my blog well, I start searching for the plugin used by the blog to get that feature.
Have a nice weekend too!
Hi Mainak,
Well these might work on most blogs but not on mine. LOL!!!
First off, my database was renamed a few years back for security purposes so you can’t access what I’m using by doing a Google search or by the page source option.
The WordPress Theme Detector site did pull up some but only two. Now that’s really strange since I definitely have more than two and do you know it did not pull up CommentLuv Premium! I was surprised about that but I’m sure for the majority of sites these options would work.
Pretty cool actually, much quicker than asking what they’re using I suppose.
I appreciate this information and will be sure to share it as well.
~Adrienne
Yes Adrienne, I stated early in the article that this might not work on all blogs, especially those that have advanced securities.
I’m not sure why WP Theme Detector is pulling up only 2 plugins, but generally it shows 50% to 70% of the plugins. From the Source code, I can see only two of your plugins are available. But I think it’s good, your site is highly secure. 🙂
Yes, these are just some quick tips to know what a site is using.
And thank you for sharing. Have a good day! 🙂
Congratulations to a brilliant effort in publishing your article. One can be more informative as this. There are many things I can know only after reading your wonderful article.
@Meenu Glad to know that you found the article informative.
Hi,
I’ve never tried this before.
I didn’t know you can get access to other website’s plugins so easily.
You were right it doesn’t show all your plugins but the main ones.
Thanks
Yes @Ish it shows thew main ones but sometimes, this method is really helpful.
Definitely, it’s very useful.