What this detector does
This tool tells you who is actually running a given website: the hosting (origin server), the CDN sitting in front of it, the DNS provider, and a likely WAF (web application firewall). You type a domain, our server combines four independent detection sources, and you get a single panel with a confidence label next to every result.
The sources we use: NS records via DNS over HTTPS, the HTTP response headers of the live site, the A-record IP matched against known CDN ranges (Cloudflare, CloudFront, Fastly, Vercel), and the TLS certificate issuer. When several sources agree, confidence jumps from "likely" to "definitely".
How to use it
- Type a domain: just the hostname, no scheme, no path. `vercel.com` works, `https://vercel.com/pricing` is cleaned up automatically.
- Click Detect. The server runs four checks in parallel with a 10-second budget.
- Read the four cards: Hosting, CDN, DNS provider, WAF. Each one carries a confidence: definitely (multiple sources agree), likely (one strong signal), possibly (weak hint only).
- Open the Raw signals block to see the A and NS records, Server header, Via header, and TLS issuer that fed the detection.
- Open the Evidence list to see the exact tag that triggered each result, e.g. `CF-Ray: 7f...` or `104.16.x.x in 104.16.0.0/12 (Cloudflare)`.
- Try the sample chips (vercel.com, github.com, cloudflare.com, shopify.com) to see how a clean Vercel deploy, a GitHub Pages site, a Cloudflare-fronted site and a Shopify-hosted store each show up differently.
When this is useful
Concrete scenarios where this detector earns its keep:
- Competitive research before pitching infrastructure: see whether your prospect runs Cloudflare in front, CloudFront, or a bare origin you can sell a CDN to.
- Vendor verification when an agency tells you "we host on AWS": the TLS issuer plus IP range will confirm or contradict the claim.
- Incident response during an outage: is the origin down or just the CDN? Knowing the provider tells you which status page to open (status.cloudflare.com vs health.aws.amazon.com).
- Migration planning: before moving DNS from Route 53 to Cloudflare you want a baseline of who the incumbent providers were across each subdomain.
- Security audits: confirm the WAF the customer claims to have ("we use Cloudflare") is actually serving traffic on the public hostname, not bypassed by a leaked origin IP.
- Pricing leverage: knowing a competitor runs on Vercel vs AWS vs a bare VPS helps you size the conversation around cost and scale.
Related tools: DNS lookup, SSL certificate inspector, WHOIS lookup, HTTP headers inspector, IP info / ASN lookup.