There are many WordPress plugins out there.
Everyday, a newer and possibly more exciting WordPress plugin is launched either on the WordPress plugin repo or on some premium WordPress marketplace.
I like discovering new WordPress plugins.
I especially find it quite tempting to know what plugins a popular website is using.
There are a few ways in which you can find the list of plugins used on a WordPress blog, but there is no way to know the complete list until that blog’s plugin folder is publicly accessible or you have the FTP login info. That said, there are still a few work-arounds to getting that list of plugins.
- Related Reading: How to find out which WordPress theme is being used by a blog.
4 Tricks to Finding Out Which WordPress Plugins Are Used on a WordPress Site
Find Plugins Using Kali OS: “WPScan” command
This is the method for techies.
You can install Kali OS on your system using Parallels or VMware. On my Mac, I use Parallels to install Kali OS.
Using the following command in Terminal for Kali will let you scan any WordPress site.
Command: WPscan -u domain.com
Here is the result from one of my sites after using the “WPScan” command:
This command is also useful for finding vulnerabilities on any WordPress site (including yours).
If you are not tech savvy, you can also use any of the other suggested methods.
Identify WordPress Plugins Using WPThemeDetector:
The same tool we use to discover themes can also be used to find the plugins list.
I used WPThemeDetector to see how accurate it is by checking the list of plugins I use here at ShoutMeLoud.
Here are the results:
Out of 30+ plugins I use on my blog (you can see the complete list here), this free tool detected 8 plugins.
Here is the list of detected plugins:
- Jetpack by WordPress.com
- Q2W3 Fixed Widget
- AffiliateWP
- Google Tag manager plugin
- PushEngage plugin
- OptinMonster
I’m a little unsure of why it detected the last one (OptinMonster) as I’m not using a Facebook like box plugin. I’m actually using Facebook code to add a like box, but whatever, that’s OK as this tool detected the same plugin for almost every other blog I searched for.
Find Plugins Using Google Search:
This is what I call a quick hack and it might not work for popular WordPress blogs as they have already imposed essential security settings.
For many blogs who haven’t blocked access to their WP-content folder, you can use Google to search for the list of plugins they are using on their website.
Simply search Google with this query:
- site:http://www.xxxxx.com/wp-content/plugins
- (Replace “www.xxxxx.com” with your desired domain name)
To my surprise, one of my blogs is listing down all of its plugins:
If you see this for your blog, you can login to your Google Webmaster tool and remove the directory Wp-content/plugins/ from search engines. Make sure the directory is blocked by your robots.txt file.
This might not work in all cases, yet it is a useful trick that you should know about.
Check Source Code:
This is another method which works most of the time, especially when someone is using a premium theme. You can either see something like */added by plugin name/* or you can search for “wp-content/plugins/” in the source code to see the list of plugins.
This way you can at least find the name of many plugins used by any WordPress website on the planet.
I use these methods once in a while for popular WordPress blogs to find new plugins which might be of interest to me.
I hope this tutorial has helped you to identify a few new plugins some of your favorite WordPress sites are using. If you know of any other method of finding out which plugins are being used by a website, let me know via the comments.
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Thank you so much Harsh, this will make my curiosity much easier now (good or bad, I am not sure though). At some point of time we really wanted to know what/which plugin a particular website used. Really helpful…
hey harsh.
Nice methods i just checked plugins of my competitors.
it is going to come in handy
Great Post as usual, you always have amazing info to share with your readers.
Another great chrome addon is ‘Wappalyzer’, oxnce you install on your chrome browser, it tells you alot of details of whatever website you want to know about, framework, plugins, etc. and also works for sites that are not on the wordpress platform too.
Keep up the good work sire.
Thanks a lot Harsh, you made life much easier now. Earlier it had become a habit of asking in groups and forums regarding the plugins being used by a particular website taking screenshots and what not. This surely does help a lot, with the advantage being “free”.
Thanks man, i was looking for something like this and finally got it here on your blog. I have to say this, you got some serious skills bro keep it up.
Hey Alex,
Glad that you found it helpful.
Yes Its working but finds limited number of plugins. Any new method to get full plugin details of a wordpress site.
Hello Nice Post Harsh,
I always use a simple method (Works in most cases) as:
#1 Go to any wordpress site
#2 Right Click Inspect
#3 Go to sources (in above tab)
#4 Browse to wp-content — > plugins
#6 You will get full list of the plugins used in the blog
#7 you can see the theme name too in style.css
#8 Check this Image for Reference https://s32.postimg.org/8m1xsq9cl/plugins.jpg
Hi
Harsh this is really great tips to find out which WordPress Plugins a Website is using.can you
tell me best image compression plugin wordpress.
with best regard
sara williams
From my personal experience “ShortPixel Image Optimizer” is the best!
Great list Harsh 🙂
Generally I use WHATWPTHEMEISTHAT to check for any site.
will try another ones. 🙂
Hey Anil,
Do let us know your experience with them.
I was recently looking for finding out tools to check which theme a WordPress website is using. Getting to know about the plugins is a great addition to that. These nifty tricks are really good and probably take a lot of effort to figure out on our own. Thanks a ton!!
@Harsh
I only knew about the wp theme detector option, Kali Os can detect wordpress plugins i did’t thought of that. Kali is mostly used for en ethical ways. by the way thanks for the article .
Regards
Aditya
Nice post Harsh. I always use 4th trick as it is the most simple one. But it is not only plugins that can make you taste success, nice blend of hard work and plugins with best SEO strategies can take you to the peak. Am I right Harsh?
Hey Abhijeet,
Absolutely. Unless and until you have good content, nothing will work out.
Super Tricks.
Normally I use wpthemedoctor to find other website plugin.
Thanks for inform us this new tricks.
I was recently looking for finding out tools to check which theme a WordPress website is using. Getting to know about the plugins is a great addition to that. These nifty tricks are really good and probably take a lot of effort to figure out on our own. Thanks for putting it on a plate for everyone.
@Ropak,
Glad that you like it. Let me know your experience with them.
Great Post Harsh. Actually I am looking for something like this. Now I can check which plugin a site is using. Thanks for sharing this awesome tips.
@Vishwajeet
Glad that you liked it. Let me know your experience with them.
nice tutorial harsh sir..I am try WP scan its very powerful and great to scan wp plugins..thanks for sharing such a great article.
Nice trick! This will help to keep the track of competitors website. But as SHIIVENDU has already said, it will not work for those websites whose owners are smart enough to restrict search engine to access these information. Harsh also mentioned that the moral of the post is to enhance WordPress security not to share information with the competitors.
I used only “view source code” option, thanks for letting me know the plugin for this WPThemeDetector. I will start to use this plugin.
Thanks for the Tip, this has a long way to go in helping me out..
I frequently use WPTD! I have checked for shoutmeloud’s plugins too, I guess you’ve hidden most of them. 😀 If I remove the directory Wp-content/plugins/ from search console then will wptd stop showing the plugins I use on my WordPress blog?