Shopify Inc. is an international e-commerce company from Canada. Shopify is a registered commercial platform for many worldwide retail stores. With the help of Shopify, many businesses build their online store, find ways to collect payment online, advertise products, and track and ship orders. Shopify also sports a back office providing a mobile application, generating analytics and reports, with an application store containing free applications with 24*7 support. If a store uses the Shopify framework, it will become easy to answer the question, “how to tell if a website is Shopify?”

The Shopify Framework

Shopify uses Hydrogen as the front-end web development framework. The Shopify custom storefront uses this framework. This platform is what other retail stores use as a home for their services. So this storefront contains the organization, components, and tools to design and style a retail store.

Hydrogen as a framework contains a library of components with multiple hooks and utilities. It also has a Vite plugin providing server-side rendering (SSR) and helping with client component code transformations. This feature helps the client to build with ease.

To deploy the storefront, Shopify uses the Oxygen deployment platform. Oxygen removes the prerequisite to keep server infrastructure and deploy multiple Hydrogen storefronts.

Image Source: netohq

How to search frameworks

• We can search the framework of a website by entering the URL of the website or the link address in any browser and then adding /admin at the end of the URL.
• We can also check the source code of the website and see the framework from the type of content management system it sports.
• Another way we can search the framework is to check the browser extension.

We can see how to employ these three methods in detail below.

How to Tell What Ecommerce Platform a Site Is Using

The above three methods tell what eCommerce platform a site is using. Similarly, to tell if a website uses Shopify, we can check if the website uses ‘Shopify’ JavaScript. We can open the developer tools to perform this operation and use the following steps.

1. For 

MacOS: Option + ⌘ + I 

Windows/Linux: Shift + CTRL + I 

1. Type ‘Shopify’ in the console
2. Then press return. 
3. The JavaScript object display in the output confirms Shopify. If Shopify is not the platform, an error message displays saying, ‘Shopify is not defined.’

Again websites using Shopify contain the shopify.io subdomain. Although this is the most accessible identification, most professional websites use a custom domain.

Let us see how to tell what eCommerce platform a site is using or how to tell a site is Shopify by studying the above-discussed methods in detail.

3 Methods to tell if A Website is Shopify

1. Add /admin after the URL 

Enter the URL of the website or the link address in any browser. Then add /admin at the end of the URL.

A Shopify login page confirms that the website uses Shopify.

Usually, businesses create an account on Shopify using https://wl.tools/shopify.

They enter their email, a password, and their store name. Usually, the store name appears to be storename.myshopify.com. This domain name makes it easy to identify if a website is Shopify. 

But, to be professional and own unique names, a business can buy its domain name, thus making it necessary to go to the following methods for help. Otherwise, these details are enough; thus, one can see how their email address takes them to their Shopify store from the above image.

2. Check the Source

When the name doesn’t contain Shopify in its website address, we have to check the website’s code.

First, enter the website’s name, and as the page appears, right-click and navigate to “view page source.”You can also use the shortcut key CTRL+U. 

Click “inspect” or use the shortcut CTRL+F and type “Shopify.”

You can see files with the name Shopify to indicate a Shopify website.

The website uses Word press if the folder “wp-content” appears in the pull-down arrows as you toggle over to ‘sources’ in the code. Is this working?

3. Use a Browser Extension

We can also check the technologies of a website. To do this, go to 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wappalyzer/gppongmhjkpfnbhagpmjfkannfbllamg?hl=en if we are using Chrome.

This step is to check using Technology Profiler Wappalyzer. We can also check by using other Technology Profilers other than Wappalyzer. 

Now click on the Wappalyzer icon on your browser and search through the technologies” to see the name Shopify.

Like Wappalyzer, Builtwith is a Technology Profiler that helps query how to tell if a website is Shopify. You can also check with WhatRuns, PageXray Technology Profiler. 

When we use PageXray, a copyright notice displayed at the bottom of the page says “Powered by Shopify” if the website uses Shopify.

We can also check the Footer of the Site. To do this, “Privacy Policy” or “Terms of Service.” They may include “Powered by Shopify.”

Other Methods to Tell If a Website Is Shopify

Use IP Address

Enter myip. Ms

Look up by entering the search space given by WHOIS lookup.

If the website owner is Shopify, the display will contain as in the image.

The IP range of Shopify displays complete information as it appears in the image. From them, we can also find other websites using Shopify.

As we click on “Other sites on IP,” the resulting page produces known websites using Shopify.

The first page displays the top fifteen websites; the other page displays the rest, and so on.

Use LinkedIn Information

Search for accounts to find out businesses using Shopify. Enter the “Sales Navigator.”

In the “Technologies” option, find “Shopify” as it lists down. In addition, you can find other targeted business names using search options such as “Geography” and “Company headcount.”

Ask the Website Owner

We can email or post questions on the website’s support or contact forum.

We want to know the framework of a website for security purposes and backups. Knowing the framework also inspires us or help us gain knowledge to decide and add more tools and plugins to our site. Knowing the website developer helps us identify the potential and limitations of our site. With all these objectives in mind, we hope this information helps you achieve these goals.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": {
    "@type": "Question",
    "name": "What is shopify?",
    "acceptedAnswer": {
      "@type": "Answer",
      "text": "shopify is an ecom platform."
    }
  }
}
</script>