Wappalyzer is an extension for Chromium and Firefox based browsers, which allows you to graphically and simply visualize the technologies that are using an individual web page you visit, from the programming language used on the client and server side, to detect if you use a CMS such as WordPress, Joomla, Moddle and even digging further, being able to get the installed version of any of these CMS, the version of the plugins installed on them.
It is usually used by a very wide audience, such as developers, SEO experts, the followers of the SIU bug or pentesters, on this last field, in pentesting, this tool would fall within the active recognition, because yes or yes we must interact with the asset to be audited in order to obtain this information, but keep in mind that, Wappalyzer is not oriented as such to cybersecurity 100%, in fact, its focus is more linked to the generation of potential customers, for example, through the tool, determine how many sites use for example WordPress, create a database with their information and then communicate with them to offer a service related to the technology they use.
It is important to understand that Wappalyzer is completely safe and legal, since the information it shows us is obtained by the extension from each web page that is visited thanks to the fact that this information is found in the source code and/or HTTP requests that are received from the server to the client when accessing a web page and other information that is available to any user who interacts as a user with the web page in question.
How to install Wappalyzer in Chrome?
For Chromium-based browsers such as Chrome itself, Brave and others, it is as simple as going to the official Chrome store, search for Wappalyzer and add it to your extensions, so that you should go to search for it, just click here.
Once you add it, by accessing any website, you can visualize by clicking on the extension, the technologies it works with, for example, the Bicho SIU website uses React as JavaScript Framework, but keep in mind that, if you install the extension and you have open web pages, this extension will not be able to give you the information until you restart the page once you have installed it.
How to install Wappalyzer in Firefox?
Now, for browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, LibreWolf or Tor Browser (it is not recommended to install extensions in this browser), simply go to the official Mozilla store, and add it to your browser, also, you can go directly by clicking here.
And, the operation of the extension is the same, for example, Messi uses WordPress.
Finally, Wappalyzer is useful for cybersecurity work, SEO or merely web development, but keep in mind that it is not 100% perfect, it often gives false positives, telling you that a website uses certain technology that is not actually using or omitting technologies that the website does use but the extension does not find it, there are nowadays more tools that do a similar or even superior function, such is the case of the Penetration Testing Kit extension, which is basically a Wappalyzer on steroids, but, whether you are in the cybersecurity field or not, Wappalyzer as such, can be very useful for you.
