How can you detect if a website uses Nginx?
Determining if a website uses the Nginx web server can be accomplished through several inspection methods.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help beginners identify if Nginx is being used:
- Check the HTTP Response Headers: One of the easiest ways to detect Nginx is by checking the response headers from the web server. Here’s how to do it:
- Open your web browser and go to the website you want to inspect.
- Right-click on the page and select “Inspect” or press
F12
to open the Developer Tools. - Navigate to the “Network” tab and refresh the page.
- Click on the first request (often the main document) and look for the “Headers” tab in the right panel.
- Under the “Response Headers” section, look for a header that says
Server:
followed bynginx
. If you see it, the website is using Nginx.
- Look for Nginx-Specific Error Pages: Many Nginx servers have specific default error pages. You can try accessing a non-existent page (for example:
http://example.com/404
). If you receive a standard Nginx error page, it’s a strong indicator that the website is using Nginx. - Inspect the Source Code for Nginx Markers: Some websites may include comments or specific marker tags indicating Nginx usage. Look in the
<head>
section of the source code for any references to Nginx. To do this:- Right-click the webpage and choose “View Page Source” or press
Ctrl+U
(Windows) orCmd+Option+U
(Mac). - Search for the term
nginx
usingCtrl+F
(Windows) orCmd+F
(Mac).
- Right-click the webpage and choose “View Page Source” or press
- Use Online Tools: There are several online tools available that can determine the web server technology being used. Websites like Stackcrawler, What’s My DNS or Netcraft can provide comprehensive details. Simply enter the website URL and look for the server information in the results.