[NewSearch millions of jobs from your AI agent with MCP→](/blog/jobspipe-mcp-server) [All posts](/blog) ![](/listly/card-field.png) ComparisonWappalyzer Comparison·Jul 28, 2026·8 min read # Wappalyzer alternatives: what to use for tech detection in 2026 Wappalyzer went closed-source and its API is metered - which is why people shop for alternatives. The realistic options by use case: browser extensions, open-source forks you can self-host, lookup APIs, and technographics built from hiring data. ![Dvir Atias](/authors/dvir-atias.jpg) Dvir Atias Founder, JobsPipe Wappalyzer made technology detection a household tool: install the extension, open a site, see the stack. Two things changed the calculus. The project - open source for over a decade and the fingerprint library half the industry quietly built on - **went closed-source**, and the hosted product moved to credit-metered pricing that adds up fast for programmatic use. Both are legitimate business decisions; both are why you are reading an alternatives page. The right alternative depends on which Wappalyzer you were using: the free extension, the fingerprint library inside your own code, or the lookup API. Disclosure: JobsPipe sells a tech-detection API, so we compete in the third category only. ## If you used the browser extension **WhatRuns** is the drop-in replacement most people land on - free, fast, good coverage of modern frameworks. **BuiltWith’s extension** is solid and backed by the deepest historical index (its paid side is a different animal - see our [BuiltWith alternatives](/blog/builtwith-alternatives) comparison). For one-off manual checks, Netcraft’s free site report adds hosting and certificate detail no extension shows. ## If you embedded the open-source library The community answered the closed-sourcing the way communities do: forks. Maintained fingerprint collections continue the old technologies.json lineage under new names, and language ports (Python and Node wrappers of the fingerprint set) still work for self-hosted detection. The trade-off is maintenance reality: browser vendors and frameworks change constantly, fingerprints rot, and a fork’s coverage is only as good as its contributor base. If detection is core to your product, budget for contributing back; if it is a side feature, an API you do not maintain is usually cheaper than a fork you do. ## If you used the API This is the slice where we have a horse in the race. **JobsPipe Stack Scan** returns a domain’s detected stack as structured JSON - name, category, confidence, the signals that fired - from a live scan, cached about two weeks. It is self-serve (free tier, then metered per job alongside our jobs API), and it exists for the enrichment use case: score a signup domain, enrich a CRM row, feed an agent. BuiltWith’s API is the other established option, with more history and higher prices. Evaluate all three on the same domains you actually care about - coverage differs by stack type more than vendors like to admit. ## The question detection cannot answer Every scanner in this post reads the public surface of a website. What none of them see is intent: the migration underway, the tools used behind the firewall, the platform a company is hiring its way into. Job postings carry that signal - a company advertising three Kubernetes roles has told you something no homepage fingerprint can. That hiring-based layer of technographics comes from [posting data](/blog/job-postings-dataset), and combining it with a homepage scan gives both halves: what a company serves today, and what it is building next. Tech detection as one POST per domain - free tier, structured JSON, no extension required. ![](/listly/shape-heart.png) FAQs ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is Wappalyzer still open source? No. The project that was open source for over a decade closed its source; the public repository stopped receiving the fingerprint updates the community relied on. Community forks continue the old fingerprint lineage and remain usable for self-hosted detection, with coverage that depends on their contributor base. ### What is the best free alternative to Wappalyzer? For browser use, WhatRuns is the drop-in replacement most people land on, with BuiltWith's free extension as the runner-up. For one-off manual checks, Netcraft's site report adds hosting and certificate detail. For self-hosting, the open-source Wappalyzer forks and their language ports remain free to run. ### What is the best Wappalyzer API alternative? JobsPipe Stack Scan and the BuiltWith API are the two established lookup options. Stack Scan returns a live-scanned stack as structured JSON with confidence scores on a self-serve key with a free tier; BuiltWith brings deeper historical coverage at enterprise-leaning prices. Coverage differs by technology category, so test all candidates on domains you actually care about. ### Can technology detection tell me what a company is adopting? Only partially. Detection reads what a site serves publicly today; it cannot see internal platforms or migrations underway. Job postings carry that forward-looking signal - a company hiring repeatedly for a technology is investing in it regardless of what its homepage shows. Combining homepage detection with hiring-based technographics answers both questions. [ ← Previous BuiltWith alternatives: 7 tech-detection options compared (2026) ](/blog/builtwith-alternatives)[ Next → Hiring.cafe API: there isn't one - here's the working path ](/blog/hiring-cafe-api) --- Canonical URL: https://jobspipe.dev/blog/wappalyzer-alternatives Title: Wappalyzer alternatives: what to use for tech detection in 2026 Description: Wappalyzer went closed-source and its API is metered - which is why people shop for alternatives. The realistic options by use case: browser extensions, open-source forks you can self-host, lookup APIs, and technographics built from hiring data. --- AI agents: the full machine-readable index of this site is https://jobspipe.dev/llms.txt?src=md-twin - API quickstart, no-key sandbox (POST https://api.jobspipe.dev/v1/sandbox/jobs/search), MCP server, pricing. Free key: https://jobspipe.dev/signup