How to Check and Identify Who Hosts a Website

Knowing who hosts a website can be useful for a variety of reasons. You may want to identify the hosting provider of a competitor’s site to analyze their technology stack. Or perhaps you inherited a website and need to contact the hosting provider for support. This guide will walk you through several methods to check and identify the company hosting any website.

Check the Website’s Billing Records

One of the easiest ways to identify a website’s hosting provider is to check its billing and payment records.

Steps:

  • Check your email inbox for any receipts or invoices from when the domain was registered or transferred. These typically list the registrar.
  • Search emails from the web host about billing, invoices, receipts, or account statements.
  • Look for emails confirming signup with the hosting provider or notifications about upcoming auto-renewals.
  • If paying by credit card, check bank statements for any charges from hosting companies.

The company name will be listed on these records. This method works well if you have access to the website’s administrative accounts.

Use a WHOIS Lookup

A WHOIS lookup queries a public database to find information on a registered domain, including the registrar and name servers.

Steps:

  • Go to a WHOIS lookup site like Whois.net.
  • Enter the domain name and hit enter or click “Lookup”.
  • Scroll down to view the “Registrar” and “Name Server” listings.

The registrar is typically the hosting company for that domain. The name servers also provide clues about the host. WHOIS data isn’t always accurate, but this method can help identify hosting providers.

Use Online Hosting Checker Tools

There are various free online tools that can automatically detect and display hosting provider information for any website domain.

Steps:

These tools query various databases and registries to reliably identify hosting providers. The data is usually up-to-date.

Inspect the Website Code

If the above methods don’t work, some hosting companies leave traces in the website code itself.

Steps:

  • Right click on the target webpage and click “View Page Source” or similar.
  • Press CTRL+F and search the page for the hosting company’s name or relevant terms like “powered” or “hosted”.
  • Look through the code to check if the host name is mentioned. This takes more effort but can uncover hidden details.

While website source code inspection isn’t guaranteed to display hosting info, developers sometimes leave references to help with support issues.

Trace the IP Address

Every website is hosted on one or more web servers with a unique IP address. Tracing this back can lead to the hosting provider.

Steps:

  • Use a traceroute tool like Ping.eu to lookup the website’s IP address.
  • Take this IP address and search the WHOIS records, which often list the owner and hosting company.
  • Alternatively, search this IP address on web hosting review sites to see if the host has been identified by users.

IP address lookups takes some manual investigation but can uncover hosting providers not easily found otherwise.

Check the Name Servers

Name servers act as a directory to route visitors to the hosting server. The organization running them may reveal the host.

Steps:

  • Use a DNS lookup tool like DNSLookup.io to find the website’s name servers.
  • Search these name servers online to check if they are associated with known hosting companies.
  • Cross-reference them with other websites or domains hosted on those name servers.

While name servers don’t always indicate the actual host, they provide breadcrumbs to trace back.

Ask the Website Owner

If all else fails, you can simply ask the website owner to voluntarily disclose the hosting provider.

  • Find contact information on the website, WHOIS records, or via email search tools.
  • Send a polite request for them to share hosting details. Provide context on why this information would be useful.

Many website owners will share these details, especially if you explain how it will help you or them. Being transparent builds trust.

Using one or more of these methods, you should be able to reliably determine the hosting company behind any website. The easiest options are checking billing history or using online tools. When needed, manual investigation of IP addresses and name servers can also uncover the website host. Let the website owner know if your intent is purely informational.