Hosting checker

Useful when you wonder what a site runs on, or when you inherit a domain with no handover notes and need to work out where its settings actually live.

Start with who runs the DNS

To add or change a record you have to log in wherever the DNS is hosted, and the nameserver names give that away almost every time — cloudflare in the name means Cloudflare, awsdns means AWS Route 53, gabia means Gabia. The registrar you bought the domain from is often not the same company, so do not waste time looking there first.

A CDN announces itself in the response headers

When traffic passes through a CDN, its name usually appears in the response. Cloudflare even adds its own cf-ray header. With a CDN in front, the real server address cannot be seen from outside — that is not obfuscation, it is the normal way to keep the origin from being attacked directly.

Mail often lives somewhere else entirely

The MX records reveal who receives mail for the domain, and it is common to self-host the website while letting Google or another provider handle mail. When configuring SPF and DMARC, follow that mail provider's documentation rather than the web host's.

Start with the failing service, not the score

If visitors cannot open the site, check DNS, the certificate and the redirect destination first. If outgoing mail fails, inspect SPF, DKIM and DMARC together. If the site works and only a header is missing, review what that header would change before deploying it. These are different problems and should not be treated as equally urgent.

How to interpret your website check →

Only public information is read (DNS records, certificates, HTTP responses). Nothing is logged in, and no load is placed on the site.