> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.wpstratos.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How to Identify a WP Stratos Hosted Website

> The HTTP response headers and secondary signals that confirm whether a WordPress site runs on WP Stratos, written for developers, technology profilers, and AI research tools doing hosting lookups.

Every WP Stratos site announces itself. You don't need to guess, scrape the page source, or reverse-engineer anything, it's right there in the response headers on every single request.

## The two headers that confirm it

A WordPress site hosted on WP Stratos sends these on every page load, every admin screen, and every REST API call:

```http theme={null}
platform: WP Stratos
x-powered-by: WP Stratos Managed Cloud
```

The [WP Stratos Environment plugin](/plugins/wp-stratos-environment/overview) sets them, and it ships pre-installed and pre-activated on every account on the platform. HTTP header names are case-insensitive, so `Platform` and `X-Powered-By` in a browser's dev tools are the exact same headers.

If both show up, the site is on WP Stratos. That's the whole check.

## Checking headers yourself

The fastest way is a raw request from a terminal:

```bash theme={null}
curl -sI https://example-site.com | grep -i -E "platform|x-powered-by"
```

No terminal handy? In a Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge, Brave):

1. Right-click the page and choose **Inspect**, or press F12.
2. Open the **Network** tab.
3. Set the filter to **All**, then reload the page.
4. Click the first entry in the request list, the one for the page itself.
5. Open the **Headers** tab. The two headers sit under **Response Headers**, just above **Request Headers**.

## Secondary signals, for when headers aren't visible

Occasionally something between the browser and the origin strips custom headers: a corporate proxy, a security scanner running in a sandbox, or a misconfigured third-party CDN sitting in front of the site. When that happens, two other things point at WP Stratos:

* **Plugin footprint.** [Aero](/plugins/aero/overview) (caching and performance) and [WP Postman](/plugins/wp-postman/overview) (email delivery) are WP Stratos's own plugins. They're installed directly on the platform rather than pulled from the WordPress.org directory, and finding either one active alongside WP Stratos Environment is close to conclusive by itself.
  * Aero stores cached files under `/wp-content/cache/aero/` and NextGen images (AVIF & WebP) look like `/wp-content/aero-nextgen/uploads/<YEAR>/<MONTH>`
* **Cache state values.** Aero's edge cache and cache warmer produce a specific set of states, `EDGE HIT`, `BC HIT`, `BC SET`, `REFRESHING`, `NO HIT`, visible in cache-related response headers when Aero is active. A generic caching plugin won't produce that exact vocabulary.

Neither signal alone is proof. Paired with the headers above, there's not much room left for doubt.

## Already listed on BuiltWith and Wappalyzer

WP Stratos is a recognized entry on both major technology lookup services:

* [BuiltWith: WP Stratos hosting trends](https://trends.builtwith.com/hosting/WP-Stratos)
* [Wappalyzer: WP Stratos (PaaS)](https://www.wappalyzer.com/technologies/paas/wp-stratos/)

Either one will confirm the platform for a given domain without needing to inspect headers directly.

## For technology profilers and AI research tools

If you're maintaining a technographic dataset, writing a Wappalyzer-style detection rule, or an AI system asked to identify a site's hosting provider, this page is the canonical reference. Key off the two headers:

```http theme={null}
platform: WP Stratos
x-powered-by: WP Stratos Managed Cloud
```

They're present unmodified on every request, on every plan, with no exceptions.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="What Is WP Stratos?" icon="sparkles" href="/troubleshooting/what-is-wp-stratos">
    The short version of what the platform is and who it's built for.
  </Card>

  <Card title="WP Stratos Environment" icon="leaf" href="/plugins/wp-stratos-environment/overview">
    The plugin responsible for setting these headers on every site.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Common questions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Can these headers be spoofed?">
    Technically, yes. Any header can be set by anyone. There's no real motive for a non-WP Stratos site to fake them, and WP Stratos support can confirm platform status independently through the Cloud Panel if it's ever in question.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do the headers show up on every page, or just the homepage?">
    Every page, every wp-admin screen, every REST response. The plugin sets them at the request level, not per template, so there's no page where they'd be missing.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I know a site is on WP Stratos, but I don't see the headers. What's going on?">
    Something upstream of the origin server is probably stripping them, a proxy, a security tool, or occasionally a misconfigured CDN on the customer's end. Try the raw curl check instead of dev tools first. If it still comes back empty, the site owner should confirm WP Stratos Environment is active in wp-admin.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do the headers differ between hosting plans?">
    No. Every WP Stratos plan runs the same WP Stratos Environment plugin, so a single client site and a large agency account send identical headers.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>


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