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True. Comparing with Wappalyzer and BuiltWith, here's why we think we have something different (and maybe better): 1. WhatRuns detects fonts, Wordpress plugins

True. Comparing with Wappalyzer and BuiltWith, here's why we think we have something different (and maybe better): 1. WhatRuns detects fonts, Wordpress plugins and themes (tens of thousands of them). 2. Ability to follow sites (and know what techs websites started using/ditched). 3. Very lightweight compared to our counterparts, and arguably better UI ;) 4. More accurate data. BuiltWith can be very inaccurate as you might've already noticed. Wappalyzer is fairly accurate, but limited in technologies. WhatRuns is trying to be the best of both worlds.

trjordan 9y ago
How is WhatRuns more accurate? Are you doing something different to get your information?
- jijosunny 9y ago
  We are using a deep learning algorithm to improve the detection. We also have a built-in module that automatically detects new web patterns – which we then manually curate to ensure accuracy.
  - korzun 9y ago
    > We are using a deep learning algorithm to improve the detection. No, you are not.
    - jijosunny 9y ago
      @korzun I'll explain. We use several signals like code snippets, filename, directory name, header info and several others to accurately identify technologies. However, there are many possibilities where this can go wrong even with few signals correct. Every time we detect a technology, we calculate a probability of its accuracy and filter out the rest. This system self-learns and improves the identification over time. Hope this helps.
      - MrQuincle 9y ago
        What is self-learning? What kind of algorithms if I may ask?
      - korzun 9y ago
        I like your website but what you are describing is not a deep learning algorithm. I'm not a big fan of people who do something well and then start going overboard with buzz words. You are most likely have a system that consumes content, compares that content against known hashed variants. If there is no match, you diff against known variants and check if the output matches any of the 'minimal' implementations. If you can't match anything, you simply stage that content for a manual review.
        jijosunny 9y ago
        Thanks for telling us what we do at Whatruns. I’ll let the team know ;) On a serious note, I'm with you on how new start-ups go overboard with buzz words. As for WhatRuns, it was intentional that we do not use any jargons to advertise our product on the website, Product Hunt or HackerNews, so that it does not lose its charm. For a new startup to achieve this scale in technology identification and accuracy compared to established players with more than a decade of development (and data), it is self-evident that manual labour would not yield such a result. In fact, technology breakthroughs and an excellent technical team were the reason why we decided to give this shot in the first place. We plan to publish a comparative study on our experience with the effectiveness and superior prediction quality of deep learning vs normal pattern identification on our blog (which we will soon move to Medium). Stay tuned! :)
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
takeda 9y ago
At least they do it properly; as a site. Your extension only works on Chrome, and it is for a feature that is not used commonly. There is no good reason to install it on a web browser. Installing it in a browser is also a threat that the extension might do more than just scanning sites, and even if it doesn't affect privacy it still encourages installing extra junk on web browsers.
- jijosunny 9y ago
  We started with extension as developers/designers found it especially handy for a quick look-up while working on their projects. Not to worry though - we're working on something for the web as well! ️ BTW WhatRuns works on all major browsers.
  - takeda 9y ago
    I only see Chrome buttons on the site.
    - jijosunny 9y ago
      That is if you access from Chrome. Please head over to our 'Download' page for Firefox: https://www.whatruns.com/downloads/ https://www.whatruns.com/downloads/ We haven't publicised other extensions due to lack of demand.
      - takeda 9y ago
        I'm on firefox and just checked it sends proper user agent (for firefox 55)
  - dbrgn 9y ago
    The extension does not seem to work on Firefox for Android, even though it's installable.
  - nedt 9y ago
    I don't see how it'll work on any browser on iOS.
eagsalazar2 9y ago
I'd put an asterisk next to #4 for now. On a couple ruby/rails apps we've built you listed the backend tech as cowboy/erlang. I saw your comment above about how hard it is to be accurate with thousands of frameworks but rails? We're using jwplayer, segment, and facebook (all of which you correctly detected, woohoo!) so maybe that is confusing things? [edit] to be fair other options I tried don't detect the backend at all. This is a single page app with rails api so I get that might be harder than a rails app with server rendering and full page reloads.
- lstamour 9y ago
  If there’s no headers or obvious tells at a framework level, it can be hard to detect server-side code. Maybe Ruby-specific serialization in session cookies, or the name of session cookies, use of HTML templates or code gen or URL patterns... but there can be tons of false positives. Client-side is much easier and a whole different story. Same with pre-built client code like CSS in WordPress templates, or standard admin login pages.
cvsh 9y ago
The one advantage Wappalyzer has is that it changes its icon to show the primary technology the site is using (i.e. JS framework) so I can glance over and see "Oh, this is built with React". If Whatruns had that feature, I'd seriously consider switching. But otherwise, there's just no way I could. It's way too convenient.

trjordan 9y ago

How is WhatRuns more accurate? Are you doing something different to get your information?

jijosunny 9y ago
We are using a deep learning algorithm to improve the detection. We also have a built-in module that automatically detects new web patterns – which we then manually curate to ensure accuracy.
- korzun 9y ago
  > We are using a deep learning algorithm to improve the detection. No, you are not.
  - jijosunny 9y ago
    @korzun I'll explain. We use several signals like code snippets, filename, directory name, header info and several others to accurately identify technologies. However, there are many possibilities where this can go wrong even with few signals correct. Every time we detect a technology, we calculate a probability of its accuracy and filter out the rest. This system self-learns and improves the identification over time. Hope this helps.
    - MrQuincle 9y ago
      What is self-learning? What kind of algorithms if I may ask?
    - korzun 9y ago
      I like your website but what you are describing is not a deep learning algorithm. I'm not a big fan of people who do something well and then start going overboard with buzz words. You are most likely have a system that consumes content, compares that content against known hashed variants. If there is no match, you diff against known variants and check if the output matches any of the 'minimal' implementations. If you can't match anything, you simply stage that content for a manual review.
      - jijosunny 9y ago
        Thanks for telling us what we do at Whatruns. I’ll let the team know ;) On a serious note, I'm with you on how new start-ups go overboard with buzz words. As for WhatRuns, it was intentional that we do not use any jargons to advertise our product on the website, Product Hunt or HackerNews, so that it does not lose its charm. For a new startup to achieve this scale in technology identification and accuracy compared to established players with more than a decade of development (and data), it is self-evident that manual labour would not yield such a result. In fact, technology breakthroughs and an excellent technical team were the reason why we decided to give this shot in the first place. We plan to publish a comparative study on our experience with the effectiveness and superior prediction quality of deep learning vs normal pattern identification on our blog (which we will soon move to Medium). Stay tuned! :)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

takeda 9y ago

At least they do it properly; as a site. Your extension only works on Chrome, and it is for a feature that is not used commonly. There is no good reason to install it on a web browser. Installing it in a browser is also a threat that the extension might do more than just scanning sites, and even if it doesn't affect privacy it still encourages installing extra junk on web browsers.

jijosunny 9y ago
We started with extension as developers/designers found it especially handy for a quick look-up while working on their projects. Not to worry though - we're working on something for the web as well! ️ BTW WhatRuns works on all major browsers.
- takeda 9y ago
  I only see Chrome buttons on the site.
  - jijosunny 9y ago
    That is if you access from Chrome. Please head over to our 'Download' page for Firefox: https://www.whatruns.com/downloads/ https://www.whatruns.com/downloads/ We haven't publicised other extensions due to lack of demand.
    - takeda 9y ago
      I'm on firefox and just checked it sends proper user agent (for firefox 55)
- dbrgn 9y ago
  The extension does not seem to work on Firefox for Android, even though it's installable.
- nedt 9y ago
  I don't see how it'll work on any browser on iOS.

eagsalazar2 9y ago

I'd put an asterisk next to #4 for now. On a couple ruby/rails apps we've built you listed the backend tech as cowboy/erlang. I saw your comment above about how hard it is to be accurate with thousands of frameworks but rails? We're using jwplayer, segment, and facebook (all of which you correctly detected, woohoo!) so maybe that is confusing things? [edit] to be fair other options I tried don't detect the backend at all. This is a single page app with rails api so I get that might be harder than a rails app with server rendering and full page reloads.

lstamour 9y ago
If there’s no headers or obvious tells at a framework level, it can be hard to detect server-side code. Maybe Ruby-specific serialization in session cookies, or the name of session cookies, use of HTML templates or code gen or URL patterns... but there can be tons of false positives. Client-side is much easier and a whole different story. Same with pre-built client code like CSS in WordPress templates, or standard admin login pages.

cvsh 9y ago

The one advantage Wappalyzer has is that it changes its icon to show the primary technology the site is using (i.e. JS framework) so I can glance over and see "Oh, this is built with React". If Whatruns had that feature, I'd seriously consider switching. But otherwise, there's just no way I could. It's way too convenient.