How to Find What Analytics Tools a Website Uses (2026 Guide)

Why Detect Website Analytics Tools?

Understanding a site's analytics stack is valuable across many professional use cases:

• Competitive intelligence: See whether a competitor uses an advanced product analytics tool like Amplitude or Mixpanel, which may indicate a data-driven product culture you can benchmark against.
• Privacy and compliance audits: Identify third-party tracking scripts that may be subject to GDPR, CCPA, or ePrivacy consent requirements.
• Sales prospecting: Target companies using specific analytics platforms with relevant tooling, integrations, or migration services.
• Technical due diligence: Assess the measurement maturity of an acquisition target or partnership candidate.
• Developer and agency onboarding: Quickly map the existing tracking setup of a new client site before making changes.

Fastest Method: Free Scanner Tool

The quickest and most reliable approach is to use Web Reveal—a free technology scanner that detects analytics tools, tag managers, and the full technology stack of any URL in seconds. Web Reveal identifies Google Analytics 4, Universal Analytics (where still present), Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, Mixpanel, Segment, Amplitude, Plausible, PostHog, and dozens of other tracking platforms.

Enter the website URL on the Web Reveal homepage. The results are grouped by category—Analytics, Tag Managers, CMS, Hosting, and more—so you can see at a glance exactly which analytics tools are active.

For live browsing, the Web Reveal Chrome extension displays the detected analytics tools in a popup without requiring you to visit the Web Reveal website.

Detecting Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Page source method

Press Ctrl+U (or Cmd+U on Mac) to view the page source and search for:

• gtag/js?id=G- – The GA4 global site tag script loaded directly. The ID format is G-XXXXXXXXXX (a G followed by 10 alphanumeric characters).
• gtag('config', 'G- – The gtag.js configuration call with the GA4 Measurement ID.
• ga('create', 'UA- – Legacy Universal Analytics; still present on some sites in 2026.

Network request method

Open developer tools (F12), go to the Network tab, and filter by collect. Reload the page and look for requests to:

• https://www.google-analytics.com/g/collect – GA4 measurement protocol hit.
• https://analytics.google.com/g/collect – Alternative GA4 endpoint.
• https://www.google-analytics.com/collect – Legacy Universal Analytics hit.

Clicking on any of these requests shows the full payload, including the Measurement ID (tid parameter for UA; tid or query parameter tid=G- for GA4).

Detecting Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is often used as the delivery mechanism for GA4 and many other analytics tags, so its presence suggests that additional tools may be firing even if they are not immediately visible in the page source.

Search the page source for:

• googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM- – The GTM script tag with a Container ID in the format GTM-XXXXXXX.
• <noscript> iframe containing googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM- – The GTM no-script fallback.
• window.dataLayer – GTM pushes events to this JavaScript array. Typing dataLayer in the browser console will return the array with any pushed events if GTM is active.

Detecting Hotjar

Hotjar is a popular session recording and heatmap tool. Its signals include:

• static.hotjar.com/c/hotjar- – The Hotjar script URL pattern, where the number following "hotjar-" is the site's Hotjar ID.
• hj global JavaScript function – Typing typeof hj in the browser console returns "function" if Hotjar is loaded.
• hjBootstrap or _hjSettings – Hotjar configuration objects in the page source, typically in an inline script block.
• Network requests to insights.hotjar.com – Hotjar sends session data to this endpoint.

Detecting Mixpanel, Segment, and Amplitude

Mixpanel

Mixpanel signals in the page source or network layer:

• cdn.mxpnl.com or cdn4.mxpnl.com – Mixpanel's CDN script URL.
• mixpanel.init( – The initialisation call in inline JavaScript, often containing the Project Token.
• Network requests to api.mixpanel.com/track or api-js.mixpanel.com – Mixpanel event tracking endpoints.
• mixpanel global object – Typing typeof mixpanel in the console returns "object" if Mixpanel is loaded.

Segment

Segment acts as a customer data platform that routes events to multiple downstream tools, so its presence often implies additional analytics platforms:

• cdn.segment.com/analytics.js or cdn.segment.io/analytics.js – The Segment Analytics.js script.
• analytics.load( – The Segment initialisation call with the Write Key.
• analytics global object – Typing analytics.initialized in the console returns true if Segment is loaded.
• Network requests to api.segment.io/v1/ or a custom first-party domain proxy.

Amplitude

Amplitude is common on product-led SaaS websites:

• cdn.amplitude.com/libs/ or cdn.eu.amplitude.com – The Amplitude SDK script URL.
• amplitude.getInstance().init( – The legacy initialisation pattern.
• Network requests to api2.amplitude.com/2/httpapi or api.amplitude.com.
• amplitude global object – Typing typeof amplitude in the console returns "object" when loaded.

Using Network Requests to Find Analytics

The Network tab in browser developer tools is the most comprehensive method for finding analytics tools, because it captures beacons and requests that may not be visible in the static page source (e.g., those loaded by GTM or injected after a user interaction):

1. Open developer tools (F12) and go to the Network tab.
2. Enable the Preserve log checkbox to capture requests across page loads and navigation events.
3. Reload the page and interact with it (scroll, click buttons) to trigger event-based analytics.
4. Filter requests by common analytics domains: google-analytics.com, hotjar.com, mixpanel.com, segment.io, amplitude.com, plausible.io, posthog.com, clarity.ms (Microsoft Clarity).
5. Inspect the request payloads for tracking IDs, event names, and user properties.

This method also reveals analytics tools delivered via server-side proxies, which often use first-party domains but still send recognisable payloads to third-party endpoints.

Server-Side Tagging and Its Limits

An increasing number of sites use server-side Google Tag Manager (sGTM) or custom server-side proxies to route analytics data. In a server-side setup:

• The browser sends events to a first-party domain (e.g., metrics.example.com) rather than directly to google-analytics.com.
• The server then forwards the data to the analytics platforms, making the destinations invisible to client-side inspection.
• The GTM container script is often still loaded from googletagmanager.com, but the event endpoints are proxied.

Even with server-side tagging, the GTM container ID is usually still present in the page source, and JavaScript globals (dataLayer, gtag) remain visible. Automated scanners like Web Reveal detect the tag manager layer and infer likely downstream tools from the configuration patterns.

Privacy note: Analytics tool detection is a read-only, passive activity using publicly accessible page signals. It does not involve accessing any private data or bypassing any access controls.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I find out what analytics tools a website uses?

The fastest method is to scan the URL with Web Reveal. Manually, view the page source and search for analytics script patterns, or inspect network requests in browser developer tools to identify analytics beacons.

How do I detect Google Analytics 4 on a website?

Search the page source for gtag/js?id=G- or filter network requests for google-analytics.com/g/collect. The GA4 Measurement ID follows the pattern G-XXXXXXXXXX.

How do I tell if a website uses Google Tag Manager?

Look for googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM- in the page source, or type dataLayer in the browser console and check if it returns an array.

Can a website hide what analytics tools it uses?

Server-side tagging can mask many analytics destinations from client-side inspection. However, JavaScript globals, dataLayer configurations, and cookie names often remain visible, and automated scanners can still identify most tools in common setups.