# Who Hosts This Website Identify who is behind a website from a domain or URL. Resolves A, AAAA and the CNAME chain; maps each IP to its network owner (AS number and organisation, DB-IP Lite) and country; recognises CDNs, proxies and hosting platforms (Cloudflare, Fastly, Akamai, CloudFront, Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages, Shopify and others) from IP ranges, AS numbers, CNAMEs and, only when those do not settle it, one HEAD request for response headers; reads the DNS provider from the nameservers and the email provider from the MX records; and looks up the abuse contact of the serving network. Says plainly when a CDN hides the origin server (it never tries to unmask it). Every finding lists its evidence. Accepts domains and URLs only. Network owners and countries need the DB-IP data to be downloaded (the result notes it when not); show the attribution field ("IP geolocation by DB-IP", https://db-ip.com) with them. **Not for:** IP addresses (use ip_location or ip_whois), finding the origin behind a CDN, subdomain discovery, technology fingerprinting of page content or registrar lookups (use whois_lookup). - Tool id: `website-hosting` - Category: domain - Execution: network - MCP tool `website_hosting` at https://lookupowl.com/mcp - REST `GET https://lookupowl.com/api/v1/tools/website-hosting` (or POST a JSON body) - OpenAPI: https://lookupowl.com/api/openapi.json ## Input | Field | Type | Required | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---|---| | `target` | string | yes | | A domain name or a website address, e.g. example.com or https://www.example.com/page. Only the host is used. IP addresses are not accepted here (use ip_location for those). max length 2048 | | `probe` | boolean | no | `true` | Allow one request to the site (HEAD, over https) to read response headers that give away CDNs and platforms. It is only made when the DNS and network data have not already identified the host. Switch off to use DNS and network data alone. | | `includeAbuse` | boolean | no | `true` | Also look up the abuse contact of the network that serves the site (one registry lookup). | ## Output Results are wrapped in an envelope: `tool`, `version`, `requestId`, `data`, `summary`, `meta` (cache status, timing), `permalink`. `data` has these fields: | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `host` | string | The host that was checked (lower-case, A-label). | | `domain` | string | The registrable domain whose nameservers and mail records were read. | | `dns` | object | | | `verdict` | object | | | `web` | object[] | | | `providers` | object[] | Every web-side provider found, with the evidence for each. | | `headers` | object | | | `dnsHosting` | object | | | `email` | object | | | `abuse` | object | Who to report abuse to for the network that serves the site: the registry's abuse mailbox, plus the provider's report page when known. | | `notes` | string[] | | | `data` | object | | | `attribution` | object | Network owners and countries come from DB-IP Lite; show this credit wherever you show them. | ## Examples ### A site behind Cloudflare: the origin is hidden ```json {"target":"www.cloudflare.com","probe":true,"includeAbuse":true} ``` ```bash curl 'https://lookupowl.com/api/v1/tools/website-hosting?includeAbuse=true&probe=true&target=www.cloudflare.com' ``` Web page: https://lookupowl.com/who-hosts-this-website?q=www.cloudflare.com ### A site on a hosting platform (GitHub Pages) ```json {"target":"pages.github.com","probe":true,"includeAbuse":true} ``` ```bash curl 'https://lookupowl.com/api/v1/tools/website-hosting?includeAbuse=true&probe=true&target=pages.github.com' ``` Web page: https://lookupowl.com/who-hosts-this-website?q=pages.github.com ### A site on its own hosting company network ```json {"target":"example.com","probe":true,"includeAbuse":true} ``` ```bash curl 'https://lookupowl.com/api/v1/tools/website-hosting?includeAbuse=true&probe=true&target=example.com' ``` Web page: https://lookupowl.com/who-hosts-this-website?q=example.com ### Network and DNS data only, no request to the site ```json {"target":"wikipedia.org","probe":false,"includeAbuse":false} ``` ```bash curl 'https://lookupowl.com/api/v1/tools/website-hosting?includeAbuse=false&probe=false&target=wikipedia.org' ``` Web page: https://lookupowl.com/who-hosts-this-website?q=wikipedia.org&includeAbuse=false&probe=false ## Web pages - https://lookupowl.com/who-hosts-this-website - https://lookupowl.com/dns-provider-lookup ## Limits and caching - Cost: from 1 unit up, depending on the input (a registry lookup counts every upstream request); 1 unit for a cached result. Budgets are per network and published in the `RateLimit` response headers. - Cache: the lifetime follows the data (for DNS, the record TTL, within a few minutes). Add `fresh=true` (MCP argument or query parameter) to look again; it costs 3 units per unit and is limited to 10 per hour. - Timeout: 20 s. ## Related tools - [IP Location Lookup](https://lookupowl.com/tools/ip-location.md): Where an IP address is: city, region, country and the network that runs it, from DB-IP, with an honest accuracy note. - [Domain Report: Registration, DNS, Web, Hosting and Email](https://lookupowl.com/tools/domain-report.md): One scored report on a domain: registration, DNS, certificate and security headers, hosting, SPF, DMARC, DKIM and blocklists. - [DNS Lookup](https://lookupowl.com/tools/dns-lookup.md): Look up A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, SOA, CAA, DS and DNSKEY records from a public resolver or the authoritative nameserver. - [IP WHOIS Lookup](https://lookupowl.com/tools/ip-whois.md): Who owns an IPv4 or IPv6 address: network range, name, country, registry, abuse contact and origin AS, from RDAP. - [ASN Lookup](https://lookupowl.com/tools/asn-lookup.md): Who holds an Autonomous System number: name, country, registry, dates and abuse contact, from RDAP. - [HTTP Headers Checker](https://lookupowl.com/tools/http-headers.md): Fetch a URL, follow its redirects and see every response header, with a security-header grade and caching summary. - [WHOIS Lookup](https://lookupowl.com/tools/whois-lookup.md): Registrar, creation and expiry dates, status codes, nameservers and DNSSEC for any domain, from RDAP with WHOIS fallback. ## Guide: Who hosts this website? Enter a domain to see the host or CDN behind it, who runs its DNS and email, and the proof for each answer. ### What this checker finds A website is rarely one thing. The pages might be served by a hosting company, the traffic might pass through a CDN first, the domain's DNS might live with a third company, and email might be handled by a fourth. This page looks at all of them and says which provider is behind each part, instead of making you piece it together from separate tools. - **The web side.** Every address the site points to, the network that owns it, and whether it belongs to a CDN, a hosting platform, a hosting company or a cloud. - **The DNS provider.** Read from the nameservers of the domain. - **The email provider.** Read from the MX records. - **The abuse contact.** The address to report spam, phishing or attacks to, for the network that serves the site. ### How to use it 1. **Enter a domain or a web address**: A bare domain such as `example.com` works, and so does a full address with a path. Only the host name is used. IP addresses are not accepted here: the [IP lookup](https://lookupowl.com/ip-lookup) answers for those. 2. **Read the verdict**: The headline names the provider and says what kind it is: a CDN, a platform, a host or a cloud. A confidence label says how many independent clues agree. 3. **Check the evidence**: Open the evidence tab to see what each finding rests on, such as a CNAME to a provider's domain, an AS number, a published address range or a response header. ### When the origin is hidden behind a CDN A CDN or reverse proxy such as Cloudflare, Fastly or Akamai answers for the site. Visitors connect to the CDN, and the CDN fetches pages from the real server, the origin. That is why the address you see belongs to the CDN, and why no honest tool can tell you who runs the origin from outside. When we see a CDN, we say "behind Cloudflare" and that the origin is hidden. We do not try to unmask it. Digging out an origin behind a CDN is a way to attack the site by going around its protection, so this page leaves it alone. If you own the site, your hosting account tells you where the origin is. If you need to report a problem with a site behind a CDN, report it to the CDN's abuse team, which can pass it on. ### How the answer is worked out | Clue | What it shows | |---|---| | CNAME chain | A name such as `example.cloudfront.net` or `example.netlify.app` points straight at a CDN or platform. | | Published address ranges | Some CDNs publish the ranges they use. An address inside them is theirs. | | Network owner (AS number) | The organisation that announces the address. Well-known hosts and clouds are recognised. | | Response headers | Headers such as `cf-ray`, `x-amz-cf-id` or `x-vercel-id` give away a CDN or platform. They are read only when the clues above did not already settle it, with one request to the site. | | Nameservers and MX hosts | The names of the DNS and mail servers point to those providers. | Network owners and countries come from the free DB-IP Lite databases, credited as "IP geolocation by DB-IP". The provider patterns are a short list kept by hand, so a small host may show as an unrecognised network. In that case its organisation name is still shown, and it is usually the hosting company. ### Frequently asked questions **How can I tell who hosts a website?** Look up the website's IP address and see which network owns it, then check whether the site sits behind a CDN. This page does both: it follows the DNS records, names the owner of each address and reads the DNS and mail providers. When a CDN is in front, the real host is not visible, and the page says so. **Why does it say Cloudflare when my host is somebody else?** Because Cloudflare is in front of your host. Visitors reach Cloudflare's servers, and Cloudflare forwards requests to your real server. Both the address and the headers belong to Cloudflare, so the real host cannot be seen from outside. Your hosting account or the site owner knows who it is. **Can I find the real server behind a CDN?** Not here. We deliberately do not try, because finding an origin that a CDN protects is a first step in attacking it. Site owners can always see their own origin in their hosting dashboard. If you need to reach whoever runs the site, use the abuse contact or the domain's registration data from [WHOIS](https://lookupowl.com/whois). **Is the host the same as the domain registrar?** No. The registrar sells the domain name and keeps it registered. The host runs the server that delivers the pages. They can be the same company, but often are not. A domain registered at one company can point to a site hosted at another and use DNS from a third. **Who do I report phishing or abuse to?** Report it to the abuse contact of the network that serves the site. The page lists the registry's abuse mailbox for that network, and the provider's own report page when it has one. If a CDN is in front of the site, report to the CDN, which can pass the report on to its customer. **How accurate is the result?** When a CNAME, a published address range or a header names a provider, it is very reliable. When the answer rests on the network owner alone, it points to the hosting company or its reseller. The confidence label shows which case you have, and the evidence tab lists every clue so you can check it yourself. **Does the checker contact the website?** Sometimes, once. If DNS and network data already identify a CDN, platform or host, nothing is sent to the site. Otherwise one HEAD request over https asks for response headers, which never include the page. You can switch the request off in More options. For a full look at the headers, use the [HTTP headers checker](https://lookupowl.com/http-headers-checker).