01 · Operator
Who operates WhatCMSBot
- Company
- Nineteen Ten LLC
- Type
- Other bot
- Official docs
- whatcms.org
02 · Behavior
What WhatCMSBot does
WhatCMS detects over 1,200 CMS and other website technologies. It examines artifacts such as meta tags, headers and file paths. The bot fetches pages when someone checks a site on WhatCMS.
03 · Impact
Why WhatCMSBot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Low traffic volume in most cases
- Lets tools report your tech stack correctly
If you block it
- No search or referral benefit
- Exposes your technology stack to third parties
04 · Allow
How to allow WhatCMSBot
robots.txt
User-agent: WhatCMSBot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "WhatCMSBot")
Action: Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules
# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.WordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: WhatCMSBot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "WhatCMSBot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} WhatCMSBot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block WhatCMSBot
Start with robots.txt. If WhatCMSBot keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.
robots.txt
User-agent: WhatCMSBot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "WhatCMSBot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: WhatCMSBot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "WhatCMSBot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} WhatCMSBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for WhatCMSBot
The operator does not publish a full user agent string. Requests contain the token “WhatCMSBot”.
07 · Verification
Is it really WhatCMSBot?
WhatCMSBot’s operator publishes no IP ranges or hostnames, so requests cannot be verified. Treat the user agent as a claim, and watch your logs for unusual request rates.
FAQ
Questions about WhatCMSBot
What is WhatCMSBot?
It is the fetcher of WhatCMS.org, which detects the CMS and other technologies a website runs on.
Who operates WhatCMS?
WhatCMS is run by Nineteen Ten LLC, based in Missoula, Montana.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026