Website Technology Lookup: Why Free Tools Fall Short

There are plenty of free tools for checking what technology a website uses. They work great for occasional lookups. But if you’re trying to build a serious B2B prospecting operation, free tools have real limitations that will eventually hold you back.

In this article, I’ll explain exactly where free technology lookup tools fall short—and when it makes sense to invest in paid alternatives.

What Free Tools Do Well

Let’s start with credit where it’s due. Free technology lookup tools are genuinely useful for certain tasks:

Individual Site Checks

Need to know what CRM a specific company uses before a sales call? Free browser extensions handle this perfectly. Install Wappalyzer, visit the site, click the icon—done.

Curiosity and Learning

Want to understand how technology detection works? Free tools let you experiment without commitment. Great for learning.

Occasional Research

If you check maybe 5-10 sites per week, free tools might be all you need. The limitations we’ll discuss mainly affect heavier usage.

Where Free Tools Fall Short

Limitation 1: No Bulk Search Capability

This is the biggest limitation. Free tools check one site at a time. You visit a website, the tool scans it, you see results.

But what if you need to find all websites using Shopify? Or all companies using HubSpot in the United States? Free tools can’t do this at all.

For that, you need a database—a platform that has already crawled millions of websites and lets you search across them. Free tools don’t offer this.

Limitation 2: No Data Export

Even if you manually check hundreds of sites with a free tool, you can’t easily get that data out. You’d have to copy-paste each result into a spreadsheet—an error-prone process that doesn’t scale.

Paid platforms let you export results as CSV, send to CRM, or access via API. This is essential for any systematic prospecting workflow.

Limitation 3: No Contact Information

Free technology tools tell you what tech a website uses. Period. They don’t tell you:

• Who works at the company
• What their email addresses are
• Who the decision-makers are
• How to reach them

For actual outreach, you need contact data. Free tools leave you with domains and nothing else—you’d need a separate enrichment service anyway.

Limitation 4: Limited Coverage

Free tools typically have smaller databases. A platform optimized for free users doesn’t have the same incentive to invest in massive crawling infrastructure.

Paid platforms like TechLeads.fyi track 450+ million websites. Free tools typically cover a fraction of that.

Limitation 5: No Filtering or Segmentation

Let’s say you want to find Shopify stores in the UK with more than 10,000 monthly visitors that also use Klaviyo. Free tools can’t do this.

Advanced filtering—by geography, traffic, multiple technologies, company attributes—is what turns raw technology data into targeted lead lists. Free tools only show what’s on the current page.

Limitation 6: Data Freshness Questions

When a free browser extension shows you results, how current is that data? Extensions typically check in real-time (good), but they’re only checking the sites you visit.

For databases of historical results, free tiers rarely invest in frequent refresh cycles. Paid platforms can afford to re-crawl regularly because paying customers expect current data.

Limitation 7: Usage Limits

“Free” often means limited. Many free tools cap monthly lookups, restrict certain features, or show incomplete results until you upgrade.

This is fine for light usage, but if you’re doing serious prospecting, you’ll hit those limits quickly.

The Real Cost of “Free”

Here’s the hidden cost that’s easy to miss: time.

If you need to find 1,000 companies using a specific technology with free tools, you’d have to:

1. Somehow find 1,000 websites to check (where do you even get that list?)
2. Visit each site individually
3. Manually record the results
4. Research contact information separately

That could take weeks of manual work. A paid tool does it in minutes.

If your time has any value—and as a sales or marketing professional, it definitely does—the “free” approach often costs more than just paying for the right tool.

When to Stick with Free Tools

Free tools make sense when:

• You only check a few sites per week
• You’re just doing pre-call research on known prospects
• You don’t need to export data or build lists
• You have a separate source for contact information
• You’re learning/exploring, not doing production prospecting

When to Upgrade to Paid Tools

Paid technology lookup tools become essential when:

• You need to find companies using specific technologies (not just check known sites)
• You’re building prospect lists at any scale
• You want contact data included with technology data
• You need to filter by geography, traffic, or other criteria
• Your time is valuable and manual research doesn’t scale

What to Look for in a Paid Tool

If you decide to upgrade, here’s what matters:

Database Size

More indexed websites means better coverage of your target market. Look for 100M+ minimum, ideally 400M+.

Search and Filtering

Can you search by technology and then filter by geography, traffic, and other technologies? This is essential for targeted lists.

Contact Enrichment

Does the platform include or offer contact data? Getting emails and phone numbers with your technology export saves a separate step.

Export Options

CSV at minimum, but CRM integrations and API access are valuable for workflow automation.

Pricing

Paid doesn’t have to mean expensive. TechLeads.fyi offers comprehensive features at $79/month—a fraction of what enterprise tools charge.

The Bottom Line

Free technology lookup tools are genuinely useful—for individual site checks, casual research, and light usage.

But they’re not built for serious B2B prospecting. If you need to find companies by technology, build lists, export data, and get contact information, free tools will hold you back.

The question isn’t “free vs. paid” in abstract. It’s “what do I actually need?” If you need bulk search, filtering, and export capabilities, invest in a tool that provides them.

Ready to upgrade your technology research? Try TechLeads.fyi—comprehensive technology data at a price that actually makes sense.