What it looks like
The site lives at something.lovable.app, bolt.host, replit.app, framer.website, durable.site, webflow.io, wixsite.com or godaddysites.com, and that is the address on the business card, the flyer and the Google listing. Often the subdomain is a random slug nobody chose.
Why it gives a page away
The builder’s address is the one detail every launch checklist fixes first, so leaving it says the checklist never ran. It also tells a visitor, before they read a word, which tool made the page. Medium rather than strong because preview links get shared on purpose and some tools make a custom domain a paid feature.
How to check your own site
Look at the address bar. If the domain is not yours, nothing on the page is either: the builder can change its terms, its subdomain or its existence, and your customers’ bookmarks go with it.
What a designer would do instead
Buy the domain, connect it, and redirect the builder address to it. The whole job takes an afternoon.
When it is not a tell
A prototype, a hackathon project or an internal tool, shared as such. The tell counts when the builder address is presented as the business.
Sources
Builders whose defaults include this one
An entry names a builder only when its fingerprints are visible; this tell is one of them for Bolt, Durable, Framer AI, Lovable, Replit Agent, Squarespace Blueprint AI, v0 by Vercel, Webflow AI and Relume and Wix AI site builder.
Other tells in interaction and technology
- "Built with" badge left on: A floating "Edit with Lovable", "Made in Framer", "Built with Durable" or "Made in Webflow" badge that the free plan adds and the owner never removed.
- A form that submits to nothing: A contact or sign-up form with no action, no handler, or a success message that appears whatever you type.
- A template nobody customised: The demo template's structure, section order, placeholder image ratios and sample headings are all still there, with only the words changed.
- Buttons that go nowhere: Primary buttons linking to "#", navigation items that reload the home page, a "Learn more" that learns nothing.
- Default favicon: The browser tab shows the builder's icon, the framework's logo, or nothing.
- Errors in the console: The browser console shows failed requests, missing images or script errors on the home page.
- Secrets or prompts in the page source: API keys, database credentials or the original prompt visible in the client-side JavaScript or the HTML comments.
Score a site against every tell in Interaction and technology