Research
What dispensary websites run on
We took 178 dispensary websites in 21 states and read the homepages of the 158 we could reach (18 were blocked by bot checks and 2 were down), to see how they are built, which online menus they show and what else runs on them. Here is what we found, how we looked, and what the numbers cannot tell you.
- dispensary websites
- 178
- states
- 21
- homepages we could read
- 158
- when we read them
- Sept. 30, 2026
How we looked
- We took 178 dispensary websites from the top search results for 34 cities across 21 states.
- We read each site’s homepage on September 30, 2026: 158 could be read, 18 were blocked by bot checks and 2 were down.
- Only the homepage was read, as its server sends it. No JavaScript was run.
- A finding counts only if the page itself was opened and read. Search results helped find the sites and were never counted as evidence.
- Speed plugins were counted again on the 97 WordPress homepages, by each plugin’s own marks.
Site builders
Share of the 158 homepages we could read.
| Seen | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 97 | 61% |
| Custom builds (Next.js, Remix, other) | 19 | 12% |
| Webflow | 7 | 4% |
| Wix | 7 | 4% |
| Squarespace | 7 | 4% |
| Shopify | 3 | 2% |
| Duda | 3 | 2% |
| GoDaddy builder | 2 | 1% |
| Cannabis-platform hosted (Buddy, DopeTech) | 4 | 3% |
| Other or unknown | 9 | 6% |
Online menus seen on the homepage
Share of the 158 homepages. Menus often live on another page, such as /shop, which the study did not read, so a store in the last row may still have one.
| Seen | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dutchie | 46 | 29% |
| Jane | 9 | 6% |
| Joint | 8 | 5% |
| Tymber (now BLAZE ECOM) | 4 | 3% |
| Sweed | 3 | 2% |
| Flowhub | 3 | 2% |
| None seen on the homepage | 84 | 53% |
What else was on the homepages
- Google Tag Manager is on 84 of the 158 homepages (53%), and on 63% of the WordPress ones.
- An age gate is on 131 (83%).
- 135 (85%) send no Content-Security-Policy, the header that can limit which scripts a page runs. Only 2 have a script allowlist that would block a new third-party script.
- 10 (6%) already have a chat widget. Three run Buddy’s AI shopping chat; the rest are Zendesk, Tidio, Zoho and tawk.to.
- Marketing scripts: Alpine IQ is on 34 (22%) and Surfside on 30 (19%).
Speed plugins on the WordPress homepages
Share of the 97 WordPress homepages. A speed plugin can hold a script back until a visitor scrolls or taps. One site runs two of them, and no site on another builder had any.
| Seen | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A speed plugin that can hold scripts until a visitor scrolls or taps | 34 | 35% |
| of which WP Rocket | 22 | 23% |
| of which LiteSpeed Cache | 10 | 10% |
| of which Cloudflare Rocket Loader | 2 | 2% |
| of which NitroPack | 1 | 1% |
| Scripts visibly held back on the homepage | 15 | 15% |
What the numbers cannot tell you
- The sample is search-ranked, not random: it is the sites that rank well in search, so it may not match every dispensary.
- Only homepages were read. A menu, a chat or a script that appears only on other pages is not counted.
- No JavaScript was run, so anything a page adds after it loads is missed.
- The 18 sites blocked by bot checks and the 2 that were down are not in the shares.
- The menu rows add up to 157 of the 158 homepages: the study does not say what the last one showed.
- The study rates its own confidence as medium. It is one day’s picture, and platforms change their menus often.
Each name here belongs to its owner and is used only to report what the pages showed, not to suggest any tie with Botender.
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