# YC Startup Website Study: 3,791 Sites > We fetched 3,791 YC startup homepages from 2021 to 2026: what they’re built on, by batch and team size, and how much of each AI crawlers can read. Source: https://pentaclay.com/research/yc-startup-websites # What 3,791 YC startups build their websites with We fetched the homepage of every YC company from the 2021 to 2026 batches. Then we tested how much of each one AI crawlers can read, and checked 114 AI company homepages the way an enterprise customer reads them. [Book a call](https://cal.com/pentaclay/discovery-call) [See the Free Website Audit](https://pentaclay.com/free-website-audit) In short ## The study, in short Updated 17 Oct 2026 On 10 Oct 2026 we fetched the homepages of 3,791 YC companies from the 2021 to 2026 batches. 2,945 answered. Next.js was the most common platform: 1,060 of the 2,945. At companies with 16 to 50 people, Webflow led with 120 of 385. Client-rendered single-page apps, the kind AI builders make, grew from 20 of 522 homepages in the 2021 batch to 70 of 648 in 2026. On 77 of them, AI crawlers could read a median of 8 words. Framer homepages showed a median of 1,543. ## The numbers Counts, not rounded. The method is further down the page. Checked 17 Oct 2026 2,945 of 3,791 YC homepages from the 2021 to 2026 batches that answered when we fetched them. Source: Pentaclay YC website study, 10 Oct 2026 120 of 385 Companies with 16 to 50 people whose homepage runs on Webflow, more than any other platform at that size. Source: Pentaclay YC website study, 10 Oct 2026 310 of 648 Homepages in the 2026 batch that run on Next.js. Source: Pentaclay YC website study, 10 Oct 2026 70 of 648 2026-batch homepages that are client-rendered single-page apps. In the 2021 batch it was 20 of 522. Source: Pentaclay YC website study, 10 Oct 2026 8 words The median AI crawlers could read on 77 client-rendered single-page homepages. Framer homepages: 1,543. Source: Pentaclay YC website study, 10 Oct 2026 1,001 of 2,945 Homepages served from Vercel. Source: Pentaclay YC website study, 10 Oct 2026 ## Platforms by YC batch Number of homepages on each platform. “Homepages” is how many answered in that batch. Other platforms and sites we couldn’t name make up the rest of each row. Batch Homepages Next.js Webflow Framer Astro Single-page app WordPress 2021 522 113 150 26 22 20 50 2022 467 117 120 30 19 22 49 2023 351 120 82 29 19 15 11 2024 445 164 82 55 28 34 5 2025 512 236 27 47 41 49 3 2026 648 310 14 28 54 70 2 All 2,945 1,060 475 215 183 210 120 Source: Pentaclay YC website study. Each homepage fetched once on 10 Oct 2026. ## Platforms by team size The bigger the team, the more often marketing owns the site. Team size (people) Homepages Next.js Webflow Framer WordPress 0 to 5 1,699 718 150 102 40 6 to 15 706 198 158 69 38 16 to 50 385 105 120 33 30 51 or more 154 39 47 11 12 16 or more, 2024 to 2026 batches only 77 28 19 11 0 Source: Pentaclay YC website study, 10 Oct 2026. Team size as listed in YC’s public company data; companies with no number count as 0 to 5. One company has no usable team size and is left out, so the rows add up to 2,944 of the 2,945. ## How much AI crawlers can read We fetched about 80 homepages per platform again as GPTBot, OpenAI’s crawler. We read the raw HTML without running JavaScript and counted the visible words. Platform Homepages tested Median words AI crawlers can read Fewer than 50 words Single-page app (Lovable, Bolt and similar) 77 8 64 of 77 Lovable (its own code found) 23 8 16 of 23 Next.js 79 724 2 of 79 Webflow 78 1,136.5 2 of 78 Astro 77 1,174 0 of 77 Framer 80 1,543 1 of 80 Source: Pentaclay YC website study, crawler test on 10 Oct 2026. ## What 114 AI company homepages show a customer AI-tagged YC companies in B2B, fintech, health and industrials, with 16 to 530 people, from the 2021 to 2025 batches. Fetched 13 Oct 2026. On the homepage Homepages How we counted A link to a security, trust or compliance page 66 of 114 A link to /security, /trust, /trust-center or /compliance, a trust or security subdomain, or a link labeled “security” or “trust”. A link to customers or case studies 75 of 114 A link to /customers, /case-studies, /stories or /success, or labeled “customers”, “case study” or “customer stories”. A link with “demo” in its label 74 of 114 Link text contains “demo”. A link to a pricing page 58 of 114 A link to /pricing or /plans, or labeled “pricing”. An llms.txt file 64 of 114 /llms.txt answers with a text file longer than 50 characters. Mentions integrations 77 of 114 Text contains “integration” or “integrate”. Says “docs” or “documentation” 61 of 114 Anywhere in the text, menu labels included. Mentions SOC 2 38 of 114 “SOC 2” or “SOC2”. Mentions GDPR 31 of 114 “GDPR”. Mentions HIPAA 19 of 114 “HIPAA”. Mentions SSO, SAML or single sign-on 16 of 114 Any of the three. “AI” in the main headline 42 of 114 The H1 contains “AI” or “artificial intelligence”. Calls the product “AI-powered”, “AI-native” or “AI-driven” 39 of 114 Any of the three. No main headline (H1) in the HTML 16 of 114 No H1 with text in it. Source: Pentaclay audit of 114 YC AI company homepages, 13 Oct 2026. Text means the homepage HTML without scripts and styles. ## Sign-up, demo and pricing How each homepage lets a customer start, and whether it links to pricing. What the homepage offers Companies Link to pricing A sign-up and a demo 39 33 of 39 A demo, no sign-up 37 17 of 37 A sign-up, no demo 13 6 of 13 Neither 25 2 of 25 Source: Pentaclay audit of 114 YC AI company homepages, 13 Oct 2026. Sign-up means a link such as “sign up”, “get started”, “start free”, “try free” or “free trial”. Demo means “contact sales”, “talk to sales”, or a link to request, book, get or schedule a demo. ## AI agent companies and control 57 of the 114 homepages mention agents three or more times. Here is what those 57 say about control. Of those 57 homepages Count How we counted Mention human review, oversight or approval 20 of 57 “Human in the loop”, “human review”, “human oversight”, “approval” or “approve”. Mention an audit log or trace 13 of 57 “Audit log”, “audit trail”, “full audit”, “full trace”, “traceable” or “every action”. Mention guardrails 7 of 57 “Guardrail”. Mention none of the three 31 of 57 Source: Pentaclay audit of 114 YC AI company homepages, 13 Oct 2026. ## How we ran the study ### Which companies We started from the public YC company list (the yc-oss dataset). We kept every company from the 2021 to 2026 batches with a website: 3,791 sites. ### How we fetched We fetched each homepage once on 10 Oct 2026, as a normal desktop browser. We didn’t crawl other pages. 2,945 answered with a page. 817 failed, mostly bot protection and dead domains, and 29 came back empty. ### How we named the platform We looked for each platform’s own code in the HTML: framerusercontent.com for Framer, website-files.com for Webflow, /\_next/static for Next.js, and so on. When a site builder and a framework both show, the builder wins. 495 of the 2,945 had no sign we could name. ### Single-page apps A “single-page app” loads one JavaScript bundle from /assets/index-…, the pattern Vite builds leave. Lovable, Bolt and similar AI builders make this kind of site. The group also has some React apps that teams wrote by hand, mostly in the 2021 and 2022 batches. Homepages with Lovable’s own code count on their own: 23 of them. ### The AI crawler test We took about 80 homepages per platform and fetched them again as GPTBot. We read the raw HTML without running JavaScript, as AI search crawlers do, and counted the visible words. Google runs JavaScript, so a site can rank on Google and still look empty to ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity. ### The 114 AI homepage audit We took AI-tagged YC companies in B2B, fintech, health and industrials with 16 or more people: 86 B2B, 15 fintech, 7 health and 6 industrials. We fetched each homepage on 13 Oct 2026 and checked it with the text and link rules in the tables above. ### Limits 846 of the 3,791 homepages couldn’t be read, so some companies are missing. YC leans toward US, technical founders, so other startups may build differently. A homepage is one page: a company may have a security page its homepage doesn’t link to. The text rules count words, not quality. ## What it means for founders - Small teams write their own site, and that’s fine. 718 of 1,699 teams of 0 to 5 people run Next.js. - When marketing joins, the site changes hands. At 16 to 50 people, Webflow leads with 120 of 385. Pick the platform by who will edit the site after launch. - If an AI builder made your site, check what AI search sees. On 64 of 77 single-page homepages, AI crawlers could read fewer than 50 words. - Link your security page from the homepage. 66 of 114 AI company homepages do, and 38 mention SOC 2. - Give each customer a way in. 39 of 114 offer both a sign-up and a demo, and 33 of those 39 link to pricing. - Say what the product does before you say it’s AI. 39 of 114 homepages call the product AI-powered, AI-native or AI-driven. ## Questions about the study ### Can’t find your answer? Book a call and let’s talk. [Book a call](https://cal.com/pentaclay/discovery-call) Or email us at [contact@pentaclay.com](mailto:contact@pentaclay.com) What do YC startups build their websites with? Next.js is the most common platform: 1,060 of the 2,945 homepages that answered. Webflow is next with 475, then Framer with 215. It changes with size. At 16 to 50 people, Webflow leads with 120 of 385. Can ChatGPT read a website built with Lovable or Bolt? Often very little. AI crawlers read the raw HTML and don’t run JavaScript. In our test, 77 client-rendered single-page homepages showed them a median of 8 words, and 64 of the 77 showed fewer than 50. Framer homepages showed a median of 1,543. Do funded startups still use Webflow? Yes, once they grow. Webflow runs 120 of 385 homepages at companies with 16 to 50 people, and 47 of 154 at 51 or more. New batches use it less: 14 of 648 homepages in the 2026 batch. How many AI companies link a security page from their homepage? 66 of 114 in our audit of YC AI company homepages with 16 or more people. 38 of the 114 mention SOC 2, and 16 mention SSO, SAML or single sign-on. How did you work out each site’s platform? We fetched each homepage once and looked for each platform’s own code in the HTML. 495 of the 2,945 had no sign we could name, so they count as unknown. Can you check our website the same way? Yes. Send us your website for a Free Website Audit. In 3 business days, we’ll tell you what’s missing and what to fix, including how much of it AI crawlers can read. ## Keep exploring Our services, and more to read. - [Website migration Move platforms, keep your rankings](https://pentaclay.com/services/website-migration) - [AI company websites Websites for AI companies that sell to enterprises](https://pentaclay.com/services/ai-company-website-design) - [Webflow development Webflow sites your marketing team runs](https://pentaclay.com/services/webflow-development) - [Next.js development Next.js sites your engineers own](https://pentaclay.com/services/nextjs-development) ### More from us Learn more - [Lovable, v0 or Bolt site to a real marketing site](https://pentaclay.com/migrations/lovable-to-nextjs) - [AI company website examples](https://pentaclay.com/examples/ai-company-websites) - [What a B2B website costs](https://pentaclay.com/guides/b2b-website-cost) - [How to choose an agency](https://pentaclay.com/guides/how-to-choose-a-web-design-agency) - [Website project timeline](https://pentaclay.com/guides/website-project-timeline) Company - [Pricing](https://pentaclay.com/pricing) - [How a project runs](https://pentaclay.com/process) - [Our work](https://pentaclay.com/work) - [About Pentaclay](https://pentaclay.com/about) - [FAQ](https://pentaclay.com/faq) Industries - [AI agents](https://pentaclay.com/industries/ai-agents) - [AI infrastructure](https://pentaclay.com/industries/ai-infrastructure) - [AI developer tools](https://pentaclay.com/industries/ai-devtools) - [LLM platforms](https://pentaclay.com/industries/llm-platforms) - [AI data platforms](https://pentaclay.com/industries/ai-data-platforms) Start smaller Not ready for a new website? Start with a free audit, or a ready-made template. [Free Website Audit](https://pentaclay.com/free-website-audit) [Website templates](https://pentaclay.com/templates) ## Your business grew up. Your website should too If customers need a demo just to understand what you sell, your website isn’t doing its job. - We sign an NDA on request. - You own the site, the code and every account once it’s paid. - Your first call is with Erfan, the founder. **Kazi Mohammed Erfan** Founder Don’t want to fill in the form? [Book a call directly](https://cal.com/pentaclay/discovery-call) ## Not sure? Ask AI about Pentaclay ### Pentaclay, in short Updated 17 Oct 2026 Pentaclay is a B2B website design agency for AI companies that sell to enterprises. We write, design and build marketing websites in Framer, Webflow and Next.js, and stay to help after launch. Pentaclay LLC is registered in New Mexico, USA; our team works from Dhaka, Bangladesh, with calls until 12:30pm US Eastern. Founded in 2023 by Kazi Mohammed Erfan, who brings 12 years of design experience.