The 51Degrees Device Detection plugin provides the following functionality.

1. Detection - works out the type of device accessing the web site and provides information about the hardware, operating system and browser.
2. Optimisation - enables the theme used to be altered depending on the detected properties.

Detection

The plugin contains a small database capable of determining the requesting device's properties extremely quickly using the finger prints (technically called useragents) sent by web browsers. No cloud services, PHP extensions or external components are required. Once the plugin is installed the detected device properties are available to theme developers.

Optimisation

A simple user interface enables non-technical users to define rules to alter the web sites response for different device types. Themes can be altered, or the request redirected to another web site. For example; rules can be defined to treat small screen mobile devices, smartphones and tablets differently from each other. Adverts could be optimised for the smaller screens, or content limited to the essential parts of a page.

The plugin is provided for free to all Wordpress users under the Mozilla Public Licence 2. Paid for versions are available that offer more properties and features.