A little trick to check if order was created by customer or admin in Magento 2.
In Magento 2, by default, if order was created by customer the field remote_ip
in sales_order
will not be empty while it is NULL
if it is placed by admin.
This is how to confirm:
if (!empty($order->getRemoteIp()) {
// this order placed by customer
}
else{
// this order placed by admin
}
Have fun!