HTTP Status & HTTPS Checker

The checker makes two requests to the root of the hostname: one to https:// and one to http://. Each request follows redirects, up to a limit of 10 hops, and every hop is recorded with its status code, address, protocol version and response time. Page content is not downloaded or rendered; the tool only needs the status line and headers.

From these two chains it answers three practical questions: does the site work over HTTPS, does HTTP send visitors to HTTPS, and what status does the final page return?

• HTTPS available: PASS if the HTTPS request completed with a response, FAIL if it could not connect or the TLS handshake failed.
• HTTP to HTTPS redirect: PASS if the HTTP request ends on an HTTPS URL. WARNING if HTTPS works but HTTP does not redirect to it, so visitors who type the bare domain stay on an unencrypted connection. INFO if HTTPS is not available at all.
• Final status: a 2xx code is a PASS, a 3xx code that was not followed further is INFO, and 4xx or 5xx codes are a WARNING. If no response was received, the finding is a FAIL with the reason.
• Redirect count: a WARNING appears when more than three redirects are needed, since each one adds latency.
• Certificate verification: a FAIL appears when the HTTPS response only arrived after certificate verification was bypassed, which means browsers will show a warning.

If HTTP does not redirect, add a permanent (301 or 308) redirect from every http:// URL to its https:// equivalent in your web server, hosting panel or CDN settings. Redirect in a single step where possible, for example directly from http://example.com/ to https://www.example.com/, rather than via an intermediate hostname.

A 403 or 503 on the home page may come from bot protection or maintenance mode rather than a real outage. A 5xx code that persists usually points to an application or upstream error; check the server logs. To trace a specific URL rather than the home page, use the Redirect Checker.

Requests are only made to ports 80 and 443 on public addresses. Hostnames that resolve to private, loopback or other reserved ranges are refused, and every redirect target is checked the same way before it is followed. The requests identify themselves with the DomainDNSCheckBot user agent, so a site that treats bots differently may respond differently than it does to a browser. Certificate details are covered by the SSL Checker, and response headers by the HTTP & Security Headers tool.