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About this tool
The Website Status Checker sends an HTTP request to any URL from the server side and reports whether the site is responding, its HTTP status code, response time in milliseconds, server type, content type, and key response headers. This is useful for quickly checking whether a site outage is global or local, verifying that a deployed service is responding correctly, monitoring uptime during maintenance windows, or confirming that a redirect chain is working as expected. Because the request comes from the server side, it bypasses browser-side network issues and ISP-level blocks, giving a neutral third-party perspective.
Why use it
Checks from server side — bypasses local network issues for a neutral result.
Shows HTTP status code, response time, and full response headers in one view.
Helpful for verifying redirects, confirming SSL is active, and uptime checks.
No account or browser extension required.
Checks from the server side — bypasses local network issues for a neutral third-party result.
How to use
- Enter a URL (including https://) in the input field.
- Click Check to send a server-side HTTP request from our backend.
- Review the status code, response time, and key headers.
- Expand the headers section for the complete response header set.
- Enter a URL (including https:// or http://) in the input field.
- Review the status code, response time in milliseconds, and key response headers.
When it helps
- Verifying whether a site outage is local (your network) or global (the actual site is down).
- Confirming a newly deployed site or API endpoint is responding correctly.
- Checking that HTTPS redirects are working after SSL setup or certificate renewal.
- Monitoring service availability during infrastructure changes.
Examples
01Healthy production site
Expected resultStatus: 200 OK
Response time: 142 ms
Server: nginx/1.25.0
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Cache-Control: max-age=600
Verdict: Up and healthy
02HTTP→HTTPS redirect chain
Expected resultHop 1: 301 Moved Permanently → https://example.com (12 ms)
Hop 2: 200 OK (98 ms)
Final: https://example.com
Total redirect time: 110 ms
HSTS: enabled (max-age=31536000)
Inputhttps://broken.example.com
Expected resultStatus: 503 Service Unavailable
Response time: 87 ms
Server: cloudflare
Retry-After: 30
Verdict: Site is reachable but the origin is overloaded or in maintenance
Tips
- If status is 200 but the site looks down to you, run a traceroute from your network — the issue is likely between you and the server.
- Response time over 2 seconds may indicate server load or geographic distance — re-run from a closer monitoring location for confirmation.
- 5xx errors usually mean server-side problems (application crash, database down) — check your error logs immediately.
- If you see a long redirect chain (3+ hops), simplify it to one redirect — each extra hop adds latency and risk.
- Cache-Control header reveals CDN behavior — short max-age with public means you have effective edge caching.
- Use HEAD-style checks for monitoring (this tool's default) — they avoid downloading the full body and are gentler on the server.
- For comprehensive uptime monitoring, schedule this check via a cron job or use a dedicated service like UptimeRobot or Pingdom.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a 200 status mean vs 404 or 500?⌄
200 means OK (success). 301/302 means a redirect. 404 means the page was not found. 500 means the server encountered an error. See the HTTP Status Lookup tool for the full list.
Why might a site show 'up' here but appear down for me?⌄
The check is performed from a server, not your local network. If the site is up globally but you cannot reach it, the issue may be your ISP, a local firewall, or DNS on your machine.
Does it follow redirects?⌄
Yes. The tool follows HTTP 301/302 redirects and reports the final response. The redirect chain is shown in the result.
Can I check localhost?⌄
No. The request is made from the backend server, which cannot reach your localhost address.
What if the site is very slow?⌄
The tool waits up to 10 seconds for a response. Sites that do not respond within this window will show as 'timeout'.
Glossary
- HTTP status code
- A three-digit integer in the response status line that classifies the result. 1xx informational, 2xx success, 3xx redirection, 4xx client error, 5xx server error.
- TTFB
- Time-To-First-Byte — the duration from sending a request until the first byte of the response arrives. A core measure of server-side responsiveness, ideally under 200ms.
- Redirect chain
- A sequence of HTTP redirects (e.g. http → https → www → /path/) before the final response. Each hop adds latency; chains over 3 hops are considered SEO-unfriendly.
- Server header
- An optional response header revealing the web server software (e.g. nginx/1.25.0, Apache/2.4.58, cloudflare). Often reduced or hidden for security.
- TLS handshake
- The cryptographic negotiation between client and server that establishes an encrypted HTTPS session. Failures indicate certificate, SNI, or cipher issues.
- SNI
- Server Name Indication — a TLS extension that lets a client tell the server which hostname it is connecting to, allowing one IP to host multiple HTTPS sites.
- Soft 404
- A page that returns HTTP 200 but actually says 'not found' in its body. Bad for SEO — search engines penalize sites with soft 404s.
- HSTS
- HTTP Strict Transport Security — a response header (Strict-Transport-Security) that tells browsers to force HTTPS for all future connections to the host.