httpstatus.io is a well-known free web tool for inspecting a single URL: enter it into their site, and it follows the redirect chain from their own servers, showing you each hop's status code and response headers, along with checks like DNS resolution and SSL certificate details. For a quick, ad-hoc look at what a URL does, it is a solid, established first stop.
Redirect Chain Checker does a narrower and more specific job: it does not just show you the chain, it classifies it against five named misconfiguration patterns — a redirect loop, a chain longer than the single hop search engines recommend, an HTTPS-to-HTTP downgrade, a temporary status code used for what looks like a permanent site move, and a dead-end error — and states in plain English why each one matters. Its zero-dependency CLI also runs the real requests from your own machine, never a hosted third-party service, so nothing about the URL you're checking is sent anywhere else.
| Question | Where to answer it |
|---|---|
| I just want to see the raw chain, headers, DNS, and SSL info for one URL, quickly. | httpstatus.io — that broad inspection is its job. |
| I want to know whether this chain has a loop, is too long, downgrades to HTTP, or used the wrong status code for a permanent move. | Redirect Chain Checker — this tool names the pattern instead of leaving you to read the raw headers. |
| I want this checked automatically on every build, before it ships, with nothing sent to a third party. | Redirect Chain Checker's CLI — node check.mjs <url> runs from your own machine and exits non-zero on a finding, wireable into any CI as an ordinary step. |
| I'd rather not paste a URL into a third-party site at all. | Redirect Chain Checker's browser page works entirely from hops you paste in yourself (from your own DevTools Network panel), never sending the URL anywhere. |
Neither tool replaces the other. httpstatus.io is a fine first look at a chain you don't yet understand. Once you know the chain exists, this tool answers the question a raw inspector doesn't: does it actually do anything wrong, by name, and will it stay that way in CI?
Different jobs, and many people use both. httpstatus.io, based on its own public description, is a hosted web tool: you enter a URL into its site, it follows the redirect chain from its own servers and shows you each hop's status and headers, plus checks like DNS and SSL. Redirect Chain Checker instead classifies the chain against named misconfiguration patterns — a redirect loop, a chain longer than recommended, an HTTPS-to-HTTP downgrade, a temporary status code used for what looks like a permanent move, and a dead-end error — and its zero-dependency CLI runs the real HTTP requests from your own machine rather than a third party's server.
Based on its own public description, httpstatus.io shows you the raw chain, each hop's status code, and response headers — it is a viewer/inspector, and reading the significance of what it shows (is this chain too long, does this hop downgrade to HTTP, is 302 the wrong code here) is left to you. This tool automates that reading: it names each pattern explicitly, states why it matters, and exits non-zero in CI when one is found.
No. The CLI makes its own HTTP requests directly from your machine to the URL you give it and to the Location header your own server sends back — nothing is proxied through this site or any other third party. httpstatus.io, by contrast, needs to send your URL to its own hosted service to follow the chain from there, which is the normal and necessary shape for a browser-only tool with no CLI.
No. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by httpstatus.io. httpstatus.io is named here only to describe what that tool does and how it differs from this one, based on its own public description.
More: why redirect chains matter.