Paste a URL and watch the full chain unfold: each 301, 302 and meta refresh on the way to the final page — with per-hop latency and HTTPS flags. Free, nothing stored.
Trace a redirect chain See DeskUptime →Up to 10 hops are followed. Nothing is stored.
Prefer the terminal? curl -sI http://example.com shows the first hop only — DeskUptime traces all of them.
A redirect is fine. A chain of them is a slow leak.
Every extra hop adds a full round trip before the browser gets real content. Three hops can mean half a second of dead time.
Crawlers follow chains and dilute signals along the way. Keep it to one hop from source to final URL.
An HTTP→HTTPS chain means visitors hit an insecure hop first. HSTS plus a direct HTTPS redirect fixes it.
| This free checker | SaaS site auditors | DeskUptime | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-hop trace + latency | ✓ free | Paid tiers | ✓ included |
| Runs continuously | ✗ manual | ✓ | ✓ your interval |
| Alerts when a chain changes | ✗ | Email/push | ✓ native notifications |
| Ongoing cost | $0 | $84–180/yr | $19 once |
Each hop: the URL requested, the returned status code, where its Location header points, the response time in milliseconds, and whether that hop used HTTPS. Up to 10 hops are followed before a possible loop is flagged.
Yes. These are plain HTTP requests — no agent, plugin or platform integration. WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, static sites and API endpoints all behave identically.
The web tool only reaches public URLs. The DeskUptime app and CLI check anything your own machine can reach — localhost, intranet hosts, staging domains behind a VPN.
No. The trace runs live and returns to your browser. No logs, no history, no account.
Point every old URL directly at its final destination instead of through intermediates, update internal links to skip redirects entirely, and serve the HTTPS version directly rather than hopping through HTTP.