Help Centre

Hopcheck follows every HTTP redirect one hop at a time and displays:

• The full URL at each hop in the chain
• The HTTP status code that caused the redirect (301, 302, 307, 308, or meta-refresh)
• The query string at each hop, with a flag when a parameter is dropped or rewritten
• A warning when a hop downgrades from HTTPS to plain HTTP (even if the chain ends on HTTPS — one plaintext hop carries the whole URL in the clear)
• The final destination when the chain ends, or the hop number where the cap was reached

The product is the middle — not just the destination. A link can land on the right page while quietly dropping its ?ref= parameter, routing through a tracker nobody knew was there, or bouncing through an unencrypted hop.

No. Hopcheck retains no data server-side. The Cloudflare Worker that serves the API does not log request bodies, response bodies, or URL parameters to disk or database. Results are displayed in your browser and discarded when you close or refresh the page. There are no user accounts, no stored history, and no tracking.

The chain is capped at 10 hops to prevent infinite loops. If you reach this cap, the report states clearly that the check stopped at the limit — it does not describe the cap as a problem with your link. A 10-hop chain could mean:

• The URL is caught in a genuine redirect loop
• The chain is legitimately long (some marketing campaigns chain multiple trackers and shorteners)
• The server is bouncing between two URLs in a cycle

Pro subscribers (when Pro launches) will have an extended 25-hop limit.

Hopcheck reports a timeout or DNS resolution failure at the specific hop where it occurred. The report says the check did not complete at that hop — it never describes our platform limits as a finding about your link. Possible causes:

• The target server is down or unreachable
• The domain does not resolve (expired DNS, typo in the URL)
• The server is very slow and did not respond within our timeout

Try checking the URL again in a few minutes. If the problem persists, verify that the URL is correct, reachable from your own browser, and has no firewall blocking outbound requests from Cloudflare.

Hopcheck reports the exact status returned at each hop. Here is what each one means:

• 301 Moved Permanently — The resource has a new permanent URL. Browsers and search engines update their records. Future requests should go to the new location.
• 302 Found — The resource is temporarily at a different URL. The original URL remains valid. Browsers will redirect but should keep using the original URL next time.
• 307 Temporary Redirect — Like 302, but the browser must repeat the request with the same method (POST stays POST, GET stays GET). Method preservation is guaranteed.
• 308 Permanent Redirect — Like 301, but method-preserving. The resource has moved permanently and the same HTTP method must be used.
• Meta-refresh — An HTML-based redirect (<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=...">). It is not an HTTP status code, but Hopcheck detects it and reports it separately.

A 301 vs. 302 distinction matters: a permanent redirect (301/308) tells search engines to transfer SEO value to the new URL. A temporary one (302/307) does not. If you are migrating a site, mixing these up can cause traffic loss.

Not yet. The Free tier checks one URL at a time via the web app. Batch URL uploads, CSV export, and a REST API are planned features for the Pro plan but are not yet available. Hopcheck answers when you ask it — there are no email alerts, scheduled re-checks, or stored data at this stage.

No. Hopcheck checks only the URL you type. It follows the HTTP redirect chain generated by that URL and stops when the server returns a non-redirect response (200, 404, 500, etc.). It never crawls the destination, never follows links found on the final page, and never scans a domain.