Website Status Check
Perform instant website status checks—verify HTTP response codes, SSL validity, DNS resolution, and response times from global probe points. Complete site health snapshot in one click.
Why Use Website Status Check
A "status check" is more than just up/down—it reveals the health of every layer: DNS resolving correctly, SSL certificate valid, HTTP returning expected status code, and response times within acceptable range. This tool checks all four layers simultaneously from multiple geographic locations. A site can be "reachable" but have an expired SSL certificate blocking users, or show 200 OK but take 8 seconds to respond. Complete status checks expose these degraded states before they become user-facing incidents.
- 4-layer check: DNS, SSL, HTTP status, and response time
- Global probes: Tests from 4+ regions simultaneously
- SSL expiry alert: Warns when certificate expires within 30 days
- Redirect chain: Shows full redirect path to final URL
- Header inspection: Views key response headers
Step-by-Step Tutorial
- Enter URL: https://yoursite.com
- Click "Run Status Check"
- DNS check: domain resolves to IP within 50ms
- SSL check: certificate valid, expires in 45 days
- HTTP check: 200 OK from all probe locations
- Response times: all under 400ms (healthy)
- Redirect: http:// redirects to https:// (correct)
Real-World Use Case
A startup's marketing team prepares for product launch. They run full status check on landing page 24 hours before: DNS resolves (✓), SSL valid (✓ expires in 8 days ⚠️), HTTP 200 (✓), response time 2.8 seconds (✗ too slow). Two issues found: SSL expiring in 8 days—if launch goes viral and lasts 9+ days, site shows "Not Secure" warnings. Response time 2.8s on empty server—under real load it will be far worse. They renew SSL immediately (10 minutes) and enable CDN caching (30 minutes). Post-fix status check: SSL valid 90 days, response time 180ms. Launch succeeds with 50,000 visitors without incident. The pre-launch status check prevented a public SSL failure and poor first impressions from slow load times.
Best Practices
- Run status checks before major launches or traffic spikes
- Set SSL renewal reminder when expiry is under 30 days
- Target response times under 500ms globally for good UX
- Verify redirect from http:// to https:// works correctly
- Check both www and non-www versions resolve consistently
Performance & Limits
- Checks performed: DNS, SSL/TLS, HTTP status, response time, redirects
- SSL expiry warning: Alerts at 30, 14, and 7 days before expiry
- Redirect depth: Follows up to 10 redirect hops
- Check time: Complete status report in under 10 seconds
- Header inspection: Shows server, content-type, cache-control headers
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Ignoring SSL expiry warnings: Browsers block expired certs completely
- Accepting slow response times: 3s+ response time needs immediate investigation
- Not checking www vs non-www: Both should redirect to canonical form
- Forgetting subdomains: api.yoursite.com may have separate SSL/status
Privacy and Data Handling
Status checks are performed by our probe servers. Only the URL is transmitted. Response headers returned may include server information—we display this for diagnostic purposes but do not store it. Results expire after your browser session ends.
Frequently Asked Questions
What HTTP status codes indicate a healthy website?
Healthy: 200 OK (page loaded successfully), 301/302 (expected redirect to canonical URL—e.g., http→https), 304 Not Modified (cached response, normal for repeat visits). Warning signs: 400 Bad Request (malformed URL in check), 401/403 (access control issue—page should be public), 404 Not Found (page missing—check if URL changed), 429 Too Many Requests (checker being rate-limited). Critical failures: 500 Internal Server Error (application crash—check logs immediately), 502 Bad Gateway (upstream server failed—check app server), 503 Service Unavailable (overloaded or maintenance), 504 Gateway Timeout (app server not responding within timeout). Any 5xx status requires immediate investigation as users are experiencing errors.
How long before SSL expiry should I renew my certificate?
Renew at 30 days before expiry—gives buffer for renewal failures, propagation delays, and unexpected issues. Never wait until last week: (1) Some browsers start showing warnings at 7 days, (2) Certificate authority validation can take 24-48 hours, (3) DNS propagation after cert change takes 15 minutes to 48 hours, (4) Failed renewal attempts need troubleshooting time. Let's Encrypt certificates (90-day validity) should be on auto-renewal at 60 days remaining. Commercial certificates (1-year) set calendar reminder at 60 days. For critical e-commerce: maintain spare wildcard certificate for emergency replacement. Expired SSL certificate = complete user lockout (browsers show red warning page, not just HTTP). Monitor via status checker weekly for expiry alerts.
Why does my site show different response times from different locations?
Geographic distance and infrastructure explain differences. Without CDN: all traffic routes to your single server location—US-East server shows 50ms from US-East probe, 300ms from Europe (physical distance + routing), 500ms from Asia. With CDN (Cloudflare, CloudFront): traffic served from nearest edge node—all locations typically 50-150ms regardless of origin server location. Server-side factors: database query time, application processing, third-party API calls add baseline latency felt globally. Analysis: if all locations slow (500ms+) = server performance issue. If only distant locations slow = no CDN or CDN not configured correctly. If one region extremely slow = regional CDN node issue or network routing problem.
What should I check after a website migration?
Post-migration status checklist: (1) DNS: new server IP resolving globally (can take up to 48h to propagate fully), (2) SSL: new certificate installed and valid on new host, (3) HTTP: all main pages return 200 (not 404 or 500), (4) Redirects: old URLs redirect to new structure (301 for SEO preservation), (5) Response times: comparable to or better than old host, (6) Forms/checkout: test functional workflows, not just page loads, (7) Mixed content: no HTTP resources on HTTPS site (browser blocks), (8) Canonical tags: point to correct new URLs. Run status check immediately after DNS propagation, then daily for 1 week to catch delayed issues. Keep old hosting active for 72 hours as rollback option during propagation period.