Is My Website Down? Free Website Down Checker

Is it down for everyone, or just you?

When a website will not open, there are two very different problems it could be. Either the website itself is down (its server, its domain or its security certificate has a problem, and nobody can open it), or something between you and the website is wrong (your Wi-Fi, your internet provider, your browser, or an old saved copy of the address on your device).

This checker tells them apart. It opens your address from our server, which is on a different network from yours. If it answers normally here, the website is up and the problem is most likely on your side. If it fails here too, the website has a real problem, and the result says what kind.

Quick checks you can do yourself:

• Use your phone on mobile data with Wi-Fi turned off. A different network rules out your router and internet provider.
• Try another browser or a private window. That rules out extensions and saved data in your usual browser.
• Restart your router if other websites are slow or failing too.
• Read the error message. “This site can't be reached” or “server IP address could not be found” points to DNS or the domain; “Your connection is not private” points to the security (SSL) certificate; “Error 500” or “502” comes from the server or your host.

How to read your result

• Up: the website answered with a normal page (a 2xx code, like 200 OK), after any redirects.
• Down: no proper answer. The server refused the connection, answered with a server error (5xx), redirected in a loop, or the address leads to no server at all.
• Problem: it answered, but not with a normal page: “not found” (404), a password request (401), or a parked “domain for sale” page.
• Unclear: we cannot tell from here. Either it refused our checker (403 Forbidden or 429 Too many requests), which many sites do to automated checks while working fine for people, or it did not answer our server within 10 seconds, or our own address lookup failed. Open it in your browser and check again in a few minutes.

The status code is the server's short answer. The common ones:

• 200 OK: the page loaded normally.
• 301, 302, 307, 308: redirects to another address. We follow up to 5 of them and show the final address. The Redirect Checker shows every step.
• 403 Forbidden: the server refused. Often a security setting that blocks automated checks.
• 404 Not Found: the server works, but there is no page at that address.
• 500 Internal Server Error: something broke while making the page, often a plugin, theme or code change.
• 502 Bad Gateway and 504 Gateway Timeout: a server in front of your site could not get an answer from the one behind it. Usually a hosting problem.
• 503 Service Unavailable: the server is up but not serving pages, often during maintenance or an overload.
• 520 to 527: Cloudflare errors. Cloudflare is working, but could not get a proper answer from your own server.

Common reasons a website goes down, and what to do

1. Hosting outage. Your host or website builder has a problem. You will often see 500, 502, 503 or 504, or no answer at all. Check their status page (below), wait, and contact their support if it lasts.
2. DNS problem. DNS is the address book that sends your domain name to your server. If the records are missing or wrong, the address leads nowhere. Changed your DNS, your host or your website builder recently? New records can take a few hours, sometimes up to 48 hours, to work everywhere.
3. Expired domain. If the domain's yearly renewal was not paid (an old card, an email you missed), the site disappears or shows a parked page. Sign in where you bought the domain, renew it, and turn on auto-renew. Most registrars give a short grace period after expiry.
4. SSL certificate error. The certificate is what makes the address start with https and show as secure. When it expires or is missing, browsers show a warning and many visitors leave. Wix and Squarespace manage certificates for you; on other hosts, renew it in your hosting panel (often called SSL, AutoSSL or Let's Encrypt).
5. A broken update (WordPress). A plugin, theme or WordPress update can cause a 500 error or a blank white page. WordPress may email the site's admin a recovery-mode link. Without it, rename the wp-content/plugins folder in your host's file manager to turn all plugins off, then turn them back on one at a time.
6. Unpaid or suspended hosting. Hosts suspend accounts for unpaid bills or for going over a plan's limits. Check your hosting account and billing email.
7. A firewall blocking visitors. A security plugin or firewall setting can block real people by mistake. If some people can open the site and others cannot, check those settings.

Status pages for website builders and hosts

When a whole platform has a problem, it says so on its status page, usually before its support team answers emails.

• Wix: status.wix.com
• Shopify: shopifystatus.com
• Cloudflare (if your site uses it): cloudflarestatus.com
• Squarespace and WordPress.com: each has its own status page; search for “Squarespace status” or “WordPress.com status”.
• WordPress on your own hosting (GoDaddy, Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostinger and others): WordPress itself has no status page, your host does. Search for your host's name and “status”, or look in your hosting account.

www and non-www: both should work

People type your address both ways: www.yourbusiness.com and yourbusiness.com. Both should open your website, and one should redirect to the other so there is only one main address. This checker tries the other version too and tells you if it fails. To fix a missing one, check your website builder's or host's domain settings first (they often set up both when you connect a domain), then add the missing DNS record at your registrar if it is still not there. The Redirect Checker shows where each version sends visitors.

What this checker does, and its limits

• Opens the address you enter once, from our server, right now, from one location. It is not a global or ongoing monitor: it does not check from other countries and does not watch your site over time.
• Follows up to 5 redirects, waits up to 10 seconds for an answer, and shows the status code, the time it took (including our DNS lookups of the address), and the final address.
• Also tries the www or non-www version of your domain, and, when the secure (https) connection fails, whether plain http answers, to tell an SSL problem from a server that is down.
• Reads only what a public visitor gets. It does not sign in, fill in forms or run your site's scripts. It introduces itself as FlatRateChatBot, and some sites block automated checks, which shows as “Unclear”.
• Nothing is saved: the result is shown to you and not stored. Up to 60 checks a day from one connection, and 30 a day of the same website.
• Also free: the Broken Link Checker tests every link on your pages.
• Also free: the Sitemap Generator makes an XML sitemap of your pages and checks the one you have.
• Also free: the Google Maps Embed Generator makes the code to show your business on a Google map on your website.
• Also free: the WhatsApp Link Generator makes WhatsApp, click-to-call and text links, website buttons and a QR code.
• Also free: the Google Review Link Generator turns your Google review link into a QR code, a printable sign and ready-to-send messages.
• Also free: the Redirect Checker shows every redirect a web address goes through, step by step.
• Also free: the SSL Checker checks that your site opens securely on https and shows its certificate details.
• Also free: the Robots.txt Checker reads your robots.txt and shows whether it blocks Google, AI crawlers or your sitemap.
• Also free: the Robots.txt Generator makes a robots.txt file for your website and checks it as you type.
• Also free: the Website Accessibility Checker scans one page for common accessibility problems, like images without alt text and form fields without labels.
• Also free: the Meta Tag Checker shows the title, description and other tags Google reads on a page, with a search preview.
• Also free: the Open Graph Checker shows how a page will look when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn and X, and checks its og:image.

Questions