Help Centre

There is no confirmed launch date for the tracing backend. The site is currently a design prototype — the interface, results layout, and flag detection logic are planned but not yet implemented on the server side. Check back for updates, or contact the operator through the channel through which you received access to this site.

When the backend is operational, it will use fetch with redirect: 'manual' to follow each hop one at a time, rather than letting the browser follow the chain automatically. This way it can record every intermediate URL, the HTTP status code at each step, and detect issues like scheme downgrades, dropped query parameters, and redirect loops.

Every hop in the chain is displayed in order, from the URL you submitted to the final destination. The tool flags three specific conditions: a downgrade from HTTPS to HTTP mid-chain, a redirect loop (revisiting a URL already in the chain), and a chain longer than five hops.

Hopwell is designed to detect four conditions in the redirect chain:

Scheme downgrade (red) — The URL transitioned from HTTPS to HTTP somewhere in the middle of the chain. Any device on the network path can read the URL and its parameters at that hop.

Chain too long (amber) — More than five redirect hops. Each hop adds latency and can dilute link equity for SEO purposes.

Redirect loop (red) — The chain revisits a URL it has already visited. This means the redirect never resolves and the browser will eventually show an error.

Dropped parameters (amber) — The query string changed between hops. Tracking parameters, UTM tags, or campaign identifiers may have been lost.

No. Hopwell is designed to be free to use with no account required. The Free tier (planned) offers unlimited URL traces, up to five redirect hops per chain, all flag detection, and no stored data. No registration, no login, no payment.

Planned Pro and Enterprise tiers (with deeper chain analysis and API access) are not yet available — see the Pricing page for details. No payment infrastructure is connected to this site.

Nothing. Hopwell is designed to be stateless — every request is processed and the result is returned in the HTTP response. The URL you submit, the intermediate addresses, and the chain result are not written to any database, cache, or log by the Hopwell application. No cookies, no analytics scripts, no tracking pixels.

Cloudflare, which hosts the site, may record basic request metadata (timestamps, IP addresses, HTTP status codes) as part of standard operations. See the Privacy Policy for full details.

Not yet. A REST API for programmatic URL tracing is planned for the Pro tier, but it has not been built. The only interface is the web form on the App page, and even that is a design mockup until the tracing backend is operational.

When the API becomes available, it will include rate limits and authentication. No timeline is confirmed.

Five hops is a practical threshold. Most legitimate redirect chains resolve in two or three hops (shortlink → landing page, or HTTP → HTTPS → canonical URL). A chain longer than five hops is unusual and often indicates a misconfigured redirect, a tracking chain that has accumulated unnecessary intermediaries, or a redirect loop that hasn't fully cycled yet.

Planned Pro and Enterprise tiers will offer deeper chain limits (up to 20 hops) for users who need to trace longer chains.