Nearly 90% of browser traffic worldwide is securely transmitted over HTTPS. So why are most URL forwarders stuck in the insecure ‘90s?
A URL forwarder allows you to redirect browser requests for your domain to another website. Unfortunately, nearly every URL forwarder on the market won’t accept incoming connections over the modern, secure HTTPS protocol, forcing your customers to type HTTP:// (without the “s”) or risk the site not loading at all. At Porkbun, we decided that’s unacceptable. So we built something better. The result? Porkbun’s dead-simple URL forwarder allows you to securely forward browser traffic to any other website, wholly over HTTPS.
For most folks, this just means Porkbun’s URL forwarder is foolproof: whether your customers type HTTP or HTTPS when visiting or linking to your domain, the URL forwarder just works.
But if you’ve registered a .dev or .app domain, a HTTPS URL forwarder isn’t just nice… it’s crucial!
Imagine this: you’ve registered the perfect .app or .dev domain. Simple, precise, memorable. You could launch an entire company around a domain this great—but you’re not ready just yet.
Many folks in this situation forward their new domain to another website that’s already in place. For instance, you could use your registrar’s URL Forwarder to forward http://GooseHollow.dev to an existing website at https://goosehollow.design/development
Unfortunately, nearly every URL forwarder doesn’t work on .dev and .app domains. Why? Due to a new technology known as the HSTS Preload List, your browser will refuse to load any .dev or .app website over the old, insecure HTTP protocol—it’s HTTPS or nothing! So, if you bought a .dev or .app domain and you want to temporarily redirect the domain to a placeholder website, you’re out of luck.
…Unless you registered your domain at Porkbun, that is! Our HTTPS URL forwarder is automatic and “just works” even on .dev and .app domains. Best of all, it’s free, and comes standard on every Porkbun domain!
Simply follow our directions in the knowledge base and set up your HTTPS URL forwarder in a few clicks. You don’t have to understand how HTTPS or DNS or URL forwarding work, we take care of all the tricky stuff so you can focus on getting your message out to the world.