.htaccess Generator

About .htaccess Generator

Available Rule Sections

Section	What It Does	Typical Use Case
301 Redirect	Permanently redirects one URL to another	Moving a page to a new location, preserving SEO value
302 Redirect	Temporarily redirects one URL to another	Maintenance pages, A/B testing
Force HTTPS	Redirects all HTTP requests to HTTPS	After installing an SSL certificate
WWW prefix	Forces www or non-www version of the domain	Consistent URLs for SEO (pick one and stick with it)
Custom error pages	Shows custom HTML pages for 404, 403, and 500 errors	Branded error pages instead of default Apache messages
Cache control	Sets browser cache expiry headers by file type	Improving page load speed by caching static assets
IP blocking	Denies access from specific IP addresses	Blocking spam bots, restricting staging site access
GZIP compression	Compresses text-based responses (HTML, CSS, JS)	Reducing bandwidth and improving load times

How to Use the Generator

Step	Action
1. Toggle sections	Enable only the features you need
2. Fill in values	Enter URLs, IP addresses, file types, or error page paths
3. Preview	The .htaccess output updates in real time as you make changes
4. Copy or download	Copy to clipboard or download as a .htaccess file
5. Upload to server	Place the file in your website's document root via FTP, SFTP, or hosting panel

Common .htaccess Configurations

Scenario	Sections to Enable
New WordPress site	Force HTTPS + WWW prefix + Cache control + GZIP
Domain migration	301 Redirects (old URLs to new URLs)
Staging environment lockdown	IP blocking (allow only your office/home IP)
Performance optimisation	Cache control + GZIP compression
Custom branding	Custom error pages (404, 403, 500)
Temporary maintenance	302 Redirect to maintenance page

Cache Control Settings

Browser caching tells visitors' browsers to store static files locally, so repeat visits load faster. The generator lets you set expiry times for different file types:

File Type	Recommended Expiry	Why
Images (jpg, png, gif, svg, webp)	1 year	Images rarely change; long cache saves the most bandwidth
CSS stylesheets	1 month	Changes with design updates, but not frequently
JavaScript files	1 month	Bundled JS changes with deployments
Fonts (woff, woff2)	1 year	Font files almost never change
HTML pages	No cache or short (1 hour)	Content changes frequently; stale HTML causes confusion

.htaccess vs Server Config

Aspect	.htaccess	httpd.conf / VirtualHost
Requires server restart	No - changes take effect immediately	Yes - requires Apache reload
Performance	Checked on every request (slight overhead)	Loaded once at startup (faster)
Access required	FTP/file manager only	Root or sudo access
Shared hosting	Works (this is the main use case)	Usually not accessible
Scope	Per-directory and subdirectories	Server-wide or per virtual host

If you have root access to your server, placing rules in the virtual host config is slightly more performant. But for shared hosting or when you only have FTP access, .htaccess is the standard approach and works perfectly for most sites.

Important Notes

Note	Details
File name	The file must be named exactly .htaccess (with the leading dot, no extension)
Hidden file	The leading dot makes it hidden on macOS and Linux - use ls -a to see it
Apache only	.htaccess is for Apache web servers, not Nginx, Caddy, or IIS
AllowOverride	The server's main config must have AllowOverride All for .htaccess rules to work
Syntax errors	A single syntax error in .htaccess will cause a 500 Internal Server Error for the entire site

If your .htaccess uses complex rewrite rules, test the regex patterns with the Regex Tester. For scheduling server tasks alongside your config, try the Cron Expression Builder. The generator runs entirely in your browser with no server-side processing.

Why Apache Still Matters in 2026

Apache remains one of the three dominant web servers on the internet, so .htaccess knowledge is still a core skill for anyone running a site. According to W3Techs data from April 2026, Apache is the third most-used web server at 23.7% of all websites, behind Nginx at 32.7% and Cloudflare at 27.7%. Netcraft's May 2025 survey placed Apache at 15.3% of active sites and 17.83% of the top million busiest sites. Shared hosting providers almost universally ship Apache with mod_rewrite enabled, which is why .htaccess continues to be the standard way to configure redirects, caching, and access control on budget hosting plans where root access is not available.

How the Rewrite Engine Processes Rules

Apache processes rules in per-module order, not the line order of the file. mod_rewrite directives (RewriteRule, RewriteCond) are evaluated separately from mod_alias directives (Redirect, RedirectMatch), and mixing them in the same file often produces surprising results. The official Apache HTTP Server documentation recommends picking one module and sticking with it: use mod_alias for simple one-to-one URL changes, and mod_rewrite when you need regular expressions, conditional checks on headers or IPs, or internal rewrites. This generator uses mod_rewrite for HTTPS and www handling (where conditionals are required) and mod_alias Redirect directives for individual URL redirects, which keeps the output predictable.

Worked example: forcing HTTPS on a site with both www and non-www traffic. Enable "Force HTTPS" and "Force WWW" in the generator. The output places the HTTPS rewrite first, followed by the www rewrite, both with [L,R=301] flags. A request to http://example.com/page hits the HTTPS rule, redirects to https://example.com/page, then on the next hit matches the www rule and redirects again to https://www.example.com/page. Two redirects in a chain is acceptable for canonicalisation, but if you want a single hop you can combine the conditions into one rule at the server level.

Status Code Reference for Redirects

Code	Meaning	When to Use	SEO Impact
301	Moved Permanently	URL structure change, domain migration, canonical HTTPS/www	Passes full link equity to the new URL; browsers cache aggressively
302	Found (Temporary)	A/B tests, maintenance pages, geo redirects	Google eventually treats long-lived 302s as 301, but do not rely on it
307	Temporary Redirect	Same as 302 but preserves the HTTP method (POST stays POST)	Rarely needed for static sites; important for APIs
308	Permanent Redirect	Modern equivalent of 301 that preserves the HTTP method	Same SEO effect as 301; supported by all modern browsers
410	Gone	Content permanently removed with no replacement	Faster de-indexing than a 404; use for deleted pages you never want crawled again

Apache's official redirect guide recommends testing new redirects with 302 first, verifying the destination is correct, then switching to 301 once confirmed. A misconfigured 301 is hard to undo because browsers and intermediate caches remember it for weeks.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Mistake	Symptom	Fix
Uploading with a .txt extension	Rules silently ignored	File must be named exactly .htaccess with the leading dot and no extension
Mixing Redirect and RewriteRule	Only some rules fire, order feels random	Use RewriteRule for everything once you have any RewriteRule in the file
AllowOverride None on the server	.htaccess file is there but has no effect	Server config must set AllowOverride All or enable the specific override classes you need (FileInfo for redirects, Indexes for directory listings)
Redirect chains	Slow page loads, crawl budget waste	Always redirect old URLs directly to the final destination, not through intermediate hops
Aggressive caching on HTML	Users see stale pages for hours or days	Cache HTML for 0 or 1 hour; cache images, CSS, JS, fonts for longer
Missing L flag	Multiple rules process, unexpected results	Add [L] (Last) to stop rewrite processing once a rule matches
Syntax error in a directive	Entire site returns 500 Internal Server Error	Test in a staging directory first, or keep a known-good backup you can restore via FTP in under a minute

AllowOverride Classes Explained

Apache's AllowOverride directive controls which .htaccess directives the server will honour. Setting AllowOverride All in the main server config is the simplest approach but also the most permissive. The Apache documentation defines five override classes that can be combined for a stricter setup:

Override Class	Controls	Needed For
AuthConfig	Authentication directives (AuthType, Require, AuthName)	Password-protecting directories
FileInfo	Redirects, rewrites, MIME types, error documents, headers	Most of this generator's output (301 redirects, HTTPS, cache headers, error pages)
Indexes	Directory indexing options	Enabling or disabling directory listings
Limit	Legacy access control (Allow, Deny, Order)	IP blocking on Apache 2.2 - use Require on 2.4+
Options	Options directive and filter chain	Enabling FollowSymlinks for mod_rewrite

For the rules this generator produces, AllowOverride FileInfo Options=FollowSymLinks is usually sufficient. Shared hosting providers typically enable AllowOverride All by default, so most users do not need to change anything.

Alternatives on Other Web Servers

.htaccess is Apache-specific. If your site runs on a different server, these are the equivalent approaches:

Server	Equivalent Approach	Reload Required
Nginx	Rules go in the main nginx.conf or a site-specific file in sites-available	Yes - nginx -s reload after changes
Caddy	Caddyfile with automatic HTTPS via Let's Encrypt built in	Yes - caddy reload
IIS	web.config XML file (per-directory, similar to .htaccess)	No - applies immediately
Cloudflare Pages / Netlify / Vercel	Platform-specific redirect files (_redirects, vercel.json, netlify.toml)	No - deploys on push
Cloudflare Workers	JavaScript edge functions running before origin requests	No - deploys via Wrangler CLI

If you are migrating from Apache to Nginx, the rules in the generated .htaccess will not copy over directly. Nginx has an equivalent for most directives but uses different syntax (return 301 instead of Redirect 301, rewrite instead of RewriteRule). Tools like slug patterns and regex remain transferable.

Sources

• Apache HTTP Server 2.4 - .htaccess Tutorial
• Apache HTTP Server 2.4 - Core Directives (AllowOverride)
• Apache HTTP Server 2.4 - Override Class Index
• Apache HTTP Server 2.4 - Redirecting and Remapping with mod_rewrite
• W3Techs - Apache Usage Statistics, April 2026
• Netcraft - May 2025 Web Server Survey
• MDN - HTTP 301 Moved Permanently