.htaccess Generator — 301 Redirects, Rewrites & Apache Rules

301 = permanent. Search engines transfer ranking signals to the new URL and update their index. Browsers cache aggressively. Use this for actual moves.

302 = temporary. Search engines keep the old URL in their index. Browsers don't cache the redirect. Use this only when the original URL will return.

307 & 308 are the modern equivalents that explicitly preserve the HTTP method. Use them for API endpoints and form-POST flows where dropping POST data would be a bug.

In the document root of your site (commonly public_html, www, or htdocs). Rules apply to that directory and everything below it.

You can drop additional .htaccess files in subdirectories — those override or add to the parent rules for their subtree only.

The filename must be exactly .htaccess (leading dot, no extension) and saved as plain text without a UTF-8 BOM.

If mod_rewrite isn't loaded on the server, an unwrapped RewriteEngine directive causes a 500 error. The <IfModule> guard makes Apache skip the block silently in that case. Same idea for mod_headers.c, mod_expires.c, and mod_deflate.c.

Most production hosts have these enabled, but the wrapper makes the file safe to ship across environments.

Order/Allow/Deny is the legacy Apache 2.2 syntax (mod_access_compat). Apache 2.4 replaced it with the Require directive (mod_authz_core) — the modern, recommended approach.

This generator emits the 2.4 syntax. If you must support 2.2, the equivalent is:

• Require ip 1.2.3.4 ↔ Allow from 1.2.3.4
• Require not ip 1.2.3.4 ↔ Deny from 1.2.3.4

• R=301/302/307/308 — return the given redirect status
• L — last rule, stop processing if matched
• NC — no case (case-insensitive match)
• QSA — query string append (pass the original query through)
• F — forbidden, returns 403
• G — gone, returns 410
• NE — no escape (don't URL-encode the substitution)
• PT — pass through (let other Apache modules see the rewritten URL)

Combine with commas: [R=301,L,QSA].

Pick a canonical form and redirect the other to it. The generator does this for you under HTTPS, www & trailing slash → Trailing slash.

To add the slash (skipping real files and directories):

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*[^/])$ /$1/ [R=301,L]

To remove it (skipping real directories):

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)/$ /$1 [R=301,L]

Almost always for the better — when done correctly. Best practices:

• Use 301 for permanent moves so PageRank flows through.
• Map each old URL to its closest new equivalent — don't dump everything to the homepage.
• Keep redirect chains short. Ideally one hop, never more than three.
• Test with curl -I or a tool like httpstatus.io after deployment.
• Leave redirects in place for at least a year so external links continue to work.

Redirect (mod_alias) is the simple form. It matches an exact path prefix and supports basic status codes:

Redirect 301 /old-page /new-page

RewriteRule (mod_rewrite) is the powerful form. It understands regex, supports conditional logic via RewriteCond, and accepts flags like NC, QSA, F, G:

RewriteRule ^old/(.*)$ /new/$1 [R=301,L,QSA]

This generator uses Redirect for simple exact-match redirects and switches to RewriteRule automatically when you choose prefix or regex matching, or enable case-insensitive / query-preserving flags.