If you only need to redirect a domain or two, paying for a redirect tool can feel unnecessary. Plenty of services offer a free plan.
But “free” covers very different things. One plan gives you five domains but no HTTPS on them. Another gives you HTTPS but only one rule. A third gives you nothing on your own domain at all.
Here’s what each free plan actually includes, based on their public pricing pages in October 2026.
What to check in any free plan
Before comparing names, decide what you need. These are the limits that usually matter:
Domains: how many source domains or hostnames you can connect.
Path rules: whether you can redirect individual pages, or only the whole domain.
HTTPS: whether the old domain works over
https://. Without it, many visitors see an error instead of your redirect.Traffic: monthly request limits and what happens when you reach them.
Analytics: whether you can see that the redirect is being used.
The free plans, side by side
redirect.pizza: 5 source hostnames, 250,000 requests a month, HTTPS, API access, and up to 10 path rules. Analytics start on paid plans. Pricing
Domain Forward: 5 source hostnames, 200,000 requests a month, HTTPS, API access and basic analytics. Wildcard subdomains are on higher plans. Pricing
freedirector.io: 5 domains or subdomains, 301 or 302 redirects, path forwarding and 7 days of analytics. The catch: source domains are HTTP only, so
https://visits to your old domain won’t redirect. Detailsredirection.io: up to 10 rules and one managed instance with 1 GB of traffic. Note that
example.comandwww.example.comcount as two instances. PricingRedirectIQ: a free redirect subdomain on their own domain. To use your own domain, you need a paid plan, which starts at $2 a month. Pricing
NakedSSL: one domain, focused on redirecting a bare domain to
wwwwith SSL. DetailsRedirect Supply: one domain with a catch-all rule, automatic HTTPS, all redirect types,
wwwhandling and analytics. Path rules start on paid plans. Pricing
Three popular services, urllo, RedirHub and SiteDetour, don’t have a free plan. They offer 14-day free trials instead.
Your registrar might be free too
Many registrars include basic domain forwarding at no extra cost. GoDaddy, for example, now applies HTTPS to forwarding automatically. Others don’t, or only under specific conditions.
Registrar forwarding works well for one domain to one destination. It gets harder when you need page-level rules, wildcard paths or many domains in one place. We cover this in 5 ways to redirect a domain.
Which free plan fits which job
One old domain to one new site. Almost any option works, including your registrar. Make sure https:// works on the old domain.
A few small domains, like campaign or typo domains. A plan with several hostnames helps here: redirect.pizza or Domain Forward.
An old website with pages that should map to new pages. You need path rules. Check how many each free plan allows, or expect a small paid plan.
Redirects for a client. Free plans often limit team members and support. If someone else depends on the redirect, a paid plan is usually worth it.
What happens when you outgrow a free plan
Free plans are a good way to start, but it helps to know what the next step costs before you depend on one.
Traffic limits: a few free plans cap monthly requests. Check what happens when you reach the cap. Some pause redirects until the next month.
Domain limits: adding one more domain usually means moving to the first paid tier.
Rule limits: a plan with a handful of path rules is fine for a small site, but a migration can need hundreds.
Check the first paid tier of any service you’re considering. Moving your redirects to another tool later is possible, but it means changing DNS again.
Free also means less support
Free plans usually come with limited or community support. That’s fine for a side project. For a client’s domain or a business-critical move, it’s worth paying for a plan where someone answers when a redirect breaks.
The catch is usually the same
Free plans are designed to get you started, and they’re genuinely useful for that. The limit you hit first is rarely traffic. It’s usually path rules or domains, the moment an old website turns out to have more URLs than you remembered.
So before you choose, list the old URLs you actually need to keep working. That list tells you more than any pricing page.
Testing before you commit
Whatever you choose, check the result with a redirect tester. Test http:// and https://, with and without www. Free or paid, a redirect only counts if it works from every way people arrive.
Want a deeper look at a specific tool? See our comparisons with redirect.pizza, Domain Forward and freedirector.io.
