Free .htaccess Generator

The Free .htaccess File Generator will take inputs to produce a .htaccess file you can upload to your website.

The .htaccess is a file that can be placed in any directory of your website (normally the root directory) to give the Apache Web Server instructions such as how to respond to particular requests.

Options

Error Documents IP Deny/Allow Directory Index Directory Listings Additional Options

Error Documents

401 Location

404 Location

500 Location

IP Deny/Allow

Allow All Except * Deny All Except *

Allow All IPs Except..

Seperate each IP by a new line.

Deny All IPs Except..

Seperate each IP by a new line.

Directory Index

Sets the index pages for directories. Seperate each index name or file type by a new line.

Directory Listings

Enable Directory Listings

If you enabled directory listings but wish to hide certain files or file types, enter them below seperated by a new line

Additional Options

Run CGI scripts outside of cgi-bin? (Possibly dangerous) Timezone Force scripts to display as text files, seperated by a new line

Output

Your Generated Htaccess File:

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About .htaccess Files

What is an .htaccess file?

An .htaccess file is a configuration file read by Apache web servers, placed in a directory to control how requests to that directory and everything beneath it are handled. It is how most shared hosting lets site owners change server behaviour without access to the main server configuration.

It handles redirects, forces HTTPS, sets custom error pages, controls caching and compression, restricts access by address, and rewrites URLs into readable forms. That range is why an htaccess generator is useful: the syntax is terse, unforgiving, and shared between several unrelated Apache modules, so the rule you need is rarely the rule you remember.

It only applies to Apache and compatible servers such as LiteSpeed. On Nginx the equivalent rules live in the server configuration, and an .htaccess file is simply ignored.

Does .htaccess still matter in 2026?

On Apache hosting it remains the main lever a site owner has, and the tasks it handles are the ones that break sites most visibly: redirects after a migration, forcing HTTPS, and serving a sensible page when something is missing.

Its footprint has shrunk, though. Compression and caching are increasingly handled by a CDN in front of the server, and platforms built on Nginx or managed hosting often expose these settings in a control panel instead.

Where it is still in play, treat it with respect. It is read on every request, so it carries a small performance cost, and a syntax error does not degrade the site gracefully. It returns a 500 error for every page at once.

What .htaccess is commonly used for

Redirecting old URLs to new ones with a permanent 301 after a restructure.
Forcing HTTPS so the insecure version of a page is never served.
Choosing a canonical hostname, so www and non-www do not both resolve.
Serving custom 404 and 500 pages instead of the server default.
Setting cache headers and enabling compression where no CDN handles it.
Restricting access to admin paths or staging environments by IP address.

Common mistakes

Editing the live file with no backup. A single typo takes the whole site down.
Chaining redirects rather than pointing each old URL straight at its final destination.
Redirecting everything removed to the homepage, which helps neither visitors nor search engines.
Using a temporary 302 for a permanent move, so ranking signals never transfer.
Blocking user agents so broadly that legitimate crawlers are caught alongside scrapers.

Using the htaccess generator

Pick the behaviours you need, fill in the specifics, and the htaccess generator assembles the correctly formatted directives for you to paste into your file. It removes the syntax problem, which is where most of the errors come from.

Two habits are worth keeping regardless. Always download a copy of the existing file before replacing it, so you can revert in seconds rather than by memory. And load the site immediately after saving, because if the file is malformed you want to find out now rather than from a customer.

Where to go next

Most of what an .htaccess file governs is worth verifying afterwards. Check the status code the redirected URL returns, confirm the HTTPS redirect is working, and make sure compression is enabled if you configured it here.

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