What Is Catch-All Redirect?
A catch-all redirect is a rule that forwards any request to a domain — regardless of the path or subdomain — to a single destination. It acts as a safety net, ensuring no visitor gets a 404 error on the forwarded domain.
Why It Matters
When you forward a domain, there’s always a risk that someone requests a URL you didn’t explicitly configure — like old-domain.com/random-page or old-domain.com/admin. Without a catch-all rule, these requests return 404 errors.
A catch-all redirect ensures every request gets handled. No matter what URL someone enters on the old domain, they’re sent to the right place.
How It Works
A catch-all redirect matches any request that doesn’t have a more specific rule:
old-domain.com/* → new-domain.comThis covers:
old-domain.com/(homepage)old-domain.com/aboutold-domain.com/blog/any-postold-domain.com/typo-page-that-never-existed
Everything goes to new-domain.com (or new-domain.com/original-path if path forwarding is enabled).
Catch-All vs Specific Rules
You can combine catch-all with specific rules. Specific rules take priority:
| Request | Rule | Destination |
|---|---|---|
old.com/pricing | Specific rule | new.com/plans |
old.com/blog | Specific rule | blog.new.com |
old.com/anything-else | Catch-all | new.com |
How Domain Forward Handles This
Domain Forward’s default forwarding behavior is a catch-all — every request to your domain is forwarded to the destination. You can add path forwarding to preserve URL paths or use the default behavior to send everything to a single page. Combined with wildcard forwarding, you can catch all subdomains too.
Related Terms
Related Features
Frequently
asked questions
A catch-all redirect sends everything on a domain to one destination. A wildcard redirect catches all subdomains (*.example.com) but can forward each differently. Catch-all is simpler — one rule covers everything.
It depends on the configuration. A catch-all can either strip the path (everything goes to new-domain.com) or preserve it (old.com/page goes to new-domain.com/page). Domain Forward lets you choose.
When you want to make sure no request to the old domain returns a 404. Common for brand migrations, parked domains, and shutting down old marketing sites.
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