About

Built for my loved ones. Open to everyone.

url.vet is a free, open-source tool that tells you whether a link is safe, and why. This page is about why it exists and what it stands for.

Why I built it

I’d often get a link and wonder if it was safe to open. I tried a few online link scanners. Some just said “safe” or “risky” and nothing else. Others gave me pages of technical data to dig through myself. I wasn’t really happy with either.

Then I saw the same problem at home. My parents would open and forward links from WhatsApp without really knowing if they were real (and often they weren’t). Friends would send me “hot deals” that didn’t even lead to the shop they claimed to be from.

Also, I’m a pretty private person, and I don’t like how most apps treat their users today: tracking everything, collecting all your data, selling it to advertisers. I found all of it irritating and wanted to build something that does none of that.

I wanted something my family, my friends and I could all use. A straight answer for them, and the reasons behind it for anyone who wants to look deeper.

That’s how url.vet started.

abhizaik Creator of url.vet

Philosophy

  • Explainable results

    A verdict you can't explain can't be trusted. Every signal is shown, along with how it led to the final verdict.

  • Built for everyone

    Detailed enough for security folks, plain enough for your parents. Same scan, read at whatever depth you like.

  • Fully open source

    Security tools should be open to inspection. The detection engine, scoring and website are all on GitHub, free to read, audit and self-host.

  • Checked live

    Phishing pages appear and vanish within hours. url.vet checks the link the moment you ask, so it catches pages that blocklists haven't added yet.

  • Privacy first

    No account, no ads, no trackers, no data sold. We don't log who you are or what you scan.

Meet Vetty

Vetty is the paperclip in the corner. He helps you use url.vet. He is inspired by Clippy, the paperclip helper from old office software.

What Vetty does

  • Shows you how to use url.vet
  • Checks a link for you
  • Explains a result in simple words
  • Takes you to the real site if a page is fake

What Vetty never does

  • Collect your data
  • Use what you type to train AI
  • Ask you to sign up or pay
  • Show ads or try to sell you anything

Don't want him around? Hide him from his menu. He will wait at the bottom of the page.

Open, all of it.

Plenty of projects call themselves open source but only publish the website. Here the detection engine, the scoring, the API and the website are all public under AGPL-3.0. Read it, audit it, or host it yourself.

Want to help? Start with a good first issue or read the contributing guide.

View on GitHub

Get in touch

Have feedback or an idea, or just want to say hello? Email [email protected].

Think a verdict is wrong? The Report button on any result is the fastest way. A human reads every report. Found a security issue? Please follow the security policy.

url.vet is also written as URLvet. It used to be called SafeSurf.

Got a link you're unsure about?

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