// DIRECTORY · WEB FILTER CATEGORIES

URL category check: every web filter's lookup tool in one place

unflagdomain Team·UPDATED October 2, 2026
// ANSWER

A URL category is the label a web filter assigns to a domain, such as Business, Shopping, Phishing or Newly Registered Domain; firewalls and DNS filters then allow or block the site by that label. There is no central lookup: each vendor publishes its own tool for checking a URL's category and its own form for requesting a change. This page lists both for 16 web filters, with the names each uses for its security-risk categories and the review time it states. Links were verified on 2 October 2026.

Two kinds of people land here. An administrator checking how a filter classifies a site before allowing it, and a site owner who has just been told “your website won't open at our office”. The table serves both. The part underneath is for the owner.

// LOOKUP AND CHANGE REQUEST, VENDOR BY VENDOR

  • Fortinet FortiGuard

    Look up
    FortiGuard Web Filter Lookup. Public, no account.
    Request a change
    Web Filter Classification Rating Request. Form: URL, suggested category, name, email, company, optional screenshot. No account.
    Security categories
    Malicious Websites · Phishing · Spam URLs · Newly Observed Domain · Newly Registered Domain · Dynamic DNS
    The vendor says
    Fortinet: “Reviews are generally processed and updated within 24 hours.”
    unflagdomain
    In our catalog: request text prepared on your dashboard when it flags the domain as a threat. Our guide.

  • Palo Alto Networks

    Look up
    Test A Site. No login needed to search.
    Request a change
    Request URL Category Change. Under the search result in Test A Site. Logging in skips the CAPTCHA and the email field; bulk requests need a login.
    Security categories
    malware · phishing · command-and-control · grayware · compromised-website · newly-registered-domain
    The vendor says
    No review time stated. Palo Alto's documentation notes that a change request can't be submitted for its risk categories, which are assigned dynamically.
    unflagdomain
    In our catalog: request text prepared on your dashboard when it flags the domain as a threat.

  • Zscaler

    Look up
    Site Review. Zscaler's URL category lookup tool.
    Request a change
    Requested through Site Review itself. We could not verify the steps or whether an account is needed.
    unflagdomain
    Not in our catalog. A category request here is yours to file.

  • Check Point

    Look up
    URL Categorization. Redirects into Check Point User Center.
    Request a change
    sk69200. The same tool lets you suggest an alternative categorisation, per Check Point's own article.
    unflagdomain
    Not in our catalog. A category request here is yours to file.

  • Cisco Talos

    Look up
    Talos Reputation Center. Reputation and category for a domain, URL or IP.
    Request a change
    Web categorization requests. A Cisco account is required; a free guest account works. Reputation disputes are filed from the same centre.
    Security categories
    Malware · Phishing · Botnets · Spam · Newly Seen Domains · Cryptojacking
    The vendor says
    Talos says single-URL categorisation submissions in English, French and German are addressed within one business day, and most reputation disputes within one business day.
    unflagdomain
    Not in our catalog. A category request here is yours to file.

  • Cisco Umbrella / OpenDNS

    Look up
    No public lookup. Categories come from Talos; the old OpenDNS domain-tagging site now redirects to the OpenDNS home page.
    Request a change
    Submit a categorization request. Through the Umbrella dashboard or through Talos. A Cisco.com account is required.
    unflagdomain
    Not in our catalog. A category request here is yours to file.

  • Forcepoint

    Look up
    Site Lookup. Linked from Forcepoint's “Blocked by Forcepoint” page.
    Request a change
    Site Lookup. The same page takes suggestions that Forcepoint re-evaluate a categorisation.
    Security categories
    Malicious Websites · Phishing and Other Frauds · Compromised Websites · Newly Registered Websites · Bot Networks · Spyware
    unflagdomain
    In our catalog: request text prepared on your dashboard when it flags the domain as a threat.

  • Webroot BrightCloud (OpenText)

    Look up
    URL/IP Lookup. Now redirects to OpenText's threat intelligence support site.
    Request a change
    Change request. Form on the lookup page: URL or IP, email, product, comments. No account.
    Security categories
    Malware Sites · Phishing and Other Frauds · Spyware and Adware · Bot Nets · Proxy Avoid and Anonymizers
    unflagdomain
    In our catalog: request text prepared on your dashboard when it flags the domain as a threat. Our guide.

  • Trend Micro

    Look up
    Site Safety Center. No login. Returns a safety rating (Safe, Dangerous, Suspicious, Untested) and a category.
    Request a change
    Reclassify Request. On the result page: email, a robot check and an email validation link. No account.
    Security categories
    Malware Accomplice · Disease Vector · Phishing · Spam · Newly Observed Domain · C&C Server
    unflagdomain
    In our catalog: request text prepared on your dashboard when it flags the domain as a threat. Our guide.

  • Trellix / McAfee / Skyhigh (TrustedSource)

    Look up
    TrustedSource. Customer URL Ticketing System. Login optional.
    Request a change
    TrustedSource. Suggest categories after checking the URL. Account optional.
    The vendor says
    TrustedSource: “The majority of submitted requests will be addressed within 3-5 business days.”
    unflagdomain
    In our catalog: emailed in a dispatch when it flags the domain as a threat. Our guide.

  • Symantec / Broadcom WebPulse

    Look up
    WebPulse Site Review. One URL at a time.
    Request a change
    Submit for Review. Same tool: suggested category, email, comments.
    Security categories
    Malicious Sources/Malnets · Phishing · Spam · Suspicious · Compromised Sites
    The vendor says
    Broadcom says a reviewed site “will typically be updated within 24 to 48 hours”.
    unflagdomain
    In our catalog: request text prepared on your dashboard when it flags the domain as a threat.

  • Sophos

    Look up
    No public category lookup that we could verify.
    Request a change
    Reassessment runs through Sophos' own submission channels; our Sophos guide covers the false-positive route.
    unflagdomain
    In our catalog: emailed in a dispatch when it flags the domain as a threat. Our guide.

  • SonicWall

    Look up
    Capture Labs CFS lookup. Named in SonicWall's knowledge base as the content filter rating lookup.
    Request a change
    MySonicWall. Report Issue → “Review-Rerate CFS URL Rating”. A MySonicWall account is required.
    Security categories
    Malware · Phishing and Other Frauds · Spyware and Adware · Bot Nets · Hacking · Keyloggers and Monitoring
    unflagdomain
    Not in our catalog. A category request here is yours to file.

  • WatchGuard

    Look up
    Security Portal. Sign-in required.
    Request a change
    Security Portal. URL plus suggested category. Sign-in required.
    unflagdomain
    Not in our catalog. A category request here is yours to file.

  • Cloudflare

    Look up
    Cloudflare Radar. Radar's domain pages. We could not load them to confirm what they show.
    Request a change
    Radar categorization feedback. Cloudflare's docs say a security-category change triggers a deeper investigation and approval is not guaranteed.
    Security categories
    Phishing · Malware · Command and Control & Botnet · Compromised Domain · Spam · New Domains
    unflagdomain
    Not in our catalog. A category request here is yours to file.

  • Barracuda

    Look up
    No URL-category lookup. Barracuda Central's lookups are reputation checks, not categories.
    Request a change
    Website Category Submission. Form with an image CAPTCHA. No account.
    unflagdomain
    Not in our catalog. A category request here is yours to file.

// every link, category name and review time read on the vendor's own page on 2 October 2026. Category names are the vendors' own, verbatim. Where a tool would not load without a login, the entry says so.

// A CATEGORY IS NOT A BLOCKLIST FLAG

A category is a description: Business, Shopping, Newly Registered Domain. A flag is a verdict: this URL is malicious. Filters block on both, and the two are fixed differently. A wrong content category is a free form you file yourself, and the vendors that state a time say a day to a week. A security verdict needs the site to be clean first, because the vendor re-scans it, and it is rarely one vendor's opinion: in our September 2026 data the median flagged domain was listed by 11 vendors at once.

Palo Alto's documentation puts the purpose in one line: URL categories enable category-based filtering of web traffic and granular policy rules. That is all a category is, a hook for someone else's policy. Which is also why the fastest fix is sometimes not the vendor at all: the administrator of the network that blocks you can allow your domain in their own policy in a minute.

// IF YOUR OWN SITE IS BLOCKED AT SOMEONE'S OFFICE
  1. 01

    Ask which product blocked it.

    The block page your customer sees names the vendor and usually the category. A screenshot settles which row of the table you need.

  2. 02

    Look the domain up at that vendor.

    Use the lookup in the table. What you are told second-hand and what the vendor's database says today often differ.

  3. 03

    If it is a content category, file the change yourself.

    Pick the correct category, describe the site in one plain sentence, submit once. It is free, and the vendors that state a time say a day to a week.

  4. 04

    If it is a security category, treat it as a flag.

    Phishing, malware, compromised: the vendor believes the site is or was dangerous. Check for a hack and clean it first, because the vendor re-scans. Then find out who else lists the domain; it is rarely one vendor.

  5. 05

    If it is “newly registered” or “newly observed”, it is an age rule.

    Not a verdict about your site. It lapses as the domain ages, and your customer's administrator can allow the domain in their own policy today.

// SECURITY CATEGORY? SEE WHO ELSE LISTS THE DOMAIN

This scan reads security verdicts, not content categories. If it finds none, your problem is a category and the table above is all you need: nothing to buy. If it finds vendors flagging the domain as a threat, it names each one and how it takes a removal request.

// free · no account · results in seconds

// FAQ

  • A URL category is the label a web filter assigns to a domain or URL, such as Business, Shopping, Phishing or Newly Registered Domain. Firewalls, secure web gateways and DNS filters allow or block traffic by category, so the label decides whether people behind that filter can open the site.

  • Per vendor. There is no central lookup: each web filter publishes its own tool, listed on this page. Start with the vendor named on the block page your visitor saw, enter the domain, and read the category that vendor's database returns today.

  • Look the domain up at fortiguard.com/webfilter, then file the Web Filter Classification Rating Request form with the URL, the category you believe is correct and your contact details. No account is needed. Fortinet says reviews are generally processed and updated within 24 hours.

  • Usually one of three reasons: the filter put the site in a content category that company blocks by policy, the vendor assigned a security category such as phishing or malware, or the domain is new and the policy blocks newly registered domains. The block page names the vendor and the category.

  • It depends on the vendor, and only some state a time. Fortinet says generally within 24 hours, Cisco Talos within one business day for single submissions, Broadcom 24 to 48 hours, TrustedSource 3 to 5 business days for most requests. The others publish no figure.

  • No. A category describes what a site is; a blocklist entry is a verdict that it is dangerous. They overlap at the security categories. Google Safe Browsing, for example, is not a category system at all: it returns safe or unsafe, and it clears through a review in Search Console.

  • No. A content-category correction is a free form you file yourself with each vendor, using the links on this page. unflagdomain sends removal requests when vendors flag a domain as a threat; for the vendors on this page that are in our catalog, the table says how each is handled.

// related: domain reputation check · per-vendor false-positive guides · which vendors actually flag websites · delist a website from a blacklist