Unchecking uses encodeURI / decodeURI instead — this preserves URL-structure characters like `: / ? & =`. Component mode is for encoding a single VALUE that will be placed inside a query parameter; unchecked mode is for encoding/decoding a full URL.
The difference between encodeURIComponent and encodeURI
encodeURIComponent percent-encodes every character except A-Z a-z 0-9 - _ . ~. It is meant for encoding a single value that will be placed inside a query parameter or path segment — for example turning & into %26 so it can't accidentally be interpreted as a parameter separator.
encodeURI leaves URL-structural characters untouched (: / ? # [ ] @ ! $ & ' ( ) * + , ; =). It is meant for encoding an already-assembled full URL whose structure needs to be preserved.
The classic mistake this distinction prevents: if you run encodeURIComponent on an entire URL, characters like : and / also get turned into %3A / %2F, breaking the URL's structure (it stops being a usable URL and becomes one opaque string). Use encodeURI for a full URL, and encodeURIComponent for a single value that will be embedded INSIDE a URL.
Both functions turn a space into %20 (RFC 3986 percent-encoding). One historical exception: form data submitted as application/x-www-form-urlencoded (classic HTML form POST/GET) encodes a space as + instead of %20 — a form-specific quirk distinct from URI percent-encoding, and not something encodeURIComponent/encodeURI produce.
When should you use URL Encoder / Decoder?
The KEYDAL URL Encoder / Decoder tool is a browser-based utility that developers, system administrators, SEO specialists and enterprise technology teams use in their daily operations. It requires no installation, is free, and produces results instantly. It is designed so local teams can run audits without connecting to server environments and run analyses without touching production.
Typical scenarios include: post-migration verification, comparing domain or hosting providers, diagnosing customer issues, security auditing (pre-pentest reconnaissance), root-cause analysis of email deliverability problems, validating CDN or proxy configuration, surfacing technical audit data for SEO teams, and rapid information gathering during incident response. You can copy results as text and share them or paste them into internal documentation.
The KEYDAL infrastructure team provides web hosting, VPS, dedicated server management, server hardening, DNS configuration and SSL/TLS deployment services from Türkiye. Beyond these tools, we deliver server setup and operations support across Hetzner, OVHcloud, Contabo, DigitalOcean and Turkish providers.
Your queries are never stored on our servers
KEYDAL tools run stateless: domain names, IPs, URLs or other inputs are not persisted to any database. Logs are kept only for security purposes (rate limiting, abuse detection) and deleted within 30 days. For tools that handle sensitive data (tokens, API keys, JWTs), processing happens entirely in your browser — nothing is sent over the network. See our Privacy Policy for details.
All tools run over HTTPS with TLS 1.3 support. KEYDAL is a Türkiye-based technology company and complies fully with local data-protection regulations (KVKK) and GDPR principles.
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The KEYDAL free tools collection includes DNS lookup, WHOIS lookup, SSL certificate checker, HTTP headers analyzer, IP geolocation, uptime checker, JSON formatter, JWT decoder, Base64 encode/decode, QR code generator, meta tag analyzer and robots.txt tester. All browser-based, free, no installation.
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