Validate and Detect URLs Cleanly with Str::isUrl()

Use Str::isUrl() to determine whether a string is a valid URL with customizable protocol restrictions.

Checking if an input string is a valid web URL using custom regular expressions is error-prone and often mishandles edge cases (like Unicode domains, port numbers, or query parameters).

Laravel provides the native Str::isUrl() helper.

Basic Usage

use Illuminate\Support\Str;

Str::isUrl('https://mrpunyapal.dev'); // true
Str::isUrl('ftp://files.example.com'); // true
Str::isUrl('not-a-valid-url');        // false

Restricting Allowed Protocols

Pass an array of allowed protocols to restrict valid URL schemes:

// Only allow secure HTTPS URLs
$isSecure = Str::isUrl($input, ['https']);

// Allow HTTP or HTTPS only (rejects ftp://, javascript://, etc.)
$isWeb = Str::isUrl($input, ['http', 'https']);

Fluent String Syntax

if (str($request->website)->isUrl(['https'])) {
    // Process secure link
}

Summary

• Uses robust native URL parsing under the hood.
• Protocol filtering prevents dangerous schemes like javascript: or data:.
• Replaces custom regex validation.