diff --git a/changedetectionio/api/Import.py b/changedetectionio/api/Import.py
index 7294cc67..997593e8 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/api/Import.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/api/Import.py
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
-import os
 from changedetectionio.strtobool import strtobool
 from flask_restful import abort, Resource
 from flask import request
-import validators
 from functools import wraps
 from . import auth, validate_openapi_request
+from ..html_tools import is_safe_valid_url
 
 
 def default_content_type(content_type='text/plain'):
@@ -50,14 +49,13 @@ class Import(Resource):
 
         urls = request.get_data().decode('utf8').splitlines()
         added = []
-        allow_simplehost = not strtobool(os.getenv('BLOCK_SIMPLEHOSTS', 'False'))
         for url in urls:
             url = url.strip()
             if not len(url):
                 continue
 
             # If hosts that only contain alphanumerics are allowed ("localhost" for example)
-            if not validators.url(url, simple_host=allow_simplehost):
+            if not is_safe_valid_url(url):
                 return f"Invalid or unsupported URL - {url}", 400
 
             if dedupe and self.datastore.url_exists(url):
diff --git a/changedetectionio/api/Watch.py b/changedetectionio/api/Watch.py
index 399b7ad1..2b5f6358 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/api/Watch.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/api/Watch.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import os
 
 from changedetectionio.strtobool import strtobool
-from changedetectionio.html_tools import is_safe_url
+from changedetectionio.html_tools import is_safe_valid_url
 
 from flask_expects_json import expects_json
 from changedetectionio import queuedWatchMetaData
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ class Watch(Resource):
             return validation_error, 400
 
         # XSS etc protection
-        if request.json.get('url') and not is_safe_url(request.json.get('url')):
+        if request.json.get('url') and not is_safe_valid_url(request.json.get('url')):
             return "Invalid URL", 400
 
         watch.update(request.json)
@@ -232,9 +232,7 @@ class CreateWatch(Resource):
         json_data = request.get_json()
         url = json_data['url'].strip()
 
-        # If hosts that only contain alphanumerics are allowed ("localhost" for example)
-        allow_simplehost = not strtobool(os.getenv('BLOCK_SIMPLEHOSTS', 'False'))
-        if not validators.url(url, simple_host=allow_simplehost):
+        if not is_safe_valid_url(url):
             return "Invalid or unsupported URL", 400
 
         if json_data.get('proxy'):
diff --git a/changedetectionio/flask_app.py b/changedetectionio/flask_app.py
index 94ce865f..413547d4 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/flask_app.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/flask_app.py
@@ -133,10 +133,10 @@ def get_socketio_path():
     # Socket.IO will be available at {prefix}/socket.io/
     return prefix
 
-@app.template_global('is_safe_url')
-def _is_safe_url(test_url):
-    from .html_tools import is_safe_url
-    return is_safe_url(test_url)
+@app.template_global('is_safe_valid_url')
+def _is_safe_valid_url(test_url):
+    from .html_tools import is_safe_valid_url
+    return is_safe_valid_url(test_url)
 
 
 @app.template_filter('format_number_locale')
@@ -387,7 +387,7 @@ def changedetection_app(config=None, datastore_o=None):
             # We would sometimes get login loop errors on sites hosted in sub-paths
 
             # note for the future:
-            #            if not is_safe_url(next):
+            #            if not is_safe_valid_url(next):
             #                return flask.abort(400)
             return redirect(url_for('watchlist.index'))
 
diff --git a/changedetectionio/forms.py b/changedetectionio/forms.py
index bb6c7a40..183a6cf9 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/forms.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/forms.py
@@ -28,11 +28,8 @@ from wtforms.utils import unset_value
 
 from wtforms.validators import ValidationError
 
-from validators.url import url as url_validator
-
 from changedetectionio.widgets import TernaryNoneBooleanField
 
-
 # default
 # each select <option data-enabled="enabled-0-0"
 from changedetectionio.blueprint.browser_steps.browser_steps import browser_step_ui_config
@@ -541,19 +538,10 @@ class validateURL(object):
 
 
 def validate_url(test_url):
-    # If hosts that only contain alphanumerics are allowed ("localhost" for example)
-    try:
-        url_validator(test_url, simple_host=allow_simplehost)
-    except validators.ValidationError:
-        #@todo check for xss
-        message = f"'{test_url}' is not a valid URL."
+    from changedetectionio.html_tools import is_safe_valid_url
+    if not is_safe_valid_url(test_url):
         # This should be wtforms.validators.
-        raise ValidationError(message)
-
-    from changedetectionio.html_tools import is_safe_url
-    if not is_safe_url(test_url):
-        # This should be wtforms.validators.
-        raise ValidationError('Watch protocol is not permitted by SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX or incorrect URL format')
+        raise ValidationError('Watch protocol is not permitted or invalid URL format')
 
 
 class ValidateSinglePythonRegexString(object):
diff --git a/changedetectionio/html_tools.py b/changedetectionio/html_tools.py
index 73111d19..959aeb7b 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/html_tools.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/html_tools.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+from functools import lru_cache
 from loguru import logger
 from typing import List
 import html
@@ -13,8 +14,6 @@ TITLE_RE = re.compile(r"<title[^>]*>(.*?)</title>", re.I | re.S)
 META_CS  = re.compile(r'<meta[^>]+charset=["\']?\s*([a-z0-9_\-:+.]+)', re.I)
 META_CT  = re.compile(r'<meta[^>]+http-equiv=["\']?content-type["\']?[^>]*content=["\'][^>]*charset=([a-z0-9_\-:+.]+)', re.I)
 
-SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX='^(http|https|ftp|file):'
-
 # 'price' , 'lowPrice', 'highPrice' are usually under here
 # All of those may or may not appear on different websites - I didnt find a way todo case-insensitive searching here
 LD_JSON_PRODUCT_OFFER_SELECTORS = ["json:$..offers", "json:$..Offers"]
@@ -23,20 +22,45 @@ class JSONNotFound(ValueError):
     def __init__(self, msg):
         ValueError.__init__(self, msg)
 
-def is_safe_url(test_url):
+@lru_cache(maxsize=10000)
+def is_safe_valid_url(test_url):
     import os
+    import validators
+    from changedetectionio.jinja2_custom import render as jinja_render
+    from changedetectionio import strtobool
+    allow_file_access = strtobool(os.getenv('ALLOW_FILE_URI', 'false'))
+    safe_protocol_regex = '^(http|https|ftp|file):' if allow_file_access else '^(http|https|ftp):'
+
     # See https://github.com/dgtlmoon/changedetection.io/issues/1358
 
     # Remove 'source:' prefix so we dont get 'source:javascript:' etc
     # 'source:' is a valid way to tell us to return the source
 
-    r = re.compile(re.escape('source:'), re.IGNORECASE)
+    r = re.compile('^source:', re.IGNORECASE)
     test_url = r.sub('', test_url)
 
-    pattern = re.compile(os.getenv('SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX', SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX), re.IGNORECASE)
-    if not pattern.match(test_url.strip()):
+    # Check the actual rendered URL in case of any Jinja markup
+    try:
+        test_url = jinja_render(test_url)
+    except Exception as e:
+        logger.error(f'URL "{test_url}" is not correct Jinja2? {str(e)}')
         return False
 
+    # Be sure the protocol is safe (no file, etcetc)
+    pattern = re.compile(os.getenv('SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX', safe_protocol_regex), re.IGNORECASE)
+    if not pattern.match(test_url.strip()):
+        logger.warning(f'URL "{test_url}" is not safe, aborting.')
+        return False
+
+    # If hosts that only contain alphanumerics are allowed ("localhost" for example)
+    allow_simplehost = not strtobool(os.getenv('BLOCK_SIMPLEHOSTS', 'False'))
+    try:
+        if not validators.url(test_url, simple_host=allow_simplehost):
+            logger.warning(f'URLf "{test_url}" failed validation, aborting.')
+            return False
+    except validators.ValidationError:
+        logger.warning(f'URL f"{test_url}" failed validation, aborting.')
+        return False
     return True
 
 # Doesn't look like python supports forward slash auto enclosure in re.findall
diff --git a/changedetectionio/model/Watch.py b/changedetectionio/model/Watch.py
index 55631bd8..3a7db946 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/model/Watch.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/model/Watch.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from blinker import signal
-from changedetectionio.html_tools import is_safe_url
+from changedetectionio.html_tools import is_safe_valid_url
 from changedetectionio.strtobool import strtobool
 from changedetectionio.jinja2_custom import render as jinja_render
 from . import watch_base
@@ -12,9 +12,6 @@ from .. import jinja2_custom as safe_jinja
 from ..diff import ADDED_PLACEMARKER_OPEN
 from ..html_tools import TRANSLATE_WHITESPACE_TABLE
 
-# Allowable protocols, protects against javascript: etc
-# file:// is further checked by ALLOW_FILE_URI
-SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX='^(http|https|ftp|file):'
 FAVICON_RESAVE_THRESHOLD_SECONDS=86400
 
 
@@ -63,7 +60,7 @@ class model(watch_base):
     def link(self):
 
         url = self.get('url', '')
-        if not is_safe_url(url):
+        if not is_safe_valid_url(url):
             return 'DISABLED'
 
         ready_url = url
@@ -84,7 +81,7 @@ class model(watch_base):
             ready_url=ready_url.replace('source:', '')
 
         # Also double check it after any Jinja2 formatting just incase
-        if not is_safe_url(ready_url):
+        if not is_safe_valid_url(ready_url):
             return 'DISABLED'
         return ready_url
 
diff --git a/changedetectionio/store.py b/changedetectionio/store.py
index 262934e1..ed5fb359 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/store.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/store.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from changedetectionio.strtobool import strtobool
-from changedetectionio.html_tools import is_safe_url
+from changedetectionio.html_tools import is_safe_valid_url
 
 from flask import (
     flash
@@ -341,8 +341,8 @@ class ChangeDetectionStore:
                 logger.error(f"Error fetching metadata for shared watch link {url} {str(e)}")
                 flash("Error fetching metadata for {}".format(url), 'error')
                 return False
-        if not is_safe_url(url):
-            flash('Watch protocol is not permitted by SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX', 'error')
+        if not is_safe_valid_url(url):
+            flash('Watch protocol is not permitted or invalid URL format', 'error')
             return None
 
         if tag and type(tag) == str:
diff --git a/changedetectionio/templates/base.html b/changedetectionio/templates/base.html
index 5e284657..5b398d30 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/templates/base.html
+++ b/changedetectionio/templates/base.html
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
           <a class="pure-menu-heading" href="{{url_for('watchlist.index')}}">
             <strong>Change</strong>Detection.io</a>
         {% endif %}
-        {% if current_diff_url and is_safe_url(current_diff_url) %}
+        {% if current_diff_url and is_safe_valid_url(current_diff_url) %}
           <a class="current-diff-url" href="{{ current_diff_url }}">
             <span style="max-width: 30%; overflow: hidden">{{ current_diff_url }}</span></a>
         {% else %}
diff --git a/changedetectionio/tests/test_security.py b/changedetectionio/tests/test_security.py
index b0898bba..5c8971f9 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/tests/test_security.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/tests/test_security.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ def test_bad_access(client, live_server, measure_memory_usage):
         follow_redirects=True
     )
 
-    assert b'Watch protocol is not permitted by SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX' in res.data
+    assert b'Watch protocol is not permitted or invalid URL format' in res.data
 
     res = client.post(
         url_for("ui.ui_views.form_quick_watch_add"),
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ def test_bad_access(client, live_server, measure_memory_usage):
         follow_redirects=True
     )
 
-    assert b'Watch protocol is not permitted by SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX' in res.data
+    assert b'Watch protocol is not permitted or invalid URL format' in res.data
 
     res = client.post(
         url_for("ui.ui_views.form_quick_watch_add"),
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ def test_bad_access(client, live_server, measure_memory_usage):
         follow_redirects=True
     )
 
-    assert b'Watch protocol is not permitted by SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX' in res.data
+    assert b'Watch protocol is not permitted or invalid URL format' in res.data
 
 
     res = client.post(
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ def test_bad_access(client, live_server, measure_memory_usage):
         follow_redirects=True
     )
 
-    assert b'Watch protocol is not permitted by SAFE_PROTOCOL_REGEX' in res.data
+    assert b'Watch protocol is not permitted or invalid URL format' in res.data
 
 
 def _runner_test_various_file_slash(client, file_uri):