diff --git a/src/html.c b/src/html.c
index 75481ef9..567704fa 100644
--- a/src/html.c
+++ b/src/html.c
@@ -164,8 +164,11 @@ char *escape_url(void *pool, const char *url, unsigned len, unsigned *out_len)
 		return NULL;
 
 	for (i = pos = 0; i < len;) {
-		if (c_isalpha(url[i])) {
+		if (c_isalnum(url[i]) || url[i]=='-' || url[i]=='_' || url[i]=='.' || url[i]=='~') {
 			msg[pos++] = url[i++];
+		} else if (url[i] == ' ') {
+			msg[pos++] = '+';
+			i++;
 		} else {
 			snprintf(&msg[pos], 4, "%%%02X", (unsigned)url[i++]);
 			pos+=3;
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index 534c495a..4636391c 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -87,9 +87,6 @@ json_escape_LDADD = $(LDADD)
 url_escape_SOURCES = url-escape.c
 url_escape_LDADD = $(LDADD)
 
-url_unescape_SOURCES = url-escape.c
-url_unescape_LDADD = $(LDADD)
-
 html_escape_SOURCES = html-escape.c
 html_escape_LDADD = $(LDADD)
 
@@ -118,7 +115,7 @@ valid_hostname_LDADD = $(LDADD)
 port_parsing_LDADD = $(LDADD)
 
 check_PROGRAMS = str-test str-test2 ipv4-prefix ipv6-prefix kkdcp-parsing json-escape ban-ips \
-	port-parsing human_addr valid-hostname url-escape url-unescape html-escape cstp-recv \
+	port-parsing human_addr valid-hostname url-escape html-escape cstp-recv \
 	proxyproto-v1
 
 
diff --git a/tests/url-escape.c b/tests/url-escape.c
index 85200d9e..ca9cc0a4 100644
--- a/tests/url-escape.c
+++ b/tests/url-escape.c
@@ -28,15 +28,15 @@
 
 static char *strings[] = 
 {
-	"Laguna%20Beach",
-	"%20",
+	"Laguna+Beach",
+	"_+-.~%2C",
 	"Laguna%25%2B%40Beach"
 };
 
 static char *decoded_strings[] = 
 {
 	"Laguna Beach",
-	" ",
+	"_ -.~,",
 	"Laguna%+@Beach"
 };
 
diff --git a/tests/url-unescape.c b/tests/url-unescape.c
deleted file mode 100644
index 5d933598..00000000
--- a/tests/url-unescape.c
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,54 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright (C) 2016 Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
- *
- * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
- * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
- * (at your option) any later version.
- *
- * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
- * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
- * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
- * GNU General Public License for more details.
- *
- * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
- * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
- */
-
-#include <config.h>
-#include <stdio.h>
-#include <stdlib.h>
-#include <string.h>
-
-#include <sys/types.h>
-#include <sys/socket.h>
-#include <netdb.h>
-#include "../src/html.h"
-#include "../src/html.c"
-
-static char *strings[] =
-{
-    "Laguna+Beach",
-};
-
-static char *decoded_strings[] =
-{
-    "Laguna Beach",
-};
-
-int main()
-{
-    char *dec;
-    unsigned i;
-    unsigned len;
-
-    for (i=0;i<sizeof(strings)/sizeof(strings[0]);i++) {
-        dec = unescape_url(NULL, strings[i], strlen(strings[i]), &len);
-        if (strcmp(dec, decoded_strings[i]) != 0) {
-            fprintf(stderr, "string %d, fails decoding:\n\tinput: '%s'\n\toutput: '%s'\n", i, decoded_strings[i], dec);
-            exit(1);
-        }
-        talloc_free(dec);
-    }
-    return 0;
-}