Domain and SSL expiry checker
Check when your domain name and your SSL certificate run out. A lapsed domain takes the website and every email address on it down at once, and an expired certificate puts a warning in front of every visitor. The domain date comes from the registry itself; the certificate is read live from your server.
The rest of your site, checked for €79
The Website Health Report includes the domain expiry finding and the certificate check, and adds how long a phone waits for your pages, security headers, email authentication, broken links and form destinations across up to fifty pages, and search checks, with the evidence for every finding and a fix list in priority order. One payment of €79.
Tell me when monitoring launches
Watchtower will check your site every ten minutes and email you when something breaks. It is not live yet. Leave your address and we will send one email on the day it launches. We ask you to confirm first, the address is used for nothing else, and you can take it off the list at any time.
Lawful basis: your consent, given when you confirm. Withdraw it with the unsubscribe link in any email from the list.
How the dates are read
Domain: we ask the registry for your domain ending, using the directory of registry lookup services that IANA publishes (RDAP). For .ie, the registry’s lookup services are listed in its WHOIS Services Policy, and we use its RDAP and WHOIS services. A domain is flagged when it has fewer than 30 days left.
Certificate: we connect to your server and read the certificate it presents, exactly as our SSL checker does. It is flagged with 21 days or fewer left. By then, a certificate on automatic renewal has usually been replaced already.
Nameservers: listed so you know which company your domain’s settings live with.
When the registry does not publish the date
Not every registry shows the expiry date in its public lookup. When it does not, the result says so plainly. We do not estimate a date from when the domain was registered, because renewals can be for one year or ten.
To find it yourself, log in to your registrar, the company you pay for the domain, and open the domain’s page: the expiry or renewal date is shown there, and on each renewal invoice. If you do not know who the registrar is, the registrar is usually named in the result above. While you are there, check that auto-renew is on and the card on file is current.
See all the free checks, or the website security check for the certificate alongside your security headers.
Domain expiry, answered
What happens when a domain expires?
Your website and every email address on the domain stop working together, usually within days of the expiry date. Most registrars then hold the name for a grace period during which you can still renew it, sometimes at a higher price. If nobody renews it, the name is released and anyone can register it.
Where does the expiry date come from?
From the registry that runs your domain ending, through its public lookup service: RDAP, the modern replacement for WHOIS, or WHOIS itself where that is where the registry publishes the date. We ask the registry directly each time you run the check.
Why does it say the date is not published for my domain?
Some registries do not include the expiry date in their public lookup, which is common for country-code domains. When that happens we say so, rather than estimate. Your registrar, the company you pay each year for the domain, always holds the date: it is on the domain’s page in your account and on the renewal invoice.
Can you remind me before it expires?
Not from this page. It answers once, now. Watchtower, our monitoring service, will check the domain and certificate every day and email you before either runs out; it is not live yet, and you can join the waitlist below. Whatever you use, the safest protection is auto-renew at your registrar with a card on file that will still be valid on the renewal date, and an email address on the account that someone reads.
Is this the same check the paid report runs?
The domain expiry finding and the certificate check are the same code the €79 Website Health Report runs. The report adds speed, security headers, email authentication, broken links and forms, and search checks, with a fix list in priority order.