The DomainChest Blog
Domain & SSL expiry, explained
Clear, practical field notes on keeping every domain and certificate you own alive — from the team building DomainChest.
How to Check If a Domain Is Available (and What 'Available' Really Means)
Availability looks like a yes/no question and isn't. Here's where the real answer comes from, why some TLDs can't be checked reliably at all, and the four reasons an 'available' domain still might not be yours to buy.
What Is DNSSEC and Should You Enable It?
DNSSEC signs your DNS answers so resolvers can detect tampering. It's genuinely useful — and it's also the one setting that can take a domain completely offline if you migrate providers carelessly. An honest look at both sides.
5 min readTracking Domain Expiry in a Spreadsheet: When It Works and When It Breaks
A spreadsheet is the most common way people track domain renewals, and for a handful of domains it's genuinely fine. Here's how to build a good one, the three failure modes it can't fix, and when it stops being enough.
5 min readSSL Certificate Expired? How to Fix It Fast
Your SSL certificate expired and visitors are seeing a security warning. Here's exactly how to diagnose it, renew and reinstall the certificate, and clear the error fast — plus how to make sure it never happens again.
4 min readHow to Set a CAA Record (and Why Almost Nobody Has One)
A CAA record names which certificate authorities may issue certificates for your domain. It takes five minutes to add, most domains don't have one, and here's exactly what to publish — plus the two limits worth being honest about.
4 min readHow to Check When a Wix Domain Expires
Where to find a Wix domain's expiry date, why the 'Upcoming payment' date is about 30 days earlier, and the grace-period detail Wix documents but few people know — the domain can be privately auctioned in its final 10 days.
3 min readHow to Check When a Squarespace (ex-Google Domains) Domain Expires
Google Domains moved to Squarespace. Here's how to find your domain's expiration date in the Squarespace dashboard now, how the migration changed things, and a public lookup that works without logging in.
3 min readHow to Check When a Shopify Domain Expires
Where to find a Shopify domain's renewal date, why it's 14 days before the domain actually expires, and why a WHOIS lookup shows Tucows instead of Shopify.
3 min readHow to Check When a Route 53 Domain Expires
How to find an AWS Route 53 domain's expiry date and auto-renew status, why Route 53 renews 35 days early, and the quirk that catches AWS users out — your AWS credits can't pay for it.
4 min readHow to Check When a Porkbun Domain Expires
Two ways to find a Porkbun domain's expiration date — from the Domain Management dashboard, or with a public lookup that works without the login — plus how Porkbun's auto-renewal actually behaves.
3 min readHow to Check When an OVHcloud Domain Expires
Where to find an OVHcloud domain's expiry date — it's shown as 'Date of effect' under My offers and services — plus how OVH's billing-centric renewal language differs from registry expiry.
3 min readHow to Check When a Network Solutions Domain Expires
Network Solutions shows a renewal date rather than an expiration date — and shows nothing at all if auto-renew is off. Here's how to find the real expiry, plus the 25-day and five-year rules that catch people out.
4 min readHow to Check When an IONOS Domain Expires
How to find an IONOS (formerly 1&1) domain's renewal date, why the dashboard shows a contract term rather than a fixed expiry, and how to confirm the real registry date without logging in.
3 min readHow to Check When a Hostinger Domain Expires
How to find a Hostinger domain's expiration date in hPanel, where the auto-renewal toggle actually lives, and a public lookup that works without logging in.
2 min readHow to Check When a Gandi Domain Expires
How to find a Gandi domain's expiry date and auto-renewal status — plus the two Gandi-specific traps: the 32-day deadline for cancelling auto-renew, and why the expiration date isn't always the last day you can renew.
3 min readHow to Check When a Dynadot Domain Expires
How to find a Dynadot domain's expiry date and set auto-renew — plus the timing quirk worth knowing: Dynadot attempts renewal only 15 days before expiry, later than most registrars.
3 min readHow Agencies Should Manage Client Domains
Client domains are the highest-consequence, lowest-attention thing an agency holds. Here's a practical system for tracking them across registrars and clients — ownership, access, expiry, and what to hand over when a client leaves.
5 min readDomainChest vs TrackSSL: Which Should You Use?
TrackSSL is a dedicated SSL certificate monitor — genuinely focused, with a free tier. But it doesn't track domain registration expiry, which is the other half of the problem. An honest comparison.
5 min readDomainChest vs Pingdom: Which Should You Use?
Pingdom is a synthetic uptime monitor that checks SSL certificates as part of its HTTPS checks — but it doesn't track domain registration expiry at all. Here's an honest comparison of what each one covers.
5 min readDomainChest vs Better Stack: Which Should You Use?
Better Stack does monitor domain expiration — but as a setting on a URL-based uptime monitor, with alerts behind a paid plan. Here's an honest look at where that model fits and where a dedicated expiry tracker fits better.
5 min readWhy DNS Changes Take Time to Propagate (and How to Speed It Up)
DNS changes don't roll out gradually — caches expire on their own schedule. Here's what TTL actually controls, why different people see different results, and how to plan a change so the switch is quick.
5 min readCompanies That Forgot to Renew: Real Incidents, and the Myths
A verified account of outages caused by expired domains and certificates — from a $2.95M FCC consent decree to 32 million phones losing data — plus the widely-repeated stories that turn out not to be true.
9 min readWhat Is a Subdomain Takeover (and How to Check If You're Exposed)
A forgotten DNS record pointing at a service you no longer use can let a stranger publish content on your domain. Here's how subdomain takeovers work, how to find the dangling records that cause them, and how to close the gap.
5 min readHow to Tell If Someone Issued an SSL Certificate for Your Domain
Every publicly-trusted certificate is recorded in a public log — including ones you didn't ask for. Here's how to check what's been issued for your domain, how to tell routine renewals from the ones worth investigating, and how to lock issuance down.
4 min readHow to Find All Subdomains of a Domain
A practical guide to finding every subdomain of a domain — the fast passive method using Certificate Transparency logs, the other options and their limits, and what to do with the list once you have it.
4 min readWhy Auto-Renew Fails (and Domains Expire Anyway)
Auto-renew is an instruction to charge you, not a guarantee the domain renews. Here are the specific ways it silently fails — dead cards, per-domain settings, registry locks, verification suspensions — and how to tell whether yours is actually on.
5 min readHow to Read a WHOIS Record and Your DNS Settings
A field guide to the two records behind every domain — what the registration data actually tells you, what EPP status codes like clientTransferProhibited mean, and how to read A, MX, TXT, CNAME and CAA records when something breaks.
7 min readHow to Check Your SPF and DMARC Records (and Fix What's Wrong)
A plain-English guide to checking your domain's SPF and DMARC records — what each part actually means, the misconfigurations that quietly break protection, and how to move to an enforced policy without losing legitimate mail.
6 min readWhat Happens When an SSL Certificate Expires (and How to Prevent It)
When an SSL/TLS certificate expires, browsers block your site with a full-page security warning and visitors leave. Here's exactly what breaks, why certificates expire so often, and how to stop it from ever happening.
5 min readHow to Never Let a Domain Expire: A Simple System
Missed domain renewals happen to careful people all the time. Here's a simple, durable system for making sure none of your domains ever lapse — covering auto-renewal, contact hygiene, and independent expiry monitoring.
4 min readThe Best Domain & SSL Expiry Monitoring Tools (2026)
An honest comparison of the tools that alert you before a domain or SSL certificate expires — UptimeRobot, Oh Dear, StatusCake, Site24x7, Better Stack, DomainChest and more — with what each actually monitors, free tiers, and who they're for.
6 min readDomainChest vs StatusCake: Which Should You Use?
An honest comparison of DomainChest and StatusCake for domain and SSL expiry monitoring — free tiers, what each actually watches, and which fits your needs.
3 min readWhy Registrar Renewal Reminders Aren't Enough
Your registrar already emails you before a domain expires — so why do careful people still lose domains? Here's exactly where registrar reminders fall short, and the independent backstop that closes the gap.
4 min readUptimeRobot Alternatives for Domain & SSL Expiry Monitoring
UptimeRobot is a great uptime monitor, but its domain and SSL expiry monitoring are paid-only. Here are the best alternatives for tracking domain and certificate expiration — including free options.
4 min readDomainChest vs Oh Dear: Which Should You Use?
An honest comparison of DomainChest and Oh Dear for domain and SSL expiry monitoring — free tier vs all-in-one site monitoring, pricing, and which one fits your setup.
3 min readHow to Check When a Namecheap Domain Expires
Find a Namecheap domain's expiration date in seconds — from your Domain List, or with a public lookup that works without the login. Plus how Namecheap auto-renewal and the grace period work.
2 min readHow to Check When a Cloudflare Domain Expires
Find a Cloudflare Registrar domain's expiration date from the dashboard, or with a public lookup that needs no login. Plus how Cloudflare's at-cost renewal and auto-renewal work.
2 min readDomain Grace Period and Redemption Period Explained
When a domain expires it doesn't vanish overnight — it moves through a grace period, a redemption period, and a pending-delete phase before anyone else can register it. Here's the full timeline, what each stage costs, and how long you really have to recover it.
4 min readWhat Happens When a Domain Expires? The Full Timeline (and How to Get It Back)
A domain doesn't vanish the moment it expires — it moves through a grace period, redemption, and pending delete before anyone else can register it. Here's the exact timeline and how to recover a lapsed domain.
5 min readHow to Check When a Domain Expires: 5 Reliable Ways
Need to find a domain's expiration date? Here are five ways to check when any domain expires — from a quick WHOIS or RDAP lookup to your registrar dashboard — plus how to track expiry across all your domains automatically.
5 min readHow to Check When a GoDaddy Domain Expires
Two quick ways to find a GoDaddy domain's expiration date — from your account's Domain Portfolio, or with a public lookup that works even if you don't have the login. Plus how GoDaddy auto-renewal really behaves.
3 min read