Domain expiration monitoring that warns you weeks ahead
When a domain registration lapses, the website, the email and every API on that name stop working at once, and nothing in your server logs explains why. UptimePilot reads the expiry date for each domain from registry data, tracks it every day and warns your team 60, 30, 14 and 7 days before it runs out, so a renewal never depends on someone remembering.
Why domains still expire in well-run companies
Hardly anyone lets a domain expire on purpose. It happens through small gaps that nobody owns. The registrar account belongs to a person who left the company. Auto-renew is on, but the card on file expired last spring. The renewal notice goes to an old shared mailbox that nobody reads. An agency registered the name for a client years ago and the client never received the login. A secondary domain used only for email or redirects is forgotten until mail starts bouncing.
The result is the same every time. After the expiry date, the registrar typically parks the domain or stops resolving it, your site and email go dark, and recovery takes hours or days, depending on the grace period of the registry and the registrar. In the worst case the domain passes the redemption period and someone else can register it.
- Auto-renew fails silently because a payment card expired
- Renewal notices land in a mailbox nobody reads
- The registrar login belongs to a former employee or an old agency
- Secondary domains for mail, redirects or campaigns get forgotten
- A client owns the domain, but your team gets the blame when it lapses
How domain expiration monitoring works on UptimePilot
You add a domain, or UptimePilot picks it up from a website monitor you already have. Once a day the service looks up the registration record. Where the registry publishes RDAP, the modern structured successor to WHOIS, UptimePilot reads the expiry date from RDAP. For registries that still publish only WHOIS, it reads the date from the WHOIS record. The monitor shows the expiry date, the number of days left and the date of the last successful lookup.
Each day the count goes down, and each warning threshold you cross sends an alert to the people and channels on the monitor. The default thresholds are 60, 30, 14 and 7 days before expiry. You can change them per monitor, for example add a 90 day warning for brand domains, or a 3 day warning as a last call.
- Daily lookup of the registration expiry date
- RDAP where the registry publishes it, WHOIS otherwise
- Default warnings at 60, 30, 14 and 7 days, adjustable per monitor
- Alerts by email, SMS, Slack, Microsoft Teams and webhook
- Expiry date and days left visible in the dashboard and in reports
Catching auto-renew failures before they cost you the domain
Auto-renew makes people relax, and that is when it fails. A renewal attempt usually happens a few weeks or days before expiry. When it succeeds, the registry record shows a new expiry date one or more years later. When it fails, typically because the card on the registrar account expired or was replaced, the expiry date stays where it was.
UptimePilot watches for exactly that. If a domain passes the 30 day mark and the date has not moved, the next warning tells you so in plain words: the expiry date has not changed, check the payment method on the registrar account. When the renewal goes through, the new date shows up on the next daily lookup and the warnings stop.
What UptimePilot tracks, and what it does not
Domain expiration monitoring on UptimePilot tracks one thing and does it carefully: the registration expiry date. It does not log in to your registrar, it does not renew domains for you, and it does not watch nameserver or DNS record changes. Renewal and registrar settings stay in your hands. UptimePilot makes sure you know, early and repeatedly, when they need attention.
Pair domain expiry with SSL certificate monitoring
A domain and its certificate expire on different schedules and fail in different ways. A lapsed domain stops resolving. An expired certificate makes browsers show a full page warning and makes API clients refuse the connection. Both look like an outage to your customers. Turn on ssl certificate monitoring for the same names, and UptimePilot tracks the certificate expiry date and the validity of the chain next to the domain registration date.
For a full picture of a site, add a website monitoring check for the home page, a keyword check for the most important content, and a status page to tell users what is happening if anything breaks.
Domain expiry warnings for every client site
Agencies and IT providers carry the risk for domains they do not own. A client lets a domain lapse, and the call comes to you. Put each client in its own monitor group, add their domains, and route the warnings to your account manager and to the client contact who can pay the renewal. The domain expiry date also appears in client reports on Business and above. More on that on uptime monitoring for agencies.
Agencies with many clients also use the monthly uptime monitoring service reports to show each client which renewals are coming, which turns a quiet risk into a visible service line.
Practical settings for domain expiry alerts
A few settings cover most teams well.
- Keep at least two recipients on every domain monitor, ideally one person and one shared channel such as Slack or Microsoft Teams
- Send the 7 day warning by SMS as well, because by then a missed email is expensive
- Add a 90 day warning for domains tied to brand, mail or payment flows
- Monitor secondary domains used for email, redirects and old campaigns, not only the main site
- Review the registrar contact and payment method each time a warning fires, even if auto-renew is on
Which plan fits domain monitoring
Domain expiry checks are included on every plan and count as monitors within the plan limit. Full details on uptime monitoring pricing.
- Starter, $49 a month or $24 a month billed yearly: 50 monitors, 30 SMS alerts a month, 3 team members
- Team, $99 a month or $49 a month billed yearly: 200 monitors, 150 SMS alerts, 10 members, monthly SLA PDF
- Business, $249 a month or $124 a month billed yearly: 1,000 monitors, 500 SMS alerts, 25 members, white-label client reports
- Enterprise, $599 a month or $299 a month billed yearly: 3,000 monitors, 1,500 SMS alerts, 100 members, SSO (SAML) and audit log
A company with a handful of domains fits Starter along with its website and API checks. An agency with a few hundred client domains usually picks Business.
01
Where does UptimePilot get the expiry date?
From registry data. Where the registry publishes RDAP, UptimePilot reads the date from RDAP. Otherwise it reads the WHOIS record. The lookup runs once a day and the dashboard shows when it last succeeded.
02
When do the warnings arrive?
By default at 60, 30, 14 and 7 days before expiry. You can change the thresholds per monitor or add more, such as 90 days or 3 days.
03
Will UptimePilot notice when auto-renew fails?
Yes, indirectly and reliably. A successful renewal moves the expiry date forward. If the date has not moved as expiry gets close, the warning says so and points you to the payment method on your registrar account.
04
Does UptimePilot renew domains or change DNS?
No. It does not log in to registrars, renew domains or touch DNS. It tracks the registration expiry date and alerts the right people in time.
05
Do domain monitors count against my plan?
Yes, each domain counts as one monitor within the plan limit of 50, 200, 1,000 or 3,000 monitors.
Never lose a domain to an expired card
Add your domains in a minute and let UptimePilot count the days for you.