SSL expiry vs domain expiry: what's the difference?
They sound the same and end the same — but SSL and domain renewals run on different schedules through different systems. Confusing them is the #1 reason for outage post-mortems.
"My SSL is expired" and "my domain is expired" sound similar and end with the same outcome — visitors can't reach your site — but they're caused by completely different systems on completely different schedules. Mixing them up is the most common reason an outage post-mortem ends with "we didn't have anything monitoring that".
SSL expiry is about cryptography
A certificate authority — Let's Encrypt, DigiCert, Sectigo — signs your TLS certificate with a validity window of 90 days (for Let's Encrypt) or 12 months (for most paid CAs). When that window closes, the browser shows a big red warning. Some browsers refuse to load the page at all.
Renewing is the CA's responsibility most of the time: Let's Encrypt's certbot, Cloudflare's universal SSL, and managed hosting providers all auto-renew. When auto-renew silently fails — and it does, sometimes — your monitoring is the only thing standing between you and a 2am customer email.
Domain expiry is about registration
ICANN delegates each top-level domain to a registry (Verisign for .com, PIR for .org, etc.) and you rent a name from a registrar (GoDaddy, Cloudflare Registrar, Namecheap, MarkMonitor). The lease is typically 1-10 years.
When the lease ends, you have a 30-45 day grace period during which the domain still resolves but new buyers can't grab it. After that, it goes to auction. Once it sells, your traffic, email, and SEO are gone for years — possibly forever.
The fix is monitoring with proper lead time
We default to 60, 30, 14, 7, and 1 day reminders for SSL (because most renewal automations handle it within 30 days) and 90, 60, 30, 14, 7, 1 for domains (because registrar renewal sometimes takes account recovery, payment update, or paperwork — all things that take real time).
The free SSL checker lets you spot-check any SSL certificate right now. The domain expiry checker does the same for domain registration. Use them once; if you've got more than five sites to track, sign up and we'll automate the reminders.
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