Domain health check

A domain health check looks at uptime, SSL, DNS and domain registration together.

What makes a domain healthy

"Domain health" covers four separate checks. When all four are green, visitors can reach your site and trust it, and the domain itself isn't about to lapse.

Check	What it tells you	Read more
Uptime	Is the site online and responding quickly?	Uptime checks
SSL certificate	Is the HTTPS certificate valid and not about to expire?	SSL certificate checks
DNS	Do the domain's DNS records resolve correctly?	DNS checks
Domain registration	Is the domain still registered, and not about to expire?	Domain registration

A domain can pass some of these and fail others. A site with perfect uptime can still be blocked by a browser warning if its SSL certificate has expired, and a domain that resolves fine today can vanish next month if the registration lapses.

Healthy, needs attention, or down

The uptime check gives each site one of three statuses:

• Healthy — the site is responding normally.
• Needs attention — the site is responding, but a check came back slow.
• Down — the site isn't responding, returned an error, or failed its content check. This is the urgent one.

A certificate, DNS or domain problem doesn't by itself make a site Down, but it does show on the site's badge. The exception is a failed TLS handshake: the uptime check connects over HTTPS, so if the secure connection fails outright, the uptime check fails too and the site shows Down.

The badge on a dashboard site card

Each site card shows one badge, the first of these that applies:

1. Paused
2. Down
3. Security expired — the certificate has expired
4. Security problem — the certificate is invalid for any other reason, including a failed TLS handshake
5. Setup failed
6. Alert — the site has an open incident of any kind
7. Needs attention — the site is responding slowly
8. Renews · N days — the certificate or domain is within 30 days of expiry (or Expired)
9. Pending

A healthy site shows no badge.

DNS has no badge of its own. One failing DNS check marks the site's Domain routing card Failing. After two in a row, an incident opens. If the site can't be reached, the site's card on the dashboard shows Down. If it still responds, the site's card on the dashboard shows Alert once the DNS incident opens.

The status in the site page header

The header of the site page picks its status the same way, from this list:

1. Paused
2. Setup failed
3. Down
4. Recovering
5. Domain expired
6. Domain expiring — the domain expires in 1 day or less
7. Security expired or Security problem
8. Unstable — uptime is under 97% in the selected timeframe
9. Domain expiring — the domain expires in 7 days or less, when uptime is healthy
10. Security expiring — the certificate expires within 30 days, when uptime is healthy and nothing more serious applies
11. Healthy, Needs attention or Pending

The dashboard filter

Your dashboard's Needs attention filter pulls all of it together. It counts Down sites, an expired or invalid certificate, a certificate or domain expiring within 30 days, any open incident, and sites that have been responding slowly for over an hour. See your dashboard for how this looks across all your sites.

DNS health vs domain health

A DNS health check looks only at your DNS records: the A, AAAA, NS, MX, and TXT entries that point your domain at the right place. A domain health check adds uptime, SSL, and registration. For the DNS side alone, see DNS checks.

Check your domain's health

There are two ways to do it:

• A quick one-off check. Run a free instant check at domaindash.io/check. Enter a domain and see how it's doing right now, no account needed.
• Continuous checks. A one-off check is a snapshot. Add the site to DomainDash and it runs all four checks for you around the clock. If the site goes Down, DomainDash alerts you, usually within a couple of minutes on a paid plan, and around six minutes on Free. Expiry warnings aren't Urgent, so they appear in the app and in the daily digest (by email and, on Starter and above, Slack).

Every new team starts on a free trial

Every new team gets a 30-day free trial with no card. See choose your plan for what each plan includes.

Frequently asked questions

What is a domain health check?

A domain health check looks at the handful of things that decide whether visitors can reach your site and trust it: whether it's online and responding quickly (uptime), whether its SSL certificate is valid, whether its DNS records resolve, and whether the domain registration is still active. When all four are green, your domain is healthy.

How do I check my domain's health?

You can run a free instant check at domaindash.io/check. Enter a domain and see how it's doing right now, no account needed. To keep checking it around the clock, add the site to DomainDash and it runs all four checks for you on a schedule.

What's the difference between a domain health check and a DNS health check?

A DNS health check is one part of a domain health check. DNS health looks only at your DNS records (A, AAAA, NS, MX, and TXT). A domain health check also covers uptime, SSL, and domain registration, so a domain can have healthy DNS but still be unhealthy overall, for example if its SSL certificate has expired.

Is a domain health check free?

The instant one-off check at domaindash.io/check is free and needs no account. Continuous checks, where DomainDash checks your sites around the clock and tells you when something needs attention, are part of the plans, and every new team starts on a free trial.

What does "needs attention" mean for a domain?

As a badge on a site, Needs attention means the site is responding slowly. The dashboard's Needs attention filter is wider. It counts Down sites, an expired or invalid certificate, a certificate or domain expiring within 30 days, any open incident, and sites that have been responding slowly for over an hour.

Related

• Uptime checks — whether your site is online and responding quickly
• SSL certificate checks — catch certificate expiry before visitors see a warning
• DNS checks — keep your A, AAAA, NS, MX, and TXT records healthy
• Domain registration — never let the domain itself expire by accident
• Your dashboard — see every site's health at a glance