Domain health check

Your domain is only as healthy as the weakest of a few moving parts. A domain health check looks at all of them at once.

What makes a domain healthy

"Domain health" is a roll-up of four separate checks. When all four are green, visitors can reach your site, trust it, and find 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 down for visitors if its SSL certificate has expired, and a domain that resolves fine today can vanish next month if the registration lapses. That's why it's worth checking all four together rather than one at a time.

Healthy, needs attention, or down

DomainDash sums the four checks into one plain-English status, so you don't have to piece it together yourself:

• Healthy — every check is green. Nothing to do.
• Needs attention — something isn't failing yet but is worth a look: an SSL certificate or domain registration approaching expiry, or a site responding slowly.
• Down — the site isn't reachable right now. This is the urgent one.

See your dashboard for how these statuses show up across all your sites at a glance.

DNS health vs domain health

These two get used interchangeably, but they aren't the same thing. 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. It's one ingredient of domain health. A domain health check is the whole picture: DNS plus uptime, SSL, and registration. If it's specifically the DNS side you're after, see DNS checks.

Check your domain's health

There are two ways to do it, depending on whether you want a snapshot or an ongoing picture:

• 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 just a snapshot, and problems usually turn up when you're not looking. Add the site to DomainDash and it runs all four checks for you around the clock, then tells you the moment something needs attention — by email, Slack, or SMS.

Every new team starts on a free trial

You can check your sites continuously for 30 days with no credit 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 an eye on it around the clock and be told the moment something changes, 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 specifically at your DNS records (A, AAAA, NS, MX, and TXT). A domain health check is the bigger picture — DNS plus uptime, SSL, and domain registration — so a domain can have perfectly 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 watches 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?

DomainDash rolls the four checks into one status. Healthy means every check is green. Down means the site isn't reachable right now. Needs attention sits in between — something isn't failing outright but is worth a look, like an SSL certificate or domain registration approaching its expiry, or a site responding slowly.

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