Getting started
Set up certificate expiry monitoring in two minutes: register, add your first domain and port, and choose how many days before expiry to be warned.
Two minutes from now, your first certificate is being watched.
1. Create an account
- Click Sign up free on the home page.
- Enter your e-mail address and a password — or use Continue with Google, GitHub or Microsoft if the page offers it (Social login).
- Click the link in the confirmation e-mail.
No e-mail? See the FAQ.
You start on the Free plan: 3 domains, checked daily, warned 30 days before expiry. You can upgrade any time without losing anything.
2. Add your first domain
- On Domains, click Add domain.
- Enter the hostname, e.g.
example.com— withouthttps://and without a path. - Keep port
443for a website. For a mail server, use its port, e.g.587. - Save.
The first check runs about two minutes later. Then the domain's page shows the issuer, the expiry date and the days left.
Tip: give the domain a Label such as "Acme – shop". It appears everywhere the hostname does, including alerts, so you know at a glance whose site it is.
3. Read the domain list
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Status | OK, Warning (inside your warning time), Critical (7 days or less), Error (could not be checked), Untested (first check pending) |
| Days left | Days until the certificate expires |
| Last checked | When CertWatchr last read the certificate |
| Health Score | Starter and Pro: the 0–100 score and its recent trend |
Click a hostname for everything about it: certificate details, health breakdown, history and the alerts sent.
4. Decide how you hear about problems
Alerts go to your e-mail address from the start. Under Settings → Notifications you can:
- switch e-mail alerts off or on,
- choose which alerts you receive (Starter and Pro),
- get a daily or weekly summary of all your domains,
- send alerts to Slack, Teams, Discord, Mattermost, Telegram or your own system with Webhooks (Pro).
What each alert means: Alerts & notifications.
Next steps
- Adding domains — mail ports, tags, CSV import.
- Health score — what the score measures and how to raise it.
- Plans & limits — what you get when you upgrade.
- Two-factor authentication — protect your account.