# Continuous certificate monitoring An SSL certificate is an essential part of website security. We check all your SSL certificate expiration dates & alert any change we detect. We give you actionable & user friendly alerts so you know what to fix. [ Start monitoring ](https://ohdear.app/register) 10 day free trial No credit card required ## Taking away the complexity of SSL monitoring Clean reporting of every certification step The world of SSL/TLS has become very complex. We can take away that complexity for you and present you with an easy-to-use monitoring solution for your SSL certificates. We'll monitor your website's certificate expiration dates and send you a notification when they're about to expire. the main reasons websites go down- Certificates form a chain of trust. We don't only monitor your domain (leaf) certificate, but every intermediate too. - Other monitoring tools often only check the domain certificate. ## Your visitors will get an error message if a certificate is revoked or outdated If you're using old security algorithms, some browsers will block access to your site. We detect those old ciphers and report them to you. Error messages like this negatively affect your brand image (and ultimately, your bottom line) as they make your website feel inaccessible and untrustworthy. Keeping track of your certificates avoids these unpleasant surprises. ## Choose how we let you know when certificate issues are detected Receive our notifications on your preferred platform. Via email, SMS, Slack, Discord, Opsgenie, PagerDuty, Microsoft Teams, Pushover, ntfy, webhooks,… we can notify you wherever your team is active. Take notifications to the next level: only notify who needs notifying by assigning responsibilities to different team members. ## Stop worrying, start monitoring Start a no-strings-attached 10-day free trial. You're all set in less than a minute. (No credit card needed.) Not convinced yet? Need help? Get in touch via . ### Let’s get technical (if you’re into that) You don’t need to be computer savvy to set up our tool. But if you are, we’re happy to explain exactly how it works and how you can customize Oh Dear to your specific needs. ## Certificate Chain Validation how we crawl your site pages A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. SSL certificates are the prime example. We don't just monitor your domain certificate but will check every intermediate certificate too, up to the root certificate, to verify the chain of trust. We look for SHA-1 certificates, revoked or distrusted root certificates, ... each of these can cause your site to be unavailable. And none of those changes are in your control, these decisions get made by the Certificate Authorities (CAs) or the browsers themselves, coordinated via the CAB Forum. In a chain, every certificate could cause a problem for your website. We monitor each and every one of them. ## Certificate Change Detection a clear before/after comparison When a certificate is changed, we'll let you know straight away. We'll show a clear before/after comparison of the certificates we found, so you can verify that this change is both intentional and correct. A changed certificate could be a renewal, but might also be a move to a new server (with a DNS change) or a domain hijack. We'll make sure you see each change! ## Really into the nitty gritty details? Want to get into the nitty gritty details of our monitoring? Have a look at our documentation. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is SSL certificate monitoring? SSL certificate monitoring tracks your TLS certificates and warns you before one expires or changes unexpectedly, preventing the "your connection is not private" error that stops visitors cold. ### How early does Oh Dear warn me about certificate expiry? With enough lead time to renew. Oh Dear continuously checks every certificate's expiration date and reminds you as the deadline approaches (30 days ahead by default, and you can tune it), on every channel you've connected. ### Why monitor SSL certificates? Because an expired certificate is a full outage: browsers block the page behind a security warning. Renewals fail silently more often than teams expect, whether automation breaks, DNS validation changes, or a wildcard gets missed. ### Can I track all my SSL certificates in one place? Yes. Every monitored site's certificate, including its issuer, expiry date, and chain, appears in one dashboard with per-site alerts. One overview replaces the renewal spreadsheet. ### What should an SSL certificate monitoring tool do? Watch expiry dates continuously, validate the full certificate chain, detect when a certificate changes, and alert your team in time to act. Oh Dear does all of this alongside uptime, DNS, and domain monitoring. ### Does Oh Dear keep a history of certificate changes? Yes. When a certificate on your site changes, Oh Dear detects it and notifies you, keeping a record of what changed and when. ### Is there a free SSL certificate monitor? Oh Dear's 10-day trial monitors your certificates free. One-off checker tools can grade a certificate today, but what they can't do is alert you the week before it expires. ### Is certificate monitoring affordable for small IT teams and agencies? Yes. Flat plans cover all your sites' certificates together with uptime, DNS, and domain monitoring, with no per-certificate pricing. [See all other FAQ items →](https://ohdear.app/docs/faq) ## Start monitoring instantly Start a no-strings-attached 10-day free trial. You're all set in less than a minute. (No credit card needed.) Not convinced yet? Need help? Get in touch via .