What is domain expiry monitoring?

Domain expiry monitoring is the automated tracking of a domain's registration expiry date, so you are alerted before the registration lapses. It reads the registry record, usually via RDAP, and reports the expiry date, the registrar and the days remaining. Without it, a domain can expire quietly and take the website, the email and the DNS with it.

What happens when a domain expires?

The site stops resolving and email stops working, because the DNS and MX records go with the domain. You then get a grace period of roughly 30 days where you can still renew at the normal price, followed by a redemption period where renewal costs a restore fee on top. After that the domain is deleted and released, and anyone can register it.

How do I check a domain's expiry date?

Query the domain's registry record. RDAP is the structured successor to WHOIS: it returns the same registration data as JSON over HTTPS, with consistent field names across registries, which makes it far easier to check automatically. Look at the registry expiry date, the registrar, the domain status codes and whether auto-renew is on.

What is the difference between RDAP and WHOIS?

WHOIS returns free-text output that varies between registries and is increasingly redacted, so it is awkward to parse reliably. RDAP returns the same information as structured JSON over HTTPS with standard field names. RDAP is the modern replacement, and it is what monitoring tools use to read expiry dates.

Does Deltio alert me before a client domain expires?

Yes. Deltio checks domain expiry via RDAP for every site you add and shows the days remaining, the exact expiry date and the registrar. It alerts you when a domain reaches 30 days or less to expiry, and notifies you immediately if a domain comes back as already expired. Alerts go to email or Slack.

How much does Deltio cost?

Deltio starts at £24 a month on the Starter plan, or £20 a month if you pay annually. Professional is £49 a month and Enterprise is £119 a month. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial, and domain expiry monitoring sits alongside SSL, uptime, sitemap and SEO checks on the same site.

← Back to the blog

Domain Expiry: The Outage Nobody Sees Coming

Domain expiry monitoring means tracking the registration expiry date of every domain you manage, so a missed renewal never takes a client offline. When a domain lapses, the website, the email and the DNS go with it. Recovery runs through a grace period, then a redemption period with a steep restore fee, then a public drop where anyone can buy the name. Deltio checks domain expiry via RDAP, shows the days remaining, the exact date and the registrar, and alerts you at 30 days or less. From £20 a month, with a 14-day free trial.

Most outages you plan for are technical: a server falls over, a deploy breaks a template, a firewall blocks your checks. Domain expiry is not that. It is an administrative failure with a total blast radius, and it hits the client you least expect: the one who has been with you six years, whose registrar account nobody has opened in years.

What actually happens when a domain expires

The domain moves through stages, and each one costs more than the last.

The expiry date passes. DNS stops answering, so the site is gone. So is email: the MX records go with the domain, inbound mail bounces, and the client cannot even write to tell you.
Grace period. Around 30 days, varying by registrar and TLD. You can still renew at the normal price.
Redemption period. Typically another 30 days, with a restore fee on top. Some registrars charge more to restore one domain than the client pays you in a month.
Deletion and release. The name drops back onto the open market, where drop-catch services watch for expiring domains with real traffic and real links.

Why it happens to clients who are not careless

It happens in the gap between the people who own the domain and the people who look after the website.

The card on file expired. Auto-renew was on, the payment failed, the registrar gave up after three emails.
The domain is in an ex-employee's name. Renewal notices go to a mailbox that no longer exists.
Renewal emails land in spam. Registrar mail is transactional and often comes from an unfamiliar sender.
Auto-renew was switched off during a migration. Disabled to avoid a double charge on transfer, never switched back on.
The previous agency bought it. The domain sits in an account the client cannot access. When that agency stops paying, the client finds out the hard way.

How to check a domain's expiry date

WHOIS: the old protocol. Free-text output that varies by registry, awkward to parse, increasingly redacted.
RDAP: the structured successor to WHOIS. The same registration data as JSON over HTTPS, with consistent field names across registries. Use it when you check a domain programmatically.

Four things in the record matter:

Expiry date: the registry date, not a renewal date in someone's billing panel.
Registrar: who you actually have to talk to when something is wrong. Often not who the client thinks.
Domain status: clientTransferProhibited is normal and healthy. redemptionPeriod, pendingDelete or clientHold mean you are already in trouble.
Auto-renew: whether it is on, and whether the card behind it still works. RDAP will not tell you the second part.

Why manual checking does not scale

Checking one domain by hand takes a minute. Checking forty, every month, does not happen. The reminder someone set three years ago belongs to a colleague who left. Domain expiry belongs with everything else you watch on a client site, not in a separate spreadsheet. Our website monitoring checklist for agencies covers what should sit next to it.

How Deltio monitors domain expiry

Deltio checks the domain expiry of every site you add, via RDAP. You see the days remaining, the exact expiry date and the registrar holding the domain. You get an alert at 30 days or less to expiry, and an immediate notification if a domain comes back as already expired.

It sits with the rest of the site's health, not in a separate tool. The same site shows SSL validity, days to expiry and issuer, with warnings at 30 days and again at 1 day, plus uptime checks every 10 minutes and a notification when the site goes down and comes back. Alerts arrive by email or Slack.

That is the idea behind monitoring client websites for changes you did not make. A domain quietly counting down to zero is one of them, and an alert that reaches you in time beats a dashboard you have to remember to open.

Start with one domain

Add a client site and the first check gives you the expiry date, the registrar and the days remaining, along with SSL and uptime. Start with the client whose registrar login nobody can find. Plans start at £24 a month, £20 if you pay annually, with a 14-day free trial.

Frequently asked questions

What is domain expiry monitoring?: Domain expiry monitoring is the automated tracking of a domain's registration expiry date, so you are alerted before the registration lapses. It reads the registry record, usually via RDAP, and reports the expiry date, the registrar and the days remaining. Without it, a domain can expire quietly and take the website, the email and the DNS with it.
What happens when a domain expires?: The site stops resolving and email stops working, because the DNS and MX records go with the domain. You then get a grace period of roughly 30 days where you can still renew at the normal price, followed by a redemption period where renewal costs a restore fee on top. After that the domain is deleted and released, and anyone can register it.
How do I check a domain's expiry date?: Query the domain's registry record. RDAP is the structured successor to WHOIS: it returns the same registration data as JSON over HTTPS, with consistent field names across registries, which makes it far easier to check automatically. Look at the registry expiry date, the registrar, the domain status codes and whether auto-renew is on.
What is the difference between RDAP and WHOIS?: WHOIS returns free-text output that varies between registries and is increasingly redacted, so it is awkward to parse reliably. RDAP returns the same information as structured JSON over HTTPS with standard field names. RDAP is the modern replacement, and it is what monitoring tools use to read expiry dates.
Does Deltio alert me before a client domain expires?: Yes. Deltio checks domain expiry via RDAP for every site you add and shows the days remaining, the exact expiry date and the registrar. It alerts you when a domain reaches 30 days or less to expiry, and notifies you immediately if a domain comes back as already expired. Alerts go to email or Slack.
How much does Deltio cost?: Deltio starts at £24 a month on the Starter plan, or £20 a month if you pay annually. Professional is £49 a month and Enterprise is £119 a month. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial, and domain expiry monitoring sits alongside SSL, uptime, sitemap and SEO checks on the same site.