It sounds like it can't happen. You registered your domain years ago, set auto-renew, and forgot about it. Then your registrar changes payment systems. Your credit card expires. The renewal email goes to an inbox nobody checks.
Your domain expires. Within hours, a domain squatter grabs it. Now they want $10,000 to sell it back. Your website is gone. Your email is gone. Your brand is gone.
This happens to real businesses every day. Domain expiry monitoring ensures you always know when your domains are expiring—so you can renew them before disaster strikes.
Part of a complete monitoring strategy—see What is uptime monitoring for the full picture.
What Actually Happens When a Domain Expires
Domain expiration isn't instant. There's a timeline, but it moves faster than you'd think:
Day 0: Domain Expires
Your website and email stop working. Visitors see a registrar parking page or an error. Your DNS records are removed.
Days 1-30: Grace Period
Most registrars give you 30 days to renew at normal price. Your site is still down, but you can get the domain back easily.
Days 30-60: Redemption Period
You can still recover the domain, but at a steep price—usually $100-300 "redemption fee" on top of renewal cost.
Day 60+: Pending Delete / Auction
The domain enters auction or gets dropped. Anyone can register it. Domain squatters have automated tools watching for valuable expired domains. Recovery may cost $1,000-$50,000+ on the aftermarket.
Important: Timelines vary by registrar and TLD. Some country-code TLDs (.uk, .de, etc.) have shorter grace periods. Don't assume you'll have 30 days.
Why Auto-Renewal Isn't Enough
"I have auto-renewal enabled" is the most common response. It's also the reason people lose domains.
Payment Failures
- Credit card expired or replaced
- Bank flagged the charge as suspicious
- Insufficient funds on the card
- PayPal account disconnected
Account Issues
- Registrar login credentials lost
- Account registered under a former employee's email
- Two-factor auth device no longer available
- Registrar merged with another company, account migration failed
Multiple Registrars
If you have domains across GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, and Google Domains—each with different payment methods, different renewal dates, and different notification emails—something will slip through.
Notification Fatigue
Registrars send renewal reminders, but they're mixed in with promotional emails, upsells, and noise. The important reminder gets lost in the clutter.
Same principle as SSL monitoring—read our SSL certificate monitoring guide for a similar "trust but verify" approach.
What Domain Expiry Monitoring Actually Does
Domain expiry monitoring is simple: it tracks your domain registration dates and alerts you before they expire. Think of it as a backup for auto-renewal.
Key Features
- Expiration tracking: Know exactly when each domain expires
- Early alerts: Get notified 60, 30, 14, and 7 days before expiry
- Multi-domain dashboard: See all your domains in one place, regardless of registrar
- WHOIS monitoring: Track registration changes (ownership, nameservers)
- Team notifications: Alert multiple people, not just one inbox
See how it works: PerkyDash domain monitoring.
Who Needs It?
- Anyone with more than 3 domains: The more domains, the higher the risk of one slipping through
- Agencies managing client domains: Losing a client's domain is a career-ending mistake
- Companies with domains across multiple registrars: No single dashboard without monitoring
- Brands protecting defensive domains: yourcompany.net, yourcompany.io, common misspellings
Agencies: see client views for managing multiple client domains.
Which Domains to Monitor
Don't just monitor your main domain. Build a complete inventory:
Essential
- • Primary business domain (yourcompany.com)
- • Product domains (if separate from company domain)
- • Email domain (if different)
Important
- • Alternate TLDs (.io, .co, .net, .org)
- • Country-specific domains (.co.uk, .de, .fr)
- • Marketing/campaign domains
- • Client domains (for agencies)
Defensive
- • Common misspellings of your brand
- • Competitor-adjacent domains
- • Old/legacy domains that still have backlinks
Tip: Legacy domains often have SEO value from old backlinks. Letting them expire means losing that link equity—or worse, a competitor registers them and redirects the traffic.
Domain Management Best Practices
Consolidate Registrars
Fewer registrars means fewer accounts, fewer payment methods, fewer things to track. Transfer all domains to one or two trusted registrars.
Enable Auto-Renewal AND Monitoring
Auto-renewal is your first line of defense. Monitoring is your safety net. Use both.
Use a Shared Payment Method
Company credit card, not a personal one. Update it proactively when it's replaced or expires.
Lock Your Domains
Enable registrar lock (transfer lock) to prevent unauthorized transfers. Unlock only when intentionally transferring.
Register for Multiple Years
Critical domains? Register for 5-10 years. It's cheap insurance. Google also considers longer registrations a minor positive signal.
Keep WHOIS Contact Updated
If your WHOIS email is wrong, you won't receive ICANN verification emails. Failure to verify can result in domain suspension.
Document Everything
Maintain a spreadsheet or system with: domain name, registrar, expiry date, auto-renewal status, payment method, responsible person.
How Domain Expiry Affects DNS
When a domain expires, DNS records stop resolving. This means:
Website
Your site becomes unreachable
MX records disappear, email bounces
API
api.yourdomain.com stops working
SSL
Certificates become useless (domain doesn't resolve)
This is why domain expiry is arguably worse than server downtime—a server crash affects one service, but a domain expiry takes down everything.
Check your DNS configuration: Free DNS propagation checker.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get my domain back after it expires?
Usually yes, within the grace period (typically 30 days after expiration) at normal renewal cost. During the redemption period (30-60 days), you can recover it but with a steep fee ($100-300). After that, the domain may be auctioned or dropped, and recovery could cost thousands.
How much does it cost if someone else registers my expired domain?
Domain squatters typically ask $1,000-$50,000+ for domains they've snatched. Short, memorable, or brandable domains command the highest prices. Some businesses have paid six figures to recover their own domain. Prevention through monitoring is infinitely cheaper.
How far in advance should I get expiration alerts?
Start alerts at 60 days before expiration. This gives time for payment issues, account access problems, or internal approvals. Follow up with alerts at 30, 14, 7, and 3 days. The earlier you know, the more time you have to handle unexpected complications.
Do I need domain monitoring if I only have one domain?
If that one domain is your business, absolutely. Losing your only domain is worse than losing one of many. Auto-renewal plus monitoring takes minutes to set up and could save your entire online presence.
Does domain expiry affect SEO?
Yes, significantly. When a domain expires, Google can't crawl your pages. Extended unavailability leads to de-indexing. Even after recovery, it can take weeks to regain rankings. Any backlinks pointing to your domain become worthless during the expiry period.
Don't Leave Your Domain to Chance
Domain expiry is one of the few catastrophic events that's 100% preventable. Enable auto-renewal, set up monitoring, and keep your payment methods current.
It takes 5 minutes to set up. It could save your entire business.