A domain expiry monitor watches when a domain's registration runs out and warns you before it does. This guide covers what it checks, which domains it works for, and what it sends.
Stector reads the expiry date from the domain's registry over RDAP, the registry protocol that replaces WHOIS. Stector does not use WHOIS. That means the monitor only works for top-level domains (TLDs) whose registry publishes an RDAP service.
Stector reads IANA's public RDAP list (data.iana.org/rdap/dns.json) to decide. If your domain's TLD is not in it, Stector rejects the monitor when you save it, with a message that names the TLD, instead of accepting a monitor that could never check anything. The list changes over time. As of 2026-10-18, .io, .co, .me and .de are not in it, and most generic TLDs such as .com, .net, .org, .app and .dev are. If Stector cannot load the list when you save, it asks you to try again rather than guess.
Enter the registered domain, for example example.com, not a subdomain such as www.example.com. A subdomain has no registration of its own, so the registry reports no record and the monitor shows a failed lookup.
From /dashboard/monitors/new, choose Domain expiry check and set:
https://, path or port.There is no interval, timeout or region to choose. A domain's expiry date is the same from everywhere, so Stector looks it up once a day from one place. The first lookup runs within about a minute of saving, and you can run another any time with Trigger check.
An expiry warning is a notification, not an incident. A domain expiry monitor's status is display only: Up while the registration is valid, including inside the warning window, and Down once it has expired. It never opens an incident, never sends a down or recovery alert, can't be linked to a status page component, and never notifies subscribers. Like an SSL expiry warning, it also fires during a maintenance window (see Maintenance windows). Stector sends at most one warning per channel per calendar day (UTC) while the domain stays inside the warning window.
If the domain's registration has already expired, the monitor shows Down and you get the same kind of warning, worded as expired, every day. That warning is the only notification. Renew the domain and the next lookup sets the monitor back to Up.
If the registry cannot be reached, answers with an error, or its response has no expiration date, the lookup is recorded as failed. The monitor's page shows Lookup failed with the reason, and keeps showing the last expiry date it did get. A failed lookup leaves the monitor's status as it was and alerts no one. Stector tries again within a few hours.
Each plan includes a number of domain expiry monitors, counted separately from HTTP and SSL monitors. The numbers are on the pricing page.