Keep Your Domains in Check with a Self-Hosted Monitor

Let's be honest: domain and SSL certificate expiry dates are easy to forget. You set them up once, and they sit quietly in the background until they suddenly break something. Getting an unexpected outage or security warning because a cert lapsed is a special kind of preventable pain. That's why automating this monitoring is a no-brainer.

But do you really want another third-party service with access to your domain list and another monthly subscription? If you'd rather keep this data in-house and have full control, a new open-source tool called Domain Monitor might be exactly what you need.

What It Does

Domain Monitor is a self-hosted system built with Go that tracks your domains and their SSL certificates. You give it a list of domains, and it quietly runs in the background, checking when each domain is set to expire and when its SSL/TLS certificate needs renewal. It presents all this information in a clean, simple web dashboard so you can see the status of everything at a glance, long before anything becomes an emergency.

Why It's Cool

The core value is in its simplicity and philosophy. It's a single binary, which makes deployment trivial. You configure it with a straightforward YAML file, point it at your domains, and you're done. There's no complex database to set up—it uses SQLite by default, so it's just a file on your disk.

It's also "set and forget." Once it's running, it handles the periodic checking automatically. The dashboard isn't overloaded with features; it shows you what you need: the domain, its expiry date, the SSL certificate expiry, and a clear status indicator. It respects your privacy and infrastructure by keeping all data on your own server.

For developers or small ops teams, it removes a small but consistent mental load. It turns a manual, forgettable task into a passive, automated check. You can run it on a tiny VPS, a container, or even a Raspberry Pi in your network.

How to Try It

Getting started is straightforward. The project is on GitHub, and the README has all the details.

1. Grab the binary: Head over to the Domain Monitor GitHub repository. You'll find pre-compiled binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows in the Releases section.
2. Configure it: Create a config.yaml file. It's simple: define your web server port and list your domains under a domains section.
3. Run it: Execute the binary. It will immediately start its checks and spin up the web UI. By default, you can view your dashboard at http://localhost:8080.

The entire process takes about two minutes from download to seeing your domain data. There's also a Docker image available if that's more your style.

Final Thoughts

Domain Monitor solves a specific problem well, without over-engineering it. It feels like a classic Unix tool: it does one job and does it reliably. For developers managing a handful of personal projects or for teams wanting internal visibility without external services, this is a great fit. It's the kind of tool you install once, configure quickly, and then genuinely stop worrying about domain expiry dates. In a world of overly complex SaaS solutions, a simple, self-hosted binary is often the perfect answer.

Found this project useful? Follow @githubprojects for more cool tools and projects from the open-source community.