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SSL Certificate Checker

Enter a domain to instantly check its SSL certificate status, issuer, and expiry date.

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How to use SSL Certificate Checker

The SSL Checker connects to a server over HTTPS and inspects its TLS certificate, reporting the issuer, validity dates, days remaining until expiry, the covered hostnames and the full chain of trust. An expired or mis-issued certificate triggers alarming browser warnings that drive visitors away instantly, so monitoring expiry and chain validity is essential. Use this tool to confirm a freshly installed certificate is complete, to catch one that is about to expire, or to verify that a site covers the exact hostname your visitors use.

  1. Enter the domain or hostname to inspect (port 443 is assumed).
  2. Click Check to retrieve and validate the live TLS certificate.
  3. Review the issuer, validity period and days remaining.
  4. Confirm the certificate covers the hostname and the chain is complete.
  5. Renew or reinstall before expiry and re-check to confirm the fix.

What makes a certificate valid

A browser trusts a certificate only when several conditions all hold: it is within its validity dates, the hostname matches one of the names it covers, and it chains up through valid intermediate certificates to a root the browser already trusts. A frequent real-world failure is an incomplete chain — the leaf certificate is fine but the server forgot to send the intermediate, so some clients reject it. This checker reports each link so you can tell an expiry problem from a chain problem and fix the right thing.

Staying ahead of expiry

Certificates are increasingly short-lived; many now last only 90 days, so manual renewal is error-prone and automated renewal with a tool like certbot is strongly recommended. Even with automation, monitoring matters because renewals silently fail when a validation challenge breaks. Checking the days-remaining value regularly, or wiring an alert when it drops below a threshold such as 14 days, prevents the classic outage where a certificate lapses over a weekend and the whole site starts throwing security warnings.

Certificate lifetimes
Issuer typeTypical validity
Let's Encrypt90 days
Commercial DV/OV1 year
Internal / private CAVaries

Glossary

TLS certificate
A digital document that proves a server’s identity and enables encrypted HTTPS.
Certificate chain
The sequence of certificates linking a server’s leaf to a trusted root.
Intermediate certificate
A CA certificate that bridges the leaf and the root in the chain.
SAN
Subject Alternative Name — the list of hostnames a certificate covers.
Certificate authority
An organisation that issues and vouches for TLS certificates.

Related reading

Frequently Asked Questions

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Why use SSL Certificate Checker?

  • Real-time DNS lookups using live resolver queries
  • Supports IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
  • No software to install — runs entirely in the browser
  • Results include TTL values and record priority

Common use cases

  • Verify DNS propagation after updating nameservers
  • Check MX records when troubleshooting email delivery
  • Look up SPF/DKIM/DMARC records for email security audits
  • Test whether a SSL certificate is valid and up to date
  • Find the IP address behind a domain name

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