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A guide to every part of the CertNotify dashboard: where it is, what it does, which plans have it, and the questions people ask about it.
Getting started
Where: certnotify.com → Sign in · Plans: Every plan
Create an account, add the domains you look after, and CertNotify checks each one once a day and emails you before its certificate or registration expires.
How to use it
- Sign up with email and password or with Google. A password account has to verify its email address before it can be used.
- On the dashboard, type a domain into "Add a domain" (for example example.com) and add it. It is checked straight away, in the background.
- Add up to 3 domains on Free, 25 on Pro and 500 on Business.
- From then on every domain is checked once a day, at around 00:00 UTC, and expiry warnings arrive by email at the lead time you set for that domain.
- Nothing needs installing: every check reads what any visitor to your site can see.
- A 14-day Pro trial is available once per account, with no card needed.
Common questions
Overview
Where: Dashboard → Overview · Plans: Every plan
The starting screen: how your domains stand today, what to fix first, what changed, and every monitored asset with its expiry dates.
How to use it
- "Fix first" lists the problems worth your time, ordered by severity and exposure.
- The monitored assets table shows each domain's certificate and registration expiry. On Free, the TLS, headers and uptime columns read "Pro".
- Use "Add a domain" to add one, and "Recheck all" to run every check again now rather than waiting for the daily run.
- Click a domain to open its own page with every detail.
- At your plan's domain limit the add form is replaced by a note and an upgrade link. Remove a domain from its page to free a slot.
Common questions
A domain's page
Where: Dashboard → click a domain · Plans: Every plan; some checks need Pro
Everything about one domain: certificate, DNS, security headers, registration (WHOIS) and history, with the checks you can run on demand.
How to use it
- Tabs: Overview, SSL, DNS, Security, WHOIS and History.
- Set this domain's alert lead time: 30 days on Free; 7, 14, 30 or 60 days on Pro; 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days on Business.
- Run a DNS propagation check, which asks five public resolvers from one place.
- On Pro: subdomain discovery (up to 50 subdomains a run, 500 on Business), the public security badge, a mixed content scan, an open port scan (on demand) and a blacklist check (on demand).
- To stop checking a domain, use "Remove domain" at the top of its page.
- Removing a domain deletes its history and findings and cannot be undone. Workspace members with the Member or Viewer role cannot remove domains.
Common questions
Findings
Where: Dashboard → Findings · Plans: Every plan
Every open problem across your domains and code, one row per problem per asset, ordered by how much it matters.
How to use it
- Filter by severity (critical, high, medium, low, info) or show only internet-facing problems.
- Each row says what is wrong, where, and how to fix it.
- Fix the problem at its source. The next check that no longer sees it closes the finding by itself.
- A finding that comes back after being fixed is reopened, keeping the date it was first seen.
Common questions
Security
Where: Dashboard → Security · Plans: Pro and Business
Security headers, a compliance scorecard, active security events, and the Certificate Transparency, blacklist and defacement checks.
How to use it
- The headers table grades six security response headers for each domain: HSTS, Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy and Permissions-Policy.
- The scorecard weighs seven controls and marks a control "not assessed" when there is no evidence for it, rather than guessing.
- Certificate Transparency monitoring (Pro) reads public CT logs once a day on Pro and flags a new certificate for your domain from an issuer outside a list of commonly used CAs.
- Blacklist check (on demand) and Defacement check (on demand) run when you click them; the defacement check looks at the first domain in your list.
- A missing or weak HSTS or Content-Security-Policy header raises a medium finding; a missing X-Frame-Options or X-Content-Type-Options raises a low one. The other two headers are graded but do not raise findings.
Common questions
DNS
Where: Dashboard → DNS · Plans: Pro and Business
Each domain's DNS records against a recorded baseline, so an unexpected change stands out.
How to use it
- DNS drift detection records A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT and CNAME records on paid plans, compared once a day.
- A change to an A, AAAA, MX or NS record raises a finding; TXT and CNAME changes are recorded but not alerted.
- After a change you made on purpose, click "Accept new baseline" so it stops showing as a change.
- Run an open port scan (on demand) from here as well.
- CertNotify cannot tell an authorised edit from an unauthorised one: it tells you that a record changed, and you decide. Addresses rotating inside your host's own network are shown as history rather than as drift.
Common questions
Code security
Where: Dashboard → Code · Plans: Every plan; repository scanning needs a paid plan
Scan code for leaked secrets, dependencies with known vulnerabilities and infrastructure-as-code mistakes.
How to use it
- Paste a file to scan it: 2 files on Free, 15 on Pro, 100 on Business.
- Install the CertNotify GitHub App to see your repositories; turning scanning on for them needs a paid plan. Each push is scanned, and pull requests can show a check with the result.
- On Pro, connect GitLab or Bitbucket (including self-managed GitLab and Bitbucket Data Center) and export code findings as PDF or CSV.
- Secrets: 21 detection rules, with placeholders and documentation examples set aside. Dependencies: known vulnerabilities from OSV for npm, PyPI, Go, Cargo, RubyGems, Composer, Maven and NuGet. Infrastructure as code: Terraform, Kubernetes YAML and Dockerfiles.
- Pasted code is not stored; only the findings and counts are kept.
Common questions
Free tools
Where: Dashboard → Tools, or certnotify.com/tools · Plans: Everyone, no account needed
69 free checks, each on its own page: SSL, TLS, DNS, email security, domains, network and developer utilities.
How to use it
- Open a tool from the dashboard's Tools screen or the Tools menu, enter a domain or value, and read the result.
- Most tools look something up live; a few calculators and decoders work entirely in your browser.
- To keep them free, each tool has an hourly limit per visitor, typically 60 uses an hour (fewer for the heavier checks).
Common questions
History
Where: Dashboard → History · Plans: Every plan; how far back depends on the plan
The trail of daily checks for every domain, newest first, grouped by day.
How to use it
- Filter by domain.
- Export the history as CSV, on any plan.
- History shown: 7 days on Free, 90 days on Pro, 730 days (two years) on Business. Older records are kept, so upgrading shows them again.
Common questions
Alerts
Where: Dashboard → Alerts, and each domain's page · Plans: Email on every plan; channels and alert rules on Pro
Who gets told about what, and how: expiry emails, Slack, Discord, Teams and webhooks, digests, reminders, routing rules and snoozes.
How to use it
- Expiry emails go to your account address on every plan, starting at each domain's lead time.
- On Pro, add a Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams or webhook channel (here or in Settings) and send a test.
- On Pro, the alert policy sets the minimum severity, how long before a reminder (one week by default), how many alerts in one run become a single digest, and a per-run cap.
- Routing rules send matching alerts to chosen channels, or never; snoozes mute one asset or everything for a set time, with a reason.
- Alerts are sent once a day, after the daily check. Expiry reminders go one per domain; other findings from the same run can be grouped into a digest.
- A channel that keeps failing is marked "Failing" with the number of failures, so a broken webhook does not go unnoticed.
Common questions
Plans
Where: Dashboard → Plans, or certnotify.com/pricing · Plans: Every plan
What each plan includes, side by side, with your current plan marked.
How to use it
- Compare what Free, Pro and Business include.
- Start the free Pro trial or upgrade from the pricing page.
Common questions
Compliance readiness
Where: Dashboard → Compliance · Plans: Business
Your findings mapped to the control families of SOC 2, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS, as evidence for an audit or a review.
How to use it
- Each control family shows "needs attention", "no issues found" or "not assessed" when there is no evidence either way.
- There is no overall score or grade, and nothing here says you are compliant or certified: it is evidence for your own assessment.
Common questions
Team and workspaces
Where: Settings → Team · Plans: Pro and Business
Invite people into your workspace with a role, so they see and manage the same domains.
How to use it
- Invite by email and choose a role. Seats: 3 on Pro and 10 on Business, counting the owner and pending invitations.
- The invitation link works only for someone signed in with the invited address, and expires after 7 days. Revoking an invitation frees its seat.
- Change a member's role or remove them; the owner can hand the workspace to another member with "Make owner".
- Members of more than one workspace switch between them with the workspace switcher in the side menu of the dashboard.
- Roles: Owner (everything, including billing and transfer), Admin (everything except billing), Member (adds and watches assets and sets alerts, but cannot delete assets, connect code hosts, issue API keys or manage members) and Viewer (read-only).
Common questions
API
Where: Settings → API keys, and the API reference · Plans: Pro and Business
Read and manage your monitored domains from your own scripts and tools.
How to use it
- Create a key in Settings → API keys. Tick "Allow writes" if it should add or remove domains.
- Copy the key when it is shown: it is shown only once.
- Send it as a Bearer token (or an X-API-Key header) to https://www.certnotify.com/api/v1.
- Each key may make 120 requests a minute. Revoking a key stops it at once; revoked keys stay listed for the record.
Common questions
Billing and invoices
Where: Settings → Plan & usage, and Billing history · Plans: Paid plans
Subscribing, renewals, cancelling, upgrading and invoices.
How to use it
- Choose a plan on the pricing page and pay by UPI AutoPay or card. Payments are taken in Indian rupees or US dollars.
- The subscription renews at the same price until you cancel it from Settings → Plan & usage ("Cancel renewal").
- Invoices are under Settings → Billing history, to view or download.
- After cancelling you keep the plan until the end of the period you paid for, then the account moves to Free. Your domains are kept and still checked for expiry; the paid checks stop.
Common questions
CERTIBOT, the assistant
Where: The robot button in the corner of every dashboard screen · Plans: Every plan: 25 replies a month on Free, 300 on Pro, 1000 on Business, no limit on Enterprise
An AI assistant that reads your workspace's own monitoring results and explains them: what needs attention first, why a domain is failing, what an SSL or TLS term means, and where in CertNotify to fix it.
How to use it
- Click the robot to open it. Drag it anywhere on the screen (or focus it and use the arrow keys); it remembers where you left it.
- Ask in your own words, or pick a suggested question. It knows which screen you are on and, on a domain's page, which domain.
- Answers say what was checked and when, and mark anything unknown or out of date instead of guessing. Buttons under an answer open the page it refers to.
- It can offer to add, re-check or remove a domain. Nothing changes until you press the button on the card, and the change goes through the same checks as the dashboard's own buttons.
- Rate an answer with the thumbs, copy it, or start a new conversation from the panel. Past conversations are under the panel menu.
- Briefing (in the panel menu) summarises the workspace: what to look at first, what expires soon, new findings and failing alert channels. It uses no replies. You can have it emailed weekly on every plan, or every day on Pro and above.
- It sees only the workspace you are in: your domains, findings, check history, alert setup and plan. It cannot see other customers or run commands.
- Turn it off under Settings → CERTIBOT assistant, or hide it for one visit from its menu. Reduce motion there too, or with your system's reduced-motion setting.
- Answers come from an AI model, so check anything important against the dashboard itself, which is always the record.
Common questions
Settings and your account
Where: Settings (the gear at the top of the dashboard) · Plans: Every plan
Your plan and usage, alert channels, team, reports, API keys, email preferences and leaving.
How to use it
- Plan & usage: what you are on, when it renews or ends, and the upgrade or cancel controls.
- Notification channels: add, enable, disable or remove Slack, Discord, Teams and webhook channels (Pro).
- Reports (Business): download a PDF report of your domains and top findings, optionally under your own brand name.
- Email preferences: turn upgrade and product emails on or off. Alerts and account notices are not affected.
Common questions
More questions
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