# Domain monitoring

Domain monitoring watches the registration of your domains at the registry. Spectate reads the expiry date, the registrar, the nameservers and the DNSSEC records every 6 hours. It alerts your team before a domain expires, and when its registration changes.

## Add a domain

Owners, managers and admins can add domains.

1. In the dashboard, go to **Domains**.
2. Select **Add domain**.
3. In **Domain**, type the registered domain, for example `example.com`. Do not type `https://`, a path or a subdomain.
4. To add the domain paused, clear **Start monitoring immediately**.
5. Select **Add domain**.

Spectate looks up the domain at once. The domain joins the team's default [project](/account/projects). Domain names with non-ASCII characters, such as `bücher.de`, are also accepted.

Domains do not count towards the monitors and hosts of your plan. Every paid plan and the trial include an unlimited number of domains.

## How Spectate finds registry data

Spectate asks the registry of the domain's top-level domain (TLD) in this order:

1. **RDAP**, through the IANA list of RDAP servers. This covers every generic TLD, such as `.com` and `.net`, and many country TLDs.
2. **RDAP**, through Spectate's list of other country registries, such as `.de`, `.ch`, `.io`, `.me` and `.us`.
3. **WHOIS** on port 43, for registries without RDAP.

The domain page shows which source the data came from. Spectate limits how often it asks each registry. If a registry asks Spectate to wait, the lookup waits and does not count as a failure.

## What the dashboard shows

The **Domains** page lists each domain with its **Registrar**, **Nameservers**, **DNSSEC** state and **Expires** date. The filters are **All**, **At risk** (expired, or expiring within the alert threshold), **No DNSSEC** and **Paused**.

The domain page shows:

- **Expires**: the expiry date and the time left.
- **Registered**, **Last changed**, **Registry updated** and **Tracking since**.
- The **Registrar**, the **DNSSEC** state (**Signed**, **Unsigned** or **Unknown**) and **Last check**.
- **Nameservers**: the nameservers at the registry.
- **EPP statuses**: the status codes of the registry, such as `clientTransferProhibited`.
- **DNSSEC records**: the DS records at the registry.
- **Change history**: the registry and expiry alerts of the domain.

## Domains without registry data

Some registries publish less data, or none. The dashboard then shows one of these messages:

| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **No registry data** | The registry publishes neither RDAP nor WHOIS, so Spectate cannot track expiry or the registrar. About 50 country TLDs are like this, for example `.gr` and `.vn`. |
| **Not published** | The registry does not publish expiry dates. Spectate still tracks the registrar, nameservers and status. Examples are `.de`, `.nl`, `.eu`, `.be`, `.at`, `.lu` and `.ch`. |
| **Not registered** | The registry has no record of the domain. Check the spelling, and enter the registered domain, not a subdomain. |
| **Retrying** | The registry did not answer the last lookup, after 5 tries. Spectate tries again later. |

The API returns these states in `registry_error` as `unsupported`, `not_registered` and `unavailable`. `registry_source` is `rdap` or `whois`.

## Pause a domain

A paused domain keeps its registry data, but Spectate does not look it up again and does not fire alerts.

1. Open the domain and go to **Settings**.
2. Clear **Monitoring enabled**.
3. Select **Save changes**.

To start again, select **Monitoring enabled**. If the team's monitoring is paused, you cannot start a domain again. See [plans and billing](/account/plans-and-billing).

## Delete a domain

Owners, managers and admins can delete domains.

1. Open the domain and go to **Settings**.
2. Under **Danger zone**, select **Delete domain**.
3. Type the domain name to confirm.
4. Select **Delete domain**.

Spectate stops the checks of the domain at once, and the domain no longer shows in the dashboard or the API. Nothing changes at the registrar. After 7 days, Spectate permanently deletes the domain with its registry data and its alerts. Incidents stay.

In the first 7 days, Spectate support can restore the domain. Send an email to [help@spectate.net](mailto:help@spectate.net).

## Related

- [Domain checks](/domains/checks): every alert that domain monitoring fires.
- [DNS monitors](/monitors/dns): check DNS records, such as A, MX or TXT records.
- [Certificates](/monitors/certificates): alert before a TLS certificate expires.