Having an SSL certificate is a critical step for making your customers confident to visit your site. If your site doesn’t have an SSL certificate or your certificate expires, it can quickly lose your customers. Therefore, checking your site’s SSL certificate status and the expiration date is essential for ensuring that your place is always safe for visitors. In this article, we’re going to look at the best SSL checkers on the market.
The list includes a mixture of tools you can use to monitor SSL certificates for single and multiple SSL sites, from complete website monitoring solutions to free online TLS Certificate lookup tools and open-source utilities. We’ve prioritized tools with a comprehensive dashboard and alerting features that make it easy for users to track the status of SSL certificates.
Here is our list of the eleven best SSL checkers:
- SolarWinds Pingdom (FREE TRIAL) Website monitoring platform with continuous SSL certificate monitoring, with alerts, dashboards, and more. Get a 30-day free trial.
- Site24x7 SSL Certificate Monitoring (FREE TRIAL) This service is part of the platform’s Website Monitoring features and can combine with synthetic and real user monitoring for sites. Start a 30-day free trial.
- Invicti Web vulnerability scanner with SSL certificate scanning, IAST scanning, DAST scanning, dashboards, reports, and more.
- Acunetix Web vulnerability scanning with TLS/SSL certificate scanning, dashboards, reports, integrations, and more.
- StatusCake This platform provides SSL certificate monitoring along with DNS tracking, page load measurements, and availability tests – it has free and paid editions.
- Qualys SSL Labs Free online SSL checker that allows you to enter a URL and check your site’s SSL certification.
- Comodo SSL Checker Online SSL certificate checker you can use to search for a URL and check for an SSL certificate.
- Geekflare SSL/TLS Vulnerability and Configuration Scanner Free SSL checker and vulnerability scanner that allows you to check your SSL certificate and vulnerabilities.
- OpenSSL Open source software library based on the command line to check and verify SSL certificates.
- TrackSSL Online SSL certificate monitoring software with notifications, integrations with Slack, and more.
- Sematext Synthetics Web and transaction monitoring software with SSL/TLS Certificate monitoring, alerts, reports, and more.
The Best SSL Checkers
1. SolarWinds Pingdom (FREE TRIAL)
SolarWinds Pingdom is a website monitoring solution that you can use to monitor SSL certificates continuously. With SolarWinds Pingdom, you can monitor the SSL certificates of your websites by using HTTPS uptime checks. Then, if there is an error with your certificate or it expires, the solution will send you an alert to take action.
Key Features:
- Continuous SSL certificate monitoring
- Uptime monitoring
- Alerts
- Dashboard
You can configure alerts to notify you between a day or a month before the certificate expires. Alerts can be sent by email, push notification, and SMS messages. They can also be integrated with tools like Slack, Hipchat, and PagerDuty to ensure that you don’t miss out on critical information.
You can also use SolarWinds Pingdom to monitor the general uptime of your websites. Through the dashboard, you can view the status of each website, with graphs that enable you to track response time and uptime over time. This allows you to identify general service disruptions.
SolarWinds Pingdom is a good choice for organizations looking for an uptime monitoring tool with continuous SSL certificate monitoring. Pricing starts at $10 (£7.35) per month for the Synthetic Monitoring package, which supports uptime monitoring for up to 10 sites. You can start the free trial via this link here.
2. Site24x7 SSL Certificate Monitoring (FREE TRIAL)
The Site24x7 SSL Certificate Monitoring service is a tracker of the monitoring account holder’s SSL certificate rather than a checker for the certificates of sites that users of the business visit. The tracker follows all enrolled SSL certificates, no matter how new they are, and provides details of each certificate.
Key features:
- Manages SSL certificates
- Alerts for certificate problems
- Notifies on approaching expiry
- Applies to servers, FTP servers, email systems, and Web domains
- Part of a Web Monitoring package
You might have a number of SSL certificates to track and sometimes, large organizations can just forget to check on their expiry and small businesses might not be aware that SSL certificates need to be managed. So, this tool is a useful helper for all sizes of businesses.
The SSL Certificate Monitoring service is part of the Website Monitoring tools on the Site24x7 platform. These systems can all be activated from different locations. Site24x7 runs servers in 120 locations around the globe for website performance monitoring and the SSL Certificate Monitoring service can be launched from any of these.
The entire Site24x7 platform provides monitoring services for networks, servers, infrastructure, and applications, including Web applications. The package also has some system management modules, such as its Log Manager and Network Configuration Manager.
You buy plans that combine modules, so you can supplement your SSL certificate checker with Email Server monitoring, Synthetic Monitoring, and Real User Monitoring for websites. The entire platform can be experienced on a 30-day free trial.
3. Invicti
Invicti is a web vulnerability scanner that can identify if your site has an invalid SSL certificate. Invicti also uses IAST and DAST scanning to identify vulnerabilities. The platform’s IAST sensor can also provide insight into the root cause of exposures, such as injected payloads, exploits, and stack traces.
Key Features:
- SSL certificate scanning
- IAST and DAST scanning
- Dashboards
- Reports
- Notifications
After the platform detects a vulnerability, it categorizes its severity as Low, Medium, High, or Critical so that you can focus on remediating the most significant weaknesses first. Scanning results can be viewed through the dashboard or with preconfigured and custom reports. There are also compliance reports for PCI DSS, OWASP Top 10, and HIPAA, so they can help you improve your compliance posture.
There is also a notification system that sends users email and SMS notifications based on configured rules. This enables you to view notifications after the system completes a scan or if it identifies a particular vulnerability, such as an invalid SSL certificate.
Invicti is a tool that’s recommended for enterprises that want a simple SSL scanning solution with web vulnerability scanning capabilities. Deployment is available on-premise and on-demand. To view pricing information for this product, you need to contact the sales team directly to request a quote. You can also schedule a demo via this link here.
4. Acunetix
Acunetix is a web vulnerability scanner that can notify you when your TLS or SSL certificate is about to expire. With Acunetix, you can scan your website and third-party software for over 7,000 vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, misconfigurations, exposed databases, and more.
Key Features:
- Monitor TLS/SSL certificate
- Detect over 7,000 vulnerabilities
- Dashboard
- Compliance reports
- Integrations
When scanning your site for vulnerabilities, you can view the results through the dashboard. The dashboard provides you with a color-coded overview of vulnerabilities discovered. For instance, you can view the total number of Low Severity Vulnerabilities, Medium Security Vulnerabilities, and High Severity Vulnerabilities, as well as the top vulnerabilities on your site.
There are also preconfigured compliance reports for HIPAA, PCI-DSS, ISO/IEC 27001, and other regulations, which help document the security of your site. When considering that you can integrate with other solutions like Jira, Jenkins, GitHub, GitLab, TFS, Bugzilla, and Mantis, you’re in an excellent position to make incremental improvements.
Acunetix is suitable for enterprises that want to monitor their SSL certificate status and monitor vulnerabilities. Pricing options depend on the number of websites you want to scan. Prices start at $4,500 (£3,307) for 1 website. You can request a demo via this link here.
5. StatusCake
StatusCake offers SSL certification as part of a full platform of website monitoring services. The SSL certificate checker watches the expiration date of your SSL certificate and warns you when it is approaching to ensure that you don’t miss it. You can decide when you want alerts to be sent with options for a notification one, 14, and 30 days before that date.
Key features:
- SSL certificate expiry warnings
- SSL scoring
- Availability tests
- Page load speed checks
- DNS and domain monitoring
StatusCake provides the essential checks that every website owner needs. The system lets you know when your SSL certificate is about to expire and performs the same service for domain registration. It also assesses the setup and usage of your SSL system, giving a score on its security. The tool will detect if your site has been put on a blacklist and ensures that your DNS records haven’t been hijacked.
The most frequently launched feature of the StatusCake package is its availability tester. This system will send a request every five minutes, one minute, or 30 seconds depending on your plan. The system offers a choice of 30 launch locations for those tests and you can run regular tests from multiple locations simultaneously.
The availability tester can be pointed to specific elements in your site, such as externally provided elements or content delivery networks. The platform can be used to test server and API availability.
Another feature of this package is its page load speed assessor. Like the availability test, this monitoring unit can be launched from many locations. This lets you see the relative performance of your site or content delivery network according to the location of each visitor. The page load speed tester accounts for the possibility that speeds can vary over time and you can set a performance threshold to get an alert when loading slows.
There are three plans for StatusCake: Free, Superior, and Business. You get the SSL certification tester with all editions. You can get a free trial of any plan, so opt for the Business edition, which is the most expensive version.
6. Qualys SSL Labs
Qualys SSL Labs is a free online service you can use to check the SSL configuration of your website. You can simply enter a hostname into a search bar, and the solution will generate a report. The report provides you with a wide range of information, including the site’s name, when the SSL certificate is valid from, valid until, and who issued it.
Key Features:
- Check SSL certificate
- See when your SSL certificate expires
- View what platforms trust you
You can also view what platforms trust your SSL certificate. For example, you can see if providers like Mozilla, Apple, Android, Java, Windows trust your site. This is useful for checking that customers can visit your site without being warned about the lack of confidence.
SSL Labs is a useful tool to run a quick SSL certificate check without scanning for other vulnerabilities. However, it’s important to note that all information entered into the feature search isn’t reused by Qualys. You can use the tool for free by visiting the site via this link here.
7. Comodo SSL Checker
Comodo SSL Checker is an online SSL certificate checker that allows you to check if your site has a valid SSL certificate installed. The tool is easy to use, simply enter your Server Hostname into a search bar to view a report of your server IP address, server type, certificate issuer, and when your certificate expires.
Key Features:
- View SSL certificate
- See when your SSL certificate expires
- Ensure your trusted by the main web browsers
The tool can also help verify that your site is trusted by all the main web browsers. This is vital for ensuring that you have lots of visitors to your site without any disruptive warnings that your site isn’t trusted.
Comodo SSL Checker is recommended if you require a simple tool to run manual SSL checks without any additional vulnerability scanning or reporting options. You can use the tool by visiting the site via this link here.
8. Geekflare SSL/TLS Vulnerability and Configuration Scanner
Geekflare SSL/TLS vulnerability and Configuration Scanner is a free SSL checker that enables you to check your site’s SSL certificate, and identify vulnerabilities. To use the tool, enter the website you want to test and you will be able to view your TLS and SSL certificate details including the Issuer, and when the certificate expires.
Key Features:
- Check your site’s SSL certificate
- See certificate expiry date
- Identify vulnerabilities
You can also view a list of discovered vulnerabilities, with site vulnerabilities, marked as vulnerable, potentially vulnerable and not vulnerable. This enables you to see weaknesses in your site that an attacker can exploit to gain access to your systems.
Geekflare SSL/TLS Vulnerability and Configuration Scanner is a great tool for enterprises that want a free SSL checking tool that enables them to check for vulnerabilities. You can use the tool by visiting this link here.
9. OpenSSL
OpenSSL is an open-source software library and toolkit you can use to enter commands into the command line and check and verify SSL certificates.
Key Features:
- Check for SSL certificates
- Verify certificate issuer
- Check the certificate expiration date
With OpenSSL you can test the SSL certificate of a URL by entering the following command:
openssl s_client -connect comparitech.com:443 -showcerts
You can also verify the issuer of a certificate by entering the following command:
openssl x 509 -in certfile.pem -noout -issuer -issuer_hash
Suppose you want to check the expiration date of an SSL certificate. Then, in a particular URL, you can enter the following command:
Openssl s_client -connect comparitech.com:443 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -noout -enddate
The tool also allows you to conduct a range of other tasks, including creating a new private key or certificate signing request, an RSA private key, verifying CSR files or private keys, making it one of the most versatile solutions on this list.
OpenSSL is a valuable tool if you want to check for SSL certificates through the command line. Available on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. Most Linux distributions come with OpenSSL by default, but you’ll need to download it if you’re on Windows. You can download it from the OpenSSL site here.
10. TrackSSL
TrackSSL is an online SSL certificate monitoring solution that allows you to track domains and see when your SSL certificate expires. With TrackSSL, you can view a list of parts, alongside the expiry date and how many days remain until the certificate expires. This gives you complete visibility over when domains will expire.
Key Features:
- Monitor SSL certificates
- Expiry notifications
- Slack integration
When you monitor a domain through TrackSSL, the solution will also send you an email notification when the domain’s certificate is about to expire or if your certificates are altered. There is also a Slack integration, so they can also receive notifications if your team is working on Slack.
TrackSSL is a great choice if you require a simple online SSL certificate tracker without any additional features. Furthermore, the solution is available for free. You can sign up for the service via this link here.
11. Sematext Synthetics
Sematext Synthetics is a web and transaction monitoring tool that provides monitoring for SSL/TLS certificates. With Sematext Synthetics, you can validate the SSL certificates of websites and check the expiration date of certificates. An alerts system can also notify you 28, 14, 7, or 3 days before certificate expiry.
Key Features:
- SSL certificate monitoring
- Expiration alerts
- Change reports
You can also use the solution to monitor changes to the certificate. The system alerts you whenever changes are made to the certification and allow you to produce a report detailing the changes made to the certificate.
There is also an SSL certificate report that provides you with an overview of your certificate alongside the name of the issue, validity period, domain names the certificate can be used for, the timestamp of the last change, and more.
The solution also loads your website in a Google Chrome browser to assess whether the certificate uses a weak signature algorithm or key, is trusted, and has certificate transparency data. This helps ensure that your site is secure and available to users.
Sematext Synthetics is a top choice for enterprises that want to monitor SSL certificates conveniently and affordably. Pricing starts at $2 (£1.47) per HTTP monitor and $7 (£5.14) per browser monitor for the Pay-As-You-Go package, which supports unlimited users and APIs. You can sign up for the 14-day free trial via this link here.
Best SSL Checkers: Editor’s Choice
If you want to check if your website’s SSL certificate has expired, there are plenty of solutions available, whether you’re looking for a free online checker or a continuous monitoring tool to alert you about when your certificate is about to expire.
Tools like Invicti and Acunetix are ideal tools for organizations that want a comprehensive SSL certificate monitoring experience, which they can conduct alongside broader vulnerability monitoring.
