Guide
SSL expiry monitoring with API webhooks
Wire ssl monitoring webhook alerts into incident workflows—payload expectations, HTTPS endpoints, deduplication, and pairing live TLS checks with chat routing.
Updated Apr 18, 2026 876 words
A dependable ssl monitoring webhook carries live TLS expiry context into the system that already pages your team—without forcing engineers to mine a shared inbox during deploy night.
Platform integrators evaluating certificate watches want the same automation surface they use for CI and uptime: HTTPS POST payloads, idempotent handlers, and explicit fields for hostname, days remaining, and threshold crossed. Email forwards and brittle mailbox parsers do not survive on-call rotation.
Teams shopping ssl monitoring webhook support need clarity on which plans include outbound hooks, whether Slack and Discord are first-class or generic URLs only, and how alerts dedupe after a successful renewal changes the served serial.
SREs often prototype webhooks with curl and a temporary request-bin URL, then discover production needs signing, retries, and a clear mapping from threshold to severity in the incident tool. Budget that integration time before you compare ssl monitoring webhook pricing across vendors.
This guide frames ssl monitoring webhook requirements for SecOps and platform engineers wiring expiry into runbooks, ticketing, and chat—not generic “notifications enabled” marketing copy.
What you are actually buying
Webhook capability means the monitor pushes structured events when live TLS checks cross expiry thresholds—or when trust presentation fails—not merely when a human opens a dashboard. The underlying measurement remains external handshake notAfter and chain status.
An ssl monitoring webhook integration is not a full REST API for every CRUD operation unless the vendor documents one; many products start with outbound alert hooks plus a web UI for inventory. Confirm whether you can provision endpoints per environment and rotate signing secrets without deleting history.
Paid tiers typically unlock webhooks because high-volume hourly polls generate events engineering wants routed automatically. Free tiers often restrict you to email so you prove hostname lists before automation sprawl.
Payloads should identify the hostname, threshold (30/14/7/1 day), observed expiry timestamp, and issuer summary so your handler can open tickets without another TLS probe.
Evaluation checklist
- HTTPS webhook delivery. Support for TLS-secured endpoints with sane retry and backoff on 5xx responses.
- Slack and Discord templates. First-class chat formatting in addition to generic JSON for custom integrators.
- Threshold specificity. Events name which runway milestone fired, not a vague “cert expiring soon.”
- Post-renew deduplication. New presented certs reset thresholds; webhooks should not loop the same 7-day warning after ACME fixed the edge.
- Live TLS fields. Payload includes handshake-derived expiry, not uploaded PEM metadata.
- Per-endpoint routing. Different webhooks for production vs staging inventories reduce alert fatigue.
- Secret rotation. Ability to roll webhook URLs or HMAC secrets without downtime.
- Plan gating transparency. Ssl monitoring webhook features documented on Starter vs Pro vs free tiers—no surprise paywalls after signup.
- Failure visibility. Dashboard or email when your endpoint returns 410/404 so silent drop does not hide outages.
- Companion email. Webhooks augment, not replace, mailbox alerts for stakeholders outside chat.
Test handlers with a staging hostname and synthetic near-expiry lab cert before you rely on ssl monitoring webhook paging for revenue paths.
How ssldays fits
ssldays enables webhooks on Starter and Pro—Slack, Discord, and generic HTTPS endpoints—while Free remains email-only with three domains and daily live TLS checks.
Starter supports 25 hostnames at hourly intervals; Pro supports 100 at the same cadence. All paid tiers emit 30, 14, 7, and 1 day threshold notifications based on live certificate presentation, with RDAP domain expiry where registries publish dates.
Configure webhook URLs in account settings; each alert includes hostname and expiry context your automation can map to PagerDuty, Jira, or internal incident APIs. Email alerts continue in parallel for compliance and executive visibility.
When you operate multiple brands, create separate webhook endpoints per customer or environment so a staging threshold in one project does not wake a partner’s on-call rotation. Hourly checks on Starter and Pro mean your handler should tolerate bursty traffic after large imports—queue events locally if your ticket system rate-limits writes.
Validate handshake output on any hostname via free check before you attach that name to a webhook-driven runbook.
Common mistakes when choosing a monitor
Parsing email into tickets instead of native ssl monitoring webhook support. MIME parsers break when vendors tweak templates.
Single global webhook for thirty environments. Noise causes teams to delete integrations entirely.
No idempotency keys. Retry storms duplicate incidents; handlers should dedupe on hostname plus threshold plus served serial.
Webhooks without verifying live renewal. Handlers auto-close tickets when local ACME logs say success, not when external serial changes.
Exposing unsigned endpoints on the public internet. Terminate hooks behind auth or verify HMAC signatures when the product provides them.
Choosing Discord routing but buying free email-only tiers. Ssl monitoring webhook features require the paid plan that matches chat integration needs.
Next steps
Sketch the incident flow: threshold crossed → webhook → ticket → owner → external verify via live check. List fields your handler must receive.
Upgrade to Starter or Pro on ssldays when you need ssl monitoring webhook delivery; keep Free while you only experiment with three daily-checked names over email.
Configure Slack or Discord using dedicated guides—SSL monitoring with Discord webhooks and the Slack companion article in this cluster—then run a dry-run hostname through each threshold in a test channel.
Frequently asked questions
Which ssldays plans include webhooks?
Starter and Pro include webhooks (Slack, Discord, and generic HTTPS). Free provides email alerts only for three domains on daily checks.
Can I use a generic API gateway as the webhook target?
Yes. Point ssldays at your gateway URL and transform the JSON into internal events. Ensure hourly polling on paid plans does not overwhelm rate limits—batch or dedupe in your handler.
Do webhooks fire on domain registration expiry?
When RDAP supplies expiration and your monitor tracks it, registration milestones can alert alongside TLS thresholds. Payload shape may differ; document both in your runbook.
How do webhooks relate to a full REST API?
This guide focuses on outbound alert webhooks. If you need inventory CRUD via API, confirm vendor documentation separately; many teams start with ssl monitoring webhook paging and add API automation later.
Monitor this hostname on a schedule
Live certificate checks and renewal reminders — not guesswork from PEM files.