Domain Watchdog Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Domain Watchdog hosting on xCloud gives you a self-hosted domain monitor that tracks RDAP history, expirations and status changes for the domains you watch. Deploy Domain Watchdog from the OneClick catalog and xCloud starts the pinned v1.4.5 image as a web app plus a background worker, with private PostgreSQL 16 and Valkey, generates the application secrets and publishes it over HTTPS. You register the first account yourself.

Deploy your Domain Watchdog

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is Domain Watchdog?

Domain Watchdog is an app that uses RDAP to collect publicly available information about domains, track their history and, through a provider's API, purchase them. Its README says it lets you know the history of a domain name from its inception to its release into the public domain, and follow the entities that manage it in detail. The RDAP and WHOIS protocols alone cannot give a detailed history of events such as ownership changes and renewals, which is the gap it fills. Self-hosted Domain Watchdog is a domain monitor you run yourself. The licence is AGPL-3.0.

Here on xCloud, the template deploys Domain Watchdog v1.4.5, pinned by digest, as a web container and a worker from the same image, with PostgreSQL 16 and a Valkey queue kept private. The worker runs scheduled watchlist checks and notifications, so without it nothing is monitored. State sits on the database_data volume, and the install form asks for nothing.

From Sign-Up to a Live Domain Monitor In Just 3 Easy Steps

A Domain Watchdog install normally means a web container, a worker, a database, a queue, generated secrets, a domain and a certificate before the first watchlist exists. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick Domain Watchdog from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and server. There are no extra fields; xCloud generates the application secrets and the database credentials.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the web container and a php-worker from the same pinned image, add PostgreSQL 16 and Valkey 8 with no host ports, keep application state on the database_data volume and publish the web interface over HTTPS.
Step 03
Register And Start Watching
Allow one to two minutes for the first start to run migrations and download the RDAP server list. Open the HTTPS URL, register your own account, then set REGISTRATION_ENABLED=false and redeploy to close sign-ups before you create your first watchlist.

Everything Domain Watchdog Does, On Your Own Server

Domain Watchdog runs in full here: RDAP-based domain tracking with a background worker, on a domain and a server you control.

Domain History Over RDAP
Domain Watchdog uses RDAP to collect public information about a domain and track its history, from creation through renewals, status and ownership changes.
Watchlists
Group the domains you care about into watchlists and let scheduled background checks keep them up to date.
Expiry And Change Alerts
Get notified about expirations and changes by email, webhook, calendar feed or RSS. Email needs MAILER_DSN to be set first.
Registrar Connectors
Store registrar API credentials per account for the connectors that need them, such as the auto-purchase feature upstream describes.
A Background Worker
A dedicated php-worker container runs the scheduled checks and notifications next to the web app, with Valkey as the job queue.
Per-Account Sign-In
Every user registers their own account, and the verify run confirmed that wrong credentials are rejected and protected API calls without a token return 401.

Everything You Need To Run Your Domain Watching 24/7

Managed hosting for Domain Watchdog, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

Domain Watchdog v1.4.5 deployed instantly
Worker, PostgreSQL and Valkey included
Application secrets generated for you
Persistent database volume
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
Choose your server region
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With Domain Watchdog

Watch a domain portfolio for expirations
Put every domain you own into watchlists and get an alert before one lapses.
Follow registration and ownership changes
Keep the history of status and ownership changes for domains you depend on or care about.
Send alerts to the tools you already use
Route notifications by email, webhook, calendar feed or RSS instead of checking a dashboard.
Wait for a taken domain to become free
Track a domain that is currently registered and see its history until it is released.

Domain Watchdog Screenshots

Domain Watchdog watchlist page after signing in

Domain Watchdog vs Alternatives

Registrar expiry emails: Domain Watchdog watches the domains in your watchlists from one instance, whichever registrar holds them, and keeps their history. It needs MAILER_DSN set before it can send alert emails.
Manual WHOIS or RDAP lookups: A lookup shows today's record only. Upstream notes the protocols cannot give a detailed history of events, which Domain Watchdog accumulates over time.
dumbwhois: dumbwhois has its own OneClick page. Domain Watchdog keeps watchlists, domain history and alerts for the domains you follow, with a background worker running scheduled checks.
Uptime Kuma: Uptime Kuma has its own OneClick page. Domain Watchdog tracks the RDAP registration data of domain names: expirations, status and ownership changes.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for Domain Watchdog hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More headroom if Domain Watchdog sits alongside other monitoring apps.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. Domain Watchdog itself is licensed by its maintainers under AGPL-3.0.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy Domain Watchdog on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

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Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
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Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
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Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Run Your Own Domain Monitor?

Domain Watchdog on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

Hear what people are saying about us

See why agencies, developers, startups, and growing businesses choose xCloud to power their projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Is Domain Watchdog free?

Yes. Domain Watchdog is open source under AGPL-3.0, linked from this page at the pinned v1.4.5 tag, with network copyleft terms for modified versions. Hosting costs are the VPS only, and nothing is charged per domain you watch.

Can you self-host Domain Watchdog with Docker?

Yes, and this Domain Watchdog Docker hosting template does it for you: the upstream image, pinned by digest, serves the web app and a worker next to private PostgreSQL and Valkey containers on your own server, with HTTPS in front. It is not a Domain Watchdog cloud account.

How much RAM does Domain Watchdog need?

The template manifest asks for 2048 MB of RAM, 1 CPU core and 10 GB of disk as a floor for four small containers. Upstream states no RAM requirement, so that figure is an estimate. This page sells the 6 GB tier, which leaves wide headroom as your watchlists grow.

Does Domain Watchdog come with an admin account?

No. There is no admin account and no default login. Open your HTTPS address and register your own account right away. Every account has the same rights, and a signed-in user can store registrar credentials and add webhooks that make outgoing requests from your server.

Can strangers register on my Domain Watchdog?

Yes, until you stop it. Anyone who can reach the site can register, with no approval step and no email verification. Register your own account, then set REGISTRATION_ENABLED=false in the Environment editor and redeploy. Registration and sign-in rate limits count each visitor separately.

Can visitors run lookups without signing in?

Not by default. PUBLIC_RDAP_LOOKUP_ENABLED is false, so lookups need an account. You can switch it on in the Environment editor if you want anonymous visitors to query domains, but that makes your server perform their lookups, so weigh that before enabling it.

How do I get alert emails from Domain Watchdog?

Set MAILER_DSN and the sender address in the Environment editor and redeploy, because outgoing mail is discarded until then, and email verification needs the same setting. Webhooks, calendar feeds and RSS work without mail. Send yourself a test alert before trusting expiry warnings.

What runs alongside Domain Watchdog?

A worker container from the same image that runs scheduled watchlist checks, the monthly RDAP server refresh and notification delivery, plus PostgreSQL 16 and a Valkey queue. Nothing is monitored without the worker. The first start runs migrations and downloads the RDAP server list, which takes a minute or two.

How do I back up Domain Watchdog?

Back up the whole database_data volume, which holds all application state in PostgreSQL. For a consistent copy, stop the stack, copy the volume off the server, restart, and test the restore on a disposable install. Valkey only holds transient jobs, so it needs no backup.

Backup and restore Docker apps

How do I upgrade Domain Watchdog?

Catalog updates leave a live v1.4.5 install alone. Back up the volume, then adopt a newer template version rather than editing the image tag or digest, after reading the upstream release notes. Redeploying also signs everyone out, because the signing keys are regenerated, but no data is lost.

Why was I signed out after a redeploy?

The sign-in signing keys are generated inside the web container, so redeploying or recreating it signs everyone out. Sign in again afterwards. Your watchlists and domain history live in PostgreSQL on the persistent volume and are not affected.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.