Quick answer
Yes — Certwatch is a one-time-purchase alternative to SSLMate-style SSL monitors. It costs $24 once, while SSLMate-style SSL monitors runs $10–20/mo — about $180 per year, every year. Real TLS handshake checks on a schedule with 30/14/7/1-day email and webhook alerts. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside SSLMate-style SSL monitors's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to Certwatch if you are an individual or small team paying SSLMate-style SSL monitors $10–20/mo for work your own machine can do. Two months of a paid SSL monitor covers Certwatch, and one cert it saves from expiring covers the 2am page it would have cost you.
Stay with SSLMate-style SSL monitors if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. Certwatch does not try to replicate those.
Head to head
| Certwatch | SSLMate-style SSL monitors | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24 once | $10–20/mo |
| 3 years, 50 domains | $24 | $360–720 |
| Handshake checks (expiry, chain, keys) | Yes | Yes |
| Domain (WHOIS) expiry | Yes, best-effort | Sometimes |
| Email + webhook alerts | Yes | Yes |
| Data on your server | Yes | No |
| Domain limits | None | Usually tiered |
| Source you can read | Yes, MIT | No |
| 5-year cost | $24 | $900 |
Where SSLMate-style SSL monitors still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into SSLMate-style SSL monitors's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. SSLMate-style SSL monitors is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where Certwatch wins
- Price, permanently. $24 once versus $180/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- Traffic-light dashboard. Green over 30 days, yellow at 30 or under, red under 7 days, or for expired, invalid or unreachable hosts.
- Real TLS handshake checks. Node tls checks expiry, issuer, SAN list, chain validity, self-signed certs and weak keys (RSA under 2048, EC under 224).
- Domain WHOIS expiry. Best-effort registry lookups so the domain registration itself does not lapse either.
The math
Two months of a paid SSL monitor covers Certwatch, and one cert it saves from expiring covers the 2am page it would have cost you.
- After 1 year: Certwatch has cost you $24 total — SSLMate-style SSL monitors has cost $180.
- After 3 years: Certwatch is still $24 — the subscription is at $540.
- After 5 years: Certwatch is still $24 — the subscription is at $900.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes. Certwatch is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/ssl-cert-monitor-mvp and always will be. The $24 buys the packaged 1-click installer; building from source is free.
Where does my monitoring data live?
In a SQLite database on your own server. The checker connects directly to your hosts, so run it from a box that can reach them, and nothing goes to any third-party API.
How reliable is the domain-expiry check?
Certificate checks are the reliable signal. WHOIS domain expiry is best-effort: some TLDs publish no expiry and some rate-limit, so treat it as a bonus rather than the primary alarm.
Is this a subscription in disguise?
No. $24 once, no renewal, no per-domain tiering, no license server. Webhooks work with zero config; deploy it and it keeps watching your certs.
Try Certwatch — $24, one time
Or get Certwatch plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.