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DNS Monitoring Tool — Direct Queries to Authoritative Nameservers, From 30+ Global Locations

Non-cached DNS checks against your authoritative nameservers — not stale answers from resolver caches. Catch outages, slow resolution, propagation issues, and unauthorized record changes before they reach your customers.
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Dotcom-Monitor DNS monitoring dashboard showing response times, query success rate, active monitors, and recent alerts across 30 global locations
  • No credit card required
  • Setup in under 5 minutes
  • 24×7 expert support
  • G2 Top Performer
  • SOC 2 · GDPR · SSO
10,000+

Organizations Worldwide

99.99%

Platform Uptime SLA

30+

Global Monitoring Locations

Since 1998

Website Monitoring Leader

Aflac logo — Dotcom-Monitor customer
Dell logo — Dotcom-Monitor customer
Comcast logo — Dotcom-Monitor customer
Dish Network logo — Dotcom-Monitor customer
Citrix logo — Dotcom-Monitor customer
DNS Monitoring

The first failure most monitoring tools miss

DNS is the first step in connecting users to your site, app, or email — and it’s the layer that fails most silently. If a record is wrong, slow, or unreachable, customers see “site down” symptoms even when your origin, CDN, and load balancers are perfectly healthy.

DNS monitoring verifies that your domain resolves correctly and quickly from every region your customers live in. Dotcom-Monitor checks DNS continuously, validates DNSSEC, and alerts you the moment something drifts — usually long before your status page does.

Read the full DNS monitoring guide →

How it works

Verify every step of the DNS resolution chain

Most “DNS monitors” only check whether a resolver returns an answer. Dotcom-Monitor queries the authoritative nameservers directly — non-cached — and traces every step from root to final answer.

Query authoritative nameservers, not caches

Non-cached DNS queries hit the authoritative servers directly. You see the truth, not a stale answer a resolver happened to keep around.

1

Trace the full resolution path

Every check follows the chain from root server → TLD → authoritative NS → final answer, with timing and validation at each hop.

2

Compare expected vs. actual responses

Define expected values per record type. Mismatches, missing records, or unexpected changes flip the monitor to DOWN and fire an alert.

3

Run from 30+ regions simultaneously

Catch GeoDNS misconfigurations, partial propagation, and resolver-specific failures that single-location tools never see.

4
DNS resolution path visualization tracing from root nameserver through TLD nameserver to authoritative nameserver to final A record answer, with response time at each hop
Standard "DNS uptime" tools
Query a public resolver

Returns whatever the resolver cached, even if your authoritative DNS is broken.

Dotcom-Monitor
Query authoritative directly

No caches in the way. You see truth, not stale answers — and you catch outages first.

Coverage

Monitor every DNS record type that matters

Define expected values per record, set alerts per record type, and audit every change. Full IPv4 + IPv6 support.

Record
Use case
What we monitor
A
Maps a hostname to an IPv4 address
Expected IP match, response time per region, NXDOMAIN/SERVFAIL/REFUSED detection
AAAA
Maps a hostname to an IPv6 address
Expected IPv6 address, dual-stack consistency with A, IPv6 resolver coverage
CNAME
Canonical alias to another hostname
Expected target, chain depth, loop detection, target resolvability
MX
Mail exchanger for email delivery
Expected host + priority order, SMTP connect on mail host, fallback MX coverage
NS
Authoritative nameservers for a zone
NS set consistency, unauthorized changes, glue records, lame delegation detection
PTR
Reverse DNS — IP to hostname
Expected hostname, forward-confirmed reverse DNS (FCrDNS) for mail deliverability
SOA
Zone authority and serial
Serial increments, replication across NS, refresh/retry/expire timers
SPF / TXT
Email authentication and verification
Expected SPF/DKIM/DMARC strings, length & flatten detection, EDNS truncation alerts
DNSSEC
Cryptographic chain of trust
DS at parent, DNSKEY presence, RRSIG validity & expiry windows, key rollover audit
Global Coverage

30+ monitoring locations across 6 continents

DNS performance is geography-dependent. A misconfigured GeoDNS rule or a regional resolver outage can leave one continent broken while everywhere else looks fine. Dotcom-Monitor runs DNS checks from vantage points in the regions your customers actually live in.

30+

Vantage points worldwide

6

Continents covered

1 min

Minimum check interval

36 mo

Data retention

World map showing Dotcom-Monitor's 30+ DNS monitoring locations across 6 continents
Key Capabilities

Built for DNS reliability, not just uptime checks

Most DNS monitoring tools answer one question: “does it resolve?” Dotcom-Monitor answers the questions that matter during a real incident: where did it break, who’s affected, and what changed.

Non-cached DNS queries

Direct authoritative queries instead of resolver-cached answers. You see what’s really being served, not what a resolver remembered five minutes ago.

DNSSEC chain validation

Validate the entire DS → DNSKEY → RRSIG chain on every check. Catch expired signatures and broken key rollovers before resolvers start failing.

Record change detection

Alert on unexpected A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, and TXT changes. Catch accidental edits, automation misfires, and unauthorized modifications instantly.

p50 / p95 / p99 latency tracking

Average lookup time hides regional problems. Dotcom-Monitor tracks tail latency by location so you catch resolver overload and Anycast issues early.

Multi-resolver verification

Compare answers across multiple resolvers and regions to detect split-horizon DNS, partial propagation, and GeoDNS routing anomalies.

REST API + 25+ integrations

Provision monitors and pull data programmatically. Native integrations with Slack, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, ServiceNow, Microsoft Teams, Datadog, and webhooks. API docs →

DNS monitor alert configuration interface showing monitor name, record type, expected value, check frequency, alert channels, and notification rules for response time and SERVFAIL detection
Smart Alerting

Route alerts by error type, location, and team

Configure separate alert rules for response time, record value changes, SERVFAIL/NXDOMAIN spikes, and DNSSEC failures. Send each signal to the team that owns the layer — not a single all-hands channel.

  • Multi-condition rules (response time, record drift, validation failure)
  • Alert filtering — suppress expected churn for CDN-rotated records
  • Escalation policies with on-call rotation support
  • Email, SMS, voice call, Slack, Teams, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, webhooks
  • Full incident history with response-time and resolution-step audit
Who uses Dotcom-Monitor DNS Monitoring

Built for SRE, DevOps, and NetOps teams

From single-domain e-commerce sites to multi-region enterprise platforms, Dotcom-Monitor protects DNS-dependent revenue.

  • E-Commerce

DNS continuity during peak traffic

One bad DNS change during a Black Friday push can wipe out a day of sales. Sub-minute DNS checks across all customer regions catch propagation issues before they cost conversions.

  • SaaS

API and login reachability

Your customers’ applications break the moment your API hostname stops resolving. DNS monitoring proves availability per region and gives you an audit trail for SLA conversations.

  • Multi-CDN

GeoDNS and failover validation

When traffic-steering rules send users to the wrong CDN edge, the only signal is a regional latency spike. Multi-location DNS monitoring surfaces it within one check interval.

Pricing

DNS monitoring, included with Internet Infrastructure

DNS, DNSBL, port, ping, traceroute, and other infrastructure protocols across 30 global locations — one flat monthly plan.

Internet Infrastructure plan

Everything you need to monitor DNS, DNSBL, and the rest of the infrastructure stack. No per-location surcharges, no per-record limits in lower tiers.

What’s included at $39.95/month:

  • 1 monitoring task, 1-minute minimum check interval, all 30 global locations, 36-month data retention
  • DNS monitoring with all record types (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, PTR, SOA, SPF, TXT)
  • DNSSEC chain validation, record change detection, expected-value rules
  • DNS Blacklist (DNSBL) monitoring across 70+ blacklists, included
  • Port / Telnet, Ping, Traceroute, FTP, WebSocket checks, included
  • REST API + 25+ integrations (Slack, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, ServiceNow, Datadog, webhooks)
  • Scale up with additional monitors per tiered plans — enterprise & private agents available
  • 99.99% uptime SLA, SOC 2, GDPR, SSO (SAML/OIDC), and private monitoring agents available
Starts at
$39.95
per month
Start Free 30-Day Trial
No credit card required
Customer Stories

What teams say after they switch

Verified reviews from Capterra and G2. Aggregate rating 4.6 / 5 across 210+ reviews.

"I absolutely love the comprehensive monitoring services Dotcom-Monitor provides. The real-time alerts and detailed performance analytics have been a game-changer for our website's uptime and speed. The global monitoring feature ensures that our site is optimized everywhere, and the intuitive dashboard makes it easy to track performance. Their customer support is exceptional — always responsive and efficient."
Tomer C.
Managing Director · Facilities Services
Verified Capterra review · March 2025
"One of Dotcom's best features is the push/pull API capabilities that provide us with network performance data. We use this to monitor for performance issues as well as page loading stats. Dotcom-Monitor allows us to monitor multiple services within one interface and platform. It's allowed us to operate more efficiently."
Gregory S.
Manager · Broadcast Media
Verified Capterra review · May 2020
"I have been thoroughly impressed with the level of detail and comprehensiveness of the reports generated by the software. Moreover, the support team at Dotcom-Monitor has exceeded my expectations. On almost a daily basis, I reach out with various questions and they have consistently demonstrated unwavering patience, providing detailed and insightful answers."
Shirin R.
Software Test Engineer · Computer Software
Verified Capterra review · February 2023
"I'm a network analyst and use Dotcom tools inside the ISP I work, it's a really good and reliable tool for monitoring things along the network, and testing network components, I usually use it to make diagnostics of servers latency, and dns resolve time."
Leonardo J.
IT & Network Infrastructure Analyst Internet
Verified Capterra review · October 2022

4.5

Capterra

80 reviews

4.6

Ease of Use
Capterra Score reviews

4.6

Customer Service
Capterra Score reviews

All reviews sourced from Capterra verified reviews. Ratings as of January 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

DNS monitoring — common questions

If your question isn’t covered here, our team responds within one business hour.

DNS monitoring is the continuous process of verifying that your Domain Name System resolves correctly, quickly, and consistently from multiple locations. It checks that the right records (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT) return the expected values, validates DNSSEC, and alerts you to outages, performance regressions, or unexpected record changes before they affect users. Read the full guide →

Dotcom-Monitor verifies your DNS by making non-cached queries directly to your authoritative nameservers from over 30 global locations to ensure immediate, accurate performance data. It traces the full resolution path and compares actual responses against your expected records, alerting you instantly to any mismatches, outages, or configuration issues.

Dotcom-Monitor supports A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, PTR, SOA, SPF, and TXT records, plus DNSSEC chain validation. You can monitor any combination of records per domain, with separate expected-value rules and alert thresholds for each record type.

Check intervals are configurable from every 1 minute up to every 180 minutes. For critical infrastructure (root domain, www, API, mail) we recommend 1-minute intervals from multiple regions. For lower-priority records, 5–15 minutes is typical and reduces query load.

Yes. Dotcom-Monitor validates the entire DNSSEC chain of trust — DS records at the parent, DNSKEY records, and RRSIG signatures — and alerts on validation failures, expired signatures, or broken key rollovers.

DNS monitoring verifies your DNS records resolve correctly and quickly. DNS blacklist (DNSBL) monitoring checks whether your domain or IP has been added to any of 70+ public blacklists that affect email deliverability. Dotcom-Monitor offers both as separate products you can run together.

DNS monitoring is included in the Internet Infrastructure plan, which starts at $39.95 per month for 1 monitoring task with 1-minute checks across all 30 global locations and 36-month data retention. The plan also includes DNSBL, port, ping, traceroute, and other infrastructure protocols. See full pricing →

Yes. Dotcom-Monitor offers a 30-day free trial of all monitoring products, including DNS monitoring, with no credit card required. You’ll have full access to all 30 global monitoring locations, all record types, and DNSSEC validation during the trial.

Yes. Use Dotcom-Monitor’s Private Agents to run DNS checks from inside a VPC, behind a firewall, or against internal-only zones — same alerting, same dashboard, no inbound exposure required.

Stop guessing why DNS broke

Start monitoring in under 5 minutes. 30 global locations, all record types, full DNSSEC validation — included in the free trial.

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