---
title: DNS monitors
description: Watch that a domain resolves to the records you expect.
category: monitors
updated: 2026-07-15
tags: [dns, resolution, records]
---

A DNS monitor checks that a domain resolves correctly. DNS problems are easy to miss
— a bad change or a registrar issue can quietly break email or your whole site — so
it's worth watching directly.

![A DNS monitor's detail panel showing the domain being resolved, its resolution time, and its recent check history](/img/docs/app-monitor-dns.png)
*A DNS monitor watches resolution itself - it will catch a broken record even
while the web server behind it is perfectly healthy.*

## Setting it up

- **Target** — the domain to resolve, e.g. `example.com`.

## What counts as up or down

The monitor is **up** when the domain resolves successfully and **down** when the
lookup fails or times out. We record how long resolution takes so you can catch a
slow or flaky resolver.

## Good to know

- A DNS monitor confirms resolution works; it doesn't confirm the resolved server is
  actually serving traffic. Pair it with an [HTTP](/docs/monitors/http) or
  [ping](/docs/monitors/ping) monitor for the full picture.
- Changing DNS records can take time to propagate. A brief blip right after you make
  a change is usually propagation, not an outage.

## Get started

- [Create a DNS monitor](/docs/getting-started/quickstart)
- [Choose a check region](/docs/configuration/check-regions)

## Related

- [Domain expiry monitors](/docs/monitors/domain)
- [HTTP / website monitors](/docs/monitors/http)