Ghost SSL renewal fails after DNS changes.
Clients find out from their readers.
When you migrate a Ghost publication to a new domain or change DNS records after a hosting switch, Let's Encrypt can lose the ability to renew the certificate. The publication stays online. The certificate silently expires. Your uptime monitor reports green until readers start getting browser warnings.
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- Check cadence (Agency)
- 5 min
- SSL pre-expiry alert
- 30 days
- Vendors watched
- 11
- Independent DNS resolvers
- 3
Where Ghost agencies get caught out
Three failure modes specific to Ghost client portfolios.
Uptime monitors check HTTP response codes. Ghost-specific SSL failures — certificate renewal breakage after DNS changes, CAA record conflicts, and upstream Ghost(Pro) CDN incidents — all fail at a layer below HTTP. They generate the client calls that damage agency relationships.
Let's Encrypt renewal failure
Ghost SSL breaks silently after DNS migrations
Ghost relies on Let's Encrypt for SSL. After a DNS migration — moving nameservers, switching hosting providers, or updating A records — Let's Encrypt's renewal challenge can fail silently. The publication stays up with HTTP serving correctly while the certificate ages toward expiry. Your uptime monitor reports 200 OK the entire time.
CAA record restrictions
CAA records from previous hosts block renewal
When clients inherit domains from previous agencies, CAA records from the old hosting provider's certificate authority can block Let's Encrypt from issuing a new certificate. The failure only surfaces at renewal time — often 60 days later — and looks identical to a service outage until you investigate the certificate chain.
Ghost(Pro) platform dependency
Ghost CDN incidents affect your entire client roster
Agencies managing multiple Ghost(Pro) publications are exposed to Ghost infrastructure incidents. A CDN degradation or DNS propagation issue at Ghost can take a dozen client publications offline simultaneously. Without vendor monitoring, you diagnose each publication independently before connecting the upstream cause.
How it works
Set up once per client. Watch every publication from there.
Merlonix is designed for Ghost agencies managing client publications across a mix of Ghost(Pro) and self-hosted deployments — one account, every domain, one alert flow that only fires when something actually needs attention.
01
Add your Ghost client domains
Verify ownership with a DNS TXT record — works for Ghost(Pro) publications, self-hosted Ghost, and custom domains at any registrar. One verification per domain establishes the monitoring baseline. Takes under two minutes per client.
02
SSL chain validated end-to-end every 5 minutes
Merlonix checks more than the expiry date. It validates the full certificate chain — issuer authority, chain completeness, domain match, and SAN coverage. Let's Encrypt renewal failures and CAA record conflicts are detected within one check interval, before any browser shows a warning.
03
DNS changes flagged across three resolvers
Three independent DNS resolvers verify your expected records on every check interval. After a DNS migration, any drift from the expected state — NS changes, A record updates, CAA additions — triggers an immediate alert so you can investigate before a certificate renewal attempt fails.
04
Ghost(Pro) vendor status in your alert feed
Ghost platform incidents appear alongside your client-specific alerts in a separate vendor status feed. When a Ghost CDN incident is responsible for multiple client publications going dark, you see the upstream cause instantly — instead of working through your roster one publication at a time.
What the numbers mean for Ghost agencies
Monitoring that covers the Ghost-specific failure surface.
Ghost agencies don't have a dedicated infrastructure team. You have content strategists and developers who also handle DNS migrations and hosting switches. Merlonix is built around that constraint — minimal setup, maximum signal, zero dashboards to babysit between client calls.
30 days
SSL expiry warning lead time — enough runway to fix Let's Encrypt renewal issues before the publication shows a browser warning
< 10 min
Time from DNS change to alert — covers the full DNS propagation window after a Ghost migration without false positives
11 vendors
Upstream services monitored — including Ghost(Pro) platform status and newsletter delivery providers common in Ghost stacks
200 assets
Maximum monitored domains on the Agency plan — enough for a full Ghost client publication roster
Pricing
Flat monthly fee. Every client domain included.
No per-domain charges. No per-alert fees. Pick the tier that fits your client count and grow without billing surprises.
Starter
For solo Ghost developers watching a handful of client publications.
$29/ month
- 10 monitored assets
- 1 seat
- 15-min check cadence
- SSL + DNS + vendor monitoring
- Email + Slack alerts
Team
For growing Ghost agencies with multiple team members.
$79/ month
- 50 monitored assets
- 5 seats
- 10-min check cadence
- SSL + DNS + vendor monitoring
- Email + Slack alerts
Agency
For agencies with a full Ghost client publication roster.
$199/ month
- 200 monitored assets
- 15 seats
- 5-min check cadence
- SSL + DNS + vendor monitoring
- Email + Slack alerts
Stop finding out from clients.
Add your first Ghost client domain in under two minutes. The first SSL or DNS alert tells you whether monitoring was worth it — usually within the first week. 14-day trial, no card required.