How TechDash keeps crawl data on your computer
Understand the local-first database, HTML, screenshots, and scheduling model.
Last checked 21 August 2026
TechDash is a local-first desktop monitor. The installed app schedules work and performs page checks, browser rendering, screenshots, site-resource checks, certificate and domain lookups, DNS checks, and connected Google Search Console requests from your computer. It does not send your crawl database to TechDash as a hosted monitoring service.
What stays on this computer
TechDash keeps its main records in a local database. These records include:
- Website and monitored-page settings
- Check runs, results, current comparison state, incidents, and alert-delivery records
- Site-resource, SSL, domain, DNS, and health-report data
- Custom checks, ignored checks, and issue resolutions
- Connected Search Console properties, imported metrics, inspection results, and quota state
- App preferences, license state, and notification configuration
Rendered and server-returned HTML is minified, compressed, and stored in files beneath each website's local folder. Website icons, viewport screenshots, and full-page screenshots are files in the same local data area. This content is not a cloud backup, and TechDash does not provide an account-based restore of it.
Local-first does not mean that every value is readable as plain text. License keys, Search Console tokens, Basic Authentication passwords, and configured webhook URLs are sealed before they are stored. Other crawl and configuration records should still be treated as private local data.
What still needs a network connection
Monitoring a website necessarily sends requests to that website and to destinations needed by its checks. For example, a page check can fetch the page, load its resources in a browser, and make capped checks of linked or image destinations. Site checks can request robots.txt, sitemaps, llms.txt, favicons, DNS, certificate, and registration services.
TechDash also uses remote services for:
- License validation and software-update eligibility
- Google sign-in and Search Console APIs, only after you connect a property
- Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Discord, only when you configure those notification channels
- Crash-report uploads, when Send crash reports is On
- Small connectivity probes used to distinguish normal internet access from captive Wi-Fi
See What TechDash sends over the network for the data involved in each flow.
Monitoring continues after closing the window
Closing the main window does not close the desktop process. TechDash remains in the system tray and continues scheduled work. This is why checks can run without the window being visible.
Choose Quit TechDash from the tray when you want to stop the app and all local monitoring work. Pausing a website stops monitoring for that website but leaves its saved data in place. Unlinking the license locks the app and stops queues, but it also leaves website data on this computer.
Protecting and backing up local data
Use an operating-system account with a password and disk encryption when the monitored content is sensitive. Someone with sufficient access to the signed-in profile and its app-data files may be able to read crawl records or attack locally stored secrets.
Do not copy the data directory while TechDash is writing to it and do not edit the database or secret-storage files. TechDash does not currently provide a supported database export, migration, or restore workflow. If preserving data before reinstalling or replacing a computer matters, contact support before changing files. A license can be moved independently, but moving a license does not move the local crawl history.