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WHOIS Lookup
Find out who registered a domain, through which registrar, when it was created and when it expires. We ask the registry directly over RDAP, the modern WHOIS, and add history, hosting and a check of the live site.
What a WHOIS lookup tells you
Every domain is registered through a registrar and recorded by a registry, the organisation that runs its extension: Verisign for .com, Public Interest Registry for .org, Google Registry for .app and .dev. The registry keeps the authoritative record, and a WHOIS lookup reads it. The record answers practical questions:
- Registrar: the company the owner pays. If you want to buy the domain or report abuse, this is who to contact.
- Creation date: when the current registration started. Combined with the archive history this shows how old the domain really is; the domain age checker explains how to read the two together.
- Expiry date: when the owner has paid until. Domains close to expiry with a broken website are sometimes abandoned, and that is when names come back on the market.
- Status codes: technical flags such as
clientTransferProhibited, a normal lock against hijacking, orredemptionPeriodandpendingDelete, which mean the domain has expired. - Name servers: which DNS provider answers for the domain, often a clue to the host or to a parking service. Our DNS lookup shows the actual records.
How to read the result
- Check the dates first. A domain created last month is new, whatever its content claims. A domain expiring in a few weeks may be about to change hands.
- Look at the status. Transfer and update locks are good signs of an owner who cares. Hold statuses mean the domain is suspended and will not resolve.
- Compare with the history card. If the Wayback Machine has snapshots from years before the creation date, the domain expired and was registered again. Its old reputation, good or bad, may not belong to the current owner.
- Look at the live site. The website card shows whether the domain serves a real site, redirects elsewhere, or does not answer at all.
When people use a WHOIS lookup
Before buying a domain, to see whether the current owner is a company that will never sell or an investor holding hundreds of names, and when the registration runs out. Before trusting a website, because a shop or investment site registered a few weeks ago deserves caution. Before asking for a link, because a domain with a long continuous history is a better place for your link than a re-registered one. And after registering your own domain, to confirm that the registry shows the right dates, that transfer lock is on and that your name servers are in place.
Whatever the reason, remember that the registration record describes the domain, not the people behind the content. Hosting, DNS and the website itself fill in the rest of the picture, which is why our lookup puts all of them in one report.
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Frequently asked questions
Why is the owner's name hidden?
Since the EU's GDPR took effect in 2018, registrars redact the personal details of most domain owners. You will usually see the registrar, the dates and the status, but not the owner's name, email or address. To contact an owner, use the contact form or anonymised email that the registrar's own WHOIS page offers, or the registrar's abuse contact for problems.
What is the difference between WHOIS and RDAP?
WHOIS is the original 1980s protocol: plain text with a different layout at every registry. RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) returns the same information as structured data over HTTPS, with standard field names and proper character support. ICANN made RDAP the official source for generic domains in January 2025. Our lookup uses RDAP wherever a registry offers it and falls back to WHOIS for the rest.
Which extensions does this WHOIS lookup support?
Every generic extension (.com, .net, .org, .app, .xyz and the other new gTLDs) plus the country codes that run RDAP, such as .uk, .fr, .ca, .au, .in and .nl. For popular country codes without RDAP, including .io, .co, .me, .us, .de, .eu and .jp, we query their WHOIS servers directly. Some registries publish fewer fields; .de, for example, shows no creation date at all.
The expiry date has passed but the domain still works. Why?
After expiry most registrars keep the domain for an auto-renew grace period, often 30 to 45 days, followed by a 30-day redemption period in which the owner can still restore it for a fee. Only after that does the registry delete it and release the name, usually five days later. The status line tells you which stage a domain is in.
Is it legal to look up who owns a domain?
Yes. Registration data is published precisely so that anyone can find out who is responsible for a domain. What you do with the data is regulated: registries forbid using it for spam or bulk marketing.
How often is the data updated?
Every lookup asks the registry live. To avoid hammering registries we keep a result for up to an hour, which the report shows as “cached”. If a domain was just registered or transferred, search again after an hour for the newest record.