Published on · By the IT LABS PRO team
Before you name a company, a product or a website, you check that the domain is free. The answer looks simple, “available” or “taken”, but behind it are registries, protocols and privacy rules that explain why you often cannot see who owns a name. Here is how it works, and how to read the result of our domain name checker.
Look up any name with our free domain name checker: availability, registrar, creation and expiry dates, name servers and status, for .com, .ma and most other extensions.
Who knows whether a name is taken?
Each extension (.com, .org, .ma, .fr…) is run by a registry that keeps the master list of registered names: Verisign for .com, the ANRT for .ma, AFNIC for .fr, and so on. You do not buy from the registry directly but from a registrar (a hosting company, an agency, a domain seller), which registers the name for you. Asking the registry is the only reliable way to know whether a name is free.
WHOIS and RDAP: two ways of asking
WHOIS, the historical protocol
WHOIS dates from the early days of the internet: you connect to a server on port 43 and get back a block of free text whose format differs from one registry to another. It is simple, but hard for machines to read, with no standard way to handle errors, languages or privacy.
RDAP, its modern replacement
RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) answers the same questions over HTTPS, in a structured format (JSON), with clear status codes. For generic extensions such as .com, .net or .org, ICANN made RDAP the official source and ended the WHOIS requirement for registries and registrars on 28 January 2025. Many country extensions offer RDAP too; some, such as .ma, still rely on WHOIS.
Our checker uses RDAP whenever the registry offers it (based on IANA’s official list), and WHOIS otherwise.
Reading the result
“Available”
The registry has no record of the name: you can register it. Two caveats: some names are reserved or sold at a premium price by the registry, and a name that has just expired may go through a redemption period before it becomes free.
“Registered”
The name exists. The checker then shows what the registry publishes:
- Registrar: the company through which the name was registered;
- Creation date and expiry date;
- Name servers: the DNS servers that say where the website and e-mail are;
- Status: codes such as clientTransferProhibited (transfer lock, a normal protection), redemptionPeriod (expired, can still be recovered by the owner) or pendingDelete (about to be released);
- DNSSEC: whether the domain’s DNS answers are cryptographically signed.
Why the owner’s details say “redacted”
Until 2018, WHOIS often published the name, address, e-mail and phone number of domain owners for anyone to see. Data protection laws, starting with the EU’s GDPR, changed that: most registries and registrars now hide personal data and show “REDACTED FOR PRIVACY” or the details of a privacy service instead. Companies sometimes remain visible, individuals almost never.
Our checker goes one step further: it never displays owner or contact data, even when a registry still publishes it (as some country registries do). We show the technical and administrative facts, not the people behind them.
The name you want is taken: what now?
- Look at the website: an active business, a parked page, or nothing at all?
- Check the expiry date: an abandoned name may come back on the market. Some registrars offer “backorder” services.
- Contact the owner through the registrar’s contact form or the privacy service: some owners sell.
- Try another extension: .ma for a Moroccan business (see our guide to the .ma domain name), .co, .io, or your country’s extension.
- Adjust the name: add your activity or city, but avoid hyphens and digits.
- Check trademarks: a name close to a registered brand can lead to a dispute, whatever its availability.
Once you have the name
- Register it in your company’s name, with an e-mail address you will keep.
- Turn on automatic renewal and keep the transfer lock on.
- Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC records even before you send e-mail (see SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained), and check them with our DNS lookup.
- Note the expiry date somewhere other than the registrar’s inbox.
Frequently asked questions
Can a lookup “steal” the name I am checking?
Searching on reputable tools does not reserve or reveal the name to anyone. Our checker queries the registry directly; results are cached for ten minutes to spare the registries, with no record of who searched. Register a name you want quickly all the same.
Why does the checker sometimes answer slowly or not at all for .ma?
.ma has no RDAP service yet, so the lookup goes through WHOIS on port 43, which some hosting providers block. In that case the checker says so, gives a hint based on the domain’s DNS, and links to the .ma registry.
How can I find out who owns a domain?
Usually you cannot see it directly any more. Use the contact form or privacy-service address shown by the registrar; in legal disputes, registrars disclose data under specific procedures.
In short
Registries know which names are taken; RDAP has replaced WHOIS for most extensions; and owners’ personal data is now hidden for privacy. Check availability, dates and status with our domain name checker, and once your name is registered, let our team build the website: discover our website development.
Sources
- ICANN, “Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP)”: icann.org
- IANA, RDAP bootstrap service registry for domain names: data.iana.org
- ICANN, EPP status codes: icann.org