WHOIS Domain Lookup

Pulls registrar, creation date, expiry date and nameservers for a domain via RDAP — useful for verifying ownership before you buy a domain from someone, checking expiry ahead of a transfer, or just working out who's actually behind a suspicious domain.

RDAP vs the old WHOIS protocol

RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the modern replacement for legacy text-based WHOIS — it returns structured JSON instead of loosely formatted plain text, handles internationalised domain names properly, and deals with privacy-protected registrations more consistently across registrars. This is what actually gets queried behind the scenes here; the old WHOIS protocol is increasingly a compatibility layer rather than the primary source of truth.

Status codes, decoded

• clientTransferProhibited — locked against transfer until the registrant explicitly unlocks it. Normal, not a red flag on its own.
• serverHold — suspended at the registry level, not resolving. This one is a red flag — usually abuse action or a legal/compliance issue.
• pendingDelete — on its way out and about to be released back into the pool
• redemptionPeriod — expired but still renewable, at a significantly higher cost than a normal renewal
• clientDeleteProhibited — can't be deleted by the registrant without first removing this lock — a normal protective setting, not a problem

If you're checking a domain before buying it secondhand, or investigating one that showed up somewhere it shouldn't have, the registration date and registrar tell you a surprising amount at a glance — a domain registered days ago through a registrar known for abuse-friendly policies is a very different signal than one that's been held by the same registrant for a decade.