WHOIS is the protocol for looking up information about a domain name — who owns it, when it was registered, when it expires, and which registrar it’s with. It’s essential for researching domains you want to acquire.
WHOIS on your computer
Most operating systems come with a whois command built in. Open your terminal and type whois example.com to get the current details directly from the official WHOIS servers.
WhoisXML API
Most WHOIS services only show you the current record. WhoisXML API goes further — they track WHOIS data over time, so you can look up historical records and see who owned a domain in the past. This is incredibly useful when the current WHOIS is hidden behind privacy protection but older records still show the owner’s real details. They have an affordable credit system and good API access.
https://whoisxmlapi.com
Registrar WHOIS pages
Each registrar has its own WHOIS lookup page, and these sometimes offer extra functionality. For example, GoDaddy’s WHOIS page includes a contact form to reach the domain owner.
My approach: first look up the domain on a generic WHOIS service to find out which registrar it’s with, then go to that registrar’s own WHOIS page for more details.
- https://namecheap.com/domains/whois
- https://godaddy.com/whois
- https://name.com/whois-lookup
- https://networksolutions.com/domains/whois
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