Domains
WHOIS / RDAP lookup
See a domain’s registrar, its dates and every status code explained, read from RDAP rather than old WHOIS.
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Result
The verdict appears here once you press Look up registration data.
What this is
This whois lookup actually reads RDAP, the protocol that replaced the old WHOIS port-43 lookup in 2021, and turns its answer into the registrar, the dates and every status code explained in plain words rather than left as a code to look up elsewhere.
RDAP, the Registration Data Access Protocol, is a structured JSON answer defined by RFC 9083, queried over HTTPS. It replaced the decades-old WHOIS protocol because WHOIS had no consistent format from one registry to the next and no standard way to say when a field was being withheld on purpose.
A domain’s status is not one value but a set of EPP codes, each one either describing where the registration currently sits in its lifecycle - the few days after it was first created, a grace period after a renewal, the weeks between expiry and deletion - or a lock a registrar or registry has placed on it deliberately.
How to read the result
The dates come straight from the events RDAP reports: when the domain was registered, when it expires, and when its record last changed, each shown as a plain date rather than the registration’s own timestamp format.
Every status code gets its own row with what it actually means, because a code like pendingDelete or redemptionPeriod says something urgent and specific about the registration that is easy to miss if it is left as a bare string.
Common mistakes
What goes wrong most often, and how to tell.
- Reading "clientTransferProhibited" as a problemThis is a deliberate lock most registrars set by default to stop an unauthorised transfer. It is normal for an actively used domain and the registrar can lift it on request; it is not evidence that anything is wrong with the registration.
- Missing redemptionPeriod until it is too lateA domain in its redemption period is already past its expiry and grace period, with roughly 30 days left before deletion. Waiting to act until pendingDelete appears leaves no further grace period at all.
- Expecting the registrant’s name and addressSince RDAP replaced WHOIS, most registries redact that contact detail by policy. A redacted answer is the registry doing what it is now required to do, not a failure of the lookup or a sign the domain is hiding something.
- Treating a thin registry answer as incompleteSome registries answer RDAP "thin", pointing only at the sponsoring registrar’s own RDAP server for the full detail. Fewer dates or statuses on a thin answer is the registry’s own design, not a dropped field.
Questions
What people ask about this tool.
- It queries RDAP, which replaced the old WHOIS port-43 protocol in 2021 as the standard way to read registration data, and presents the same facts a WHOIS answer used to carry in a structured, documented format instead.
- The domain is in its last few days before the registry deletes it outright and the name becomes available to register again. There is no further grace period after this status appears.
- Most registries now redact registrant, admin and technical contact detail from the public RDAP answer under ICANN’s policy adopted after the GDPR took effect, so a redacted answer is the current normal rather than something this lookup failed to find.
- A client lock is set by the current registrar and that registrar can remove it, usually on request. A server lock is set by the registry itself, independently of the registrar, and typically needs a separate request to the registry or a policy reason to lift.
Use it from the API
The same check, as one request.