Free WHOIS Lookup
Enter any domain to look up its WHOIS registration data. See the registrar, creation and expiry dates, name servers, and domain status.
What is WHOIS?
WHOIS is a public database that stores registration information for every registered domain name. When someone registers a domain, their information (or their registrar's privacy proxy) is recorded in the WHOIS database. This data includes the registrar, registration dates, and authoritative name servers.
Understanding WHOIS Data
The most important fields in a WHOIS record are the registrar (the company managing the domain registration), creation date (when the domain was first registered), expiry date (when the registration expires), and name servers (the DNS servers handling the domain's DNS queries).
WHOIS and Custom Domains
When building a SaaS platform that supports custom domains, WHOIS data can help verify domain ownership and check that a domain is active. However, parsing WHOIS data programmatically is notoriously difficult due to inconsistent formatting across different registrars and TLDs.
Services like SaaSKevin use DNS-based verification instead of WHOIS parsing, which is more reliable and works consistently across all domain registrars.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is WHOIS?
- WHOIS is a query and response protocol used to look up information about registered domain names. It provides details like the domain registrar, registration and expiration dates, name servers, and sometimes the registrant's contact information.
- Why is WHOIS information hidden?
- Many domain registrars offer WHOIS privacy protection (also called WHOIS guard or domain privacy) that replaces the registrant's personal information with the registrar's proxy details. This helps protect domain owners from spam and unwanted contact.
- How can I find out when a domain expires?
- Use this WHOIS lookup tool to check the expiry date. The tool parses the WHOIS data and shows the expiration date prominently along with a countdown of days remaining.
- What are name servers?
- Name servers are the DNS servers that host a domain's DNS zone. They respond to DNS queries for the domain. Common name servers include those from registrars (like ns1.example-registrar.com) or DNS providers like Cloudflare (like aria.ns.cloudflare.com).
- How old is a domain?
- The domain age is calculated from the creation date shown in the WHOIS record. Our tool automatically calculates and displays the domain age for you.
Need setup examples for real SaaS products? Browse our industry guides and explore all free domain tools.