Domain Name Search

Find out which domains are still free

Type a brand idea and this search checks the name across the most-used extensions at once — .com, .net, .org, .io, .co, .app, .dev and more — reporting which already have live DNS and which appear to be unregistered.

The check runs against the live DNS system rather than a stale database, so a name that shows as registered genuinely has nameservers published for it today.

How the availability check works, and its limits

A registered domain almost always has nameservers delegated to it. When DNS answers "this name does not exist" for a domain, the name is normally free to register. That inference is fast, private and accurate for the large majority of names.

There are exceptions worth knowing. A domain can be registered but parked with no nameservers, which shows here as unclear rather than available. Premium and reserved names may appear free in DNS yet cost far more than a standard registration. Always confirm the final answer — and the price — at a registrar before committing to a brand.

Choosing an extension that works for you

.com still carries the most trust with a general audience and is what people type by reflex, so it is worth checking first even when it is likely gone. .io and .dev read naturally for developer tools, .app signals software and enforces HTTPS, and .co is a common fallback for startups.

Country extensions such as .co.uk, .de or .pk help when your customers are local — search engines treat them as a geographic signal. Cheap generic extensions like .xyz or .online register for very little but often renew at a higher price, so check the renewal cost, not just the first year.

What makes a good domain name

Short, easy to say out loud, and easy to spell after hearing it once. Avoid hyphens and numbers: they survive fine in a browser bar but fall apart when someone reads the name over the phone. Avoid doubled letters at word boundaries, which invite typos.

Check that the name is not already a trademark in your industry, and look for a matching handle on the social platforms you intend to use. A name that is free everywhere is worth more than a marginally better name that is taken on half of them.

After you register

Turn on registrar lock and privacy protection, set auto-renew, and keep the contact email on an address you will still control in five years. Expired domains are the single most common way small sites disappear.

Once the domain is yours, point it at your host, then use a DNS lookup and a nameserver check to confirm the records resolve. Add SPF, DKIM and DMARC text records before you send your first email from the domain so messages do not land in spam.

Privacy

Searches are ordinary DNS queries made from your browser to a public resolver. Nothing is logged, no account is needed, and there is no risk of a searched name being registered out from under you by this site.

How to choose a name you will not regret

Short is good, but sayable is better. A name that survives being spoken aloud on a phone call — no ambiguous spelling, no hyphens to explain, no numbers that could be digits or words — will serve you for years. Test candidates by telling someone the name and asking them to type it; every hesitation is a visitor lost later.

Check the name's history before falling in love with it. A name that sounds available may have been registered and dropped before, possibly with a spammy past. Search the name in a web archive and in a search engine; if it previously hosted something you would not want associated with your brand, keep looking.

Finally, check the name on the social platforms you care about before registering. A matching handle is not essential, but discovering the name is a famous account on another platform after you have printed business cards is an avoidable annoyance.

What 'likely available' actually means

This tool judges availability from live DNS: if a name has no records at all, it is very probably unregistered, because most registered domains carry at least parked-page records. When a name does resolve, it is registered — full stop.

The grey area is the middle: a small number of domains are registered but hold no DNS records, so they look empty to a resolver. That is why the tool says 'likely' and always recommends confirming at a registrar, which can query the registry's own database and give a definitive answer. Think of this search as a fast first filter for brainstorming, not the final word.

After you find an available name

Register it promptly at a registrar you trust, in your own name, with an email address you control long-term. Price-compare renewal costs, not just the first-year promotion — a name that costs little in year one can renew at several times that price.

Consider registering the obvious misspellings and the matching extensions if the project matters, but do not feel obliged to buy twenty variants on day one. The name, a locked registrar account, auto-renew enabled and correct DNS records are what protect a domain; the rest is optional.