WHOIS: what it shows about your domain and how to check it

WHOIS is the public record of who registered what. Whenever a domain is registered, the registrant, the dates and the nameservers are stored — and much of that can be looked up by anyone.

Look up the WHOIS of a domain

yourcompany.com Search

Shows the registrant, the dates, the registrar, the status and the nameservers.

What it is actually for

1 Finding out whether a name is free — and if it is not, how long it has been registered and when it expires.
2 Finding out where a domain lives before transferring it: the nameservers say who runs the DNS, and the registrar says who to talk to.
3 Proving the domain is yours. In a dispute, the registrant details are the document that counts.
4 Seeing whether it is about to expire — the expiry date is public.

What usually shows up

Field What it tells you
Registrant The person or company the domain belongs to. May be hidden by privacy protection — and some national registries never publish it (see below).
Registrar The company that handled the registration. That is our role when you register with us.
Dates When it was registered, when it was updated, and when it expires.
Nameservers Who answers for the domain's DNS — see what nameservers are .
Status Whether it is active, locked against transfers, or in a recovery period.

How to check

1 With our own tool, which is the shortest route: WHOIS search . Type the domain and it returns registrant, dates, registrar, status and nameservers — and tells you straight away whether it is free, with a button to register or to transfer.
2 For .mz domains, the official whois is the national registry's, at whois.nic.mz .
3 If you only want to know whether you can register it, use the search field — it is faster and gives you the price too.
About the holder of a .mz: the .mz registry publishes the domain, dates, registrar, status and nameservers — but it does not publish holder details. That is not a failure of the lookup nor privacy protection: it is the national registry's policy. To prove a .mz is yours, the registration in your account with us and the invoice are what count.

Privacy: what stays visible

Registrant details are public by default — that is how the internet was designed. Many extensions offer privacy protection, which replaces your name, address, phone and e-mail with the protection service's details while you remain the real owner.

Hiding is not falsifying. Protection hides the details from the public, but the real details still exist with the registry. False details are a different matter: they can invalidate the registration and cost you the domain.
Not every extension allows hiding. Some country extensions always display certain fields. Ask us before counting on privacy for a specific domain.

To understand who is who in these roles, see registry, registrar and registrant .

Want to know who holds a domain, or protect your own details? Ask us.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Nameservers: what they are and which ones to use with us

DNS records explained: A, CNAME, MX, TXT and TTL

Registering a .mz domain: what details are needed and for how long

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