# Domain Intelligence — DNS, WHOIS, SSL & Subdomains (`dalbian/domain-intelligence`) Actor

Full public record for any domain: DNS records of every type, RDAP registration details, mail security posture (SPF, DMARC, DKIM), detected providers, and every subdomain and SSL certificate from the Certificate Transparency logs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dalbian/domain-intelligence.md
- **Developed by:** [Benjamin Jerez](https://apify.com/dalbian) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Lead generation, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$6.00 / 1,000 domain analyseds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Domain Intelligence — DNS, WHOIS, SSL & Subdomains

Give it a list of domains and get the full public record of each one: DNS records of every type, who registered it and when, whether its email can be spoofed, which providers it actually runs on, and every subdomain that has ever been issued an SSL certificate.

All from open infrastructure endpoints. No credentials, no port scanning, no intrusion — only what the domain's own DNS and the public certificate logs already publish.

### A real row

`apify.com`:

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| `registrar`, `registeredOn` | Amazon Registrar, Inc. · 2009-06-02 (6,316 days old) |
| `ipAddresses`, `nameservers` | 3.170.42.100 · ns-839.awsdns-40.net |
| `providers` | Google Workspace, Amazon SES, Mailgun |
| `hasSpf` / `hasDmarc` / `hasDkim` | yes · yes (`p=reject`) · yes |
| `mailSecurityScore` | 3 / 3 |
| `subdomainCount` | 36 — including `verify-company.apify.com`, `discord.apify.com` |

### The mail-security check

Three DNS records decide whether a stranger can send email that appears to come from a domain: **SPF** says which servers may send, **DKIM** signs each message, **DMARC** tells receivers what to do when a message fails. A domain that sends mail without all three is trivially spoofable.

This Actor checks all three, reads the DMARC enforcement level — `none` merely reports, `quarantine` and `reject` actually block — and probes the eight DKIM selectors that Google, Microsoft, Mailchimp and the rest normally use. Anything missing is scored and explained in plain language.

Two of the three domains tested while building this came back at 2 out of 3. That proportion is typical, which is precisely why it sells: it is a specific, verifiable problem with a named fix.

### The subdomain map

Every SSL certificate issued anywhere in the world is written to public **Certificate Transparency** logs. Reading them back for one domain reveals its subdomains — including staging servers, internal tools and admin panels that were never linked from anywhere.

This is entirely passive. Nothing is probed, nothing is connected to; the certificates were published by the certificate authorities themselves. It is also the single most revealing part of the record, and the reason security teams run this before anything else.

### Who uses this

Security teams mapping their own or a supplier's external footprint. Sales and agency teams qualifying prospects by stack — everyone on a given mail provider, everyone missing DMARC. M\&A and procurement doing technical diligence. Registrars and hosts finding domains about to expire. Fraud teams checking whether a domain was registered last week or a decade ago.

### What it does not do

No port scanning, no vulnerability probing, no attempt to reach anything that is not publicly published. That is a deliberate limit: everything here can be run against a domain you do not own without touching its infrastructure at all.

### Sources

Google and Cloudflare **DNS over HTTPS** for resolution, with automatic fallback between them. **IANA's RDAP bootstrap** to find each registry's authoritative server, then that registry's own RDAP endpoint. **crt.sh** for Certificate Transparency.

### Frequently asked

**Why is registration data missing for a .fr or .de domain?**
Because those registries restrict what they publish. The DNS, mail and certificate parts still work; `registrationNote` says when this is why.

**Why are there fewer subdomains than I expected?**
Raise `maxSubdomains`. A large organisation can hold thousands of certificates and the default keeps the first hundred distinct hostnames.

**Is a listed subdomain necessarily live?**
No. A certificate proves one was issued, not that the host still answers. Treat the list as history, which for security work is usually what you want.

**Does a DMARC policy of `none` count as protected?**
No, and the output distinguishes it. `none` publishes a policy and asks receivers to do nothing about failures.

# Actor input Schema

## `domains` (type: `array`):

Domains to analyse, one per line. A bare domain works best — example.com. A full URL is accepted and trimmed down, and a leading www. is removed so you always get the apex domain's record.

## `includeDns` (type: `boolean`):

Resolve A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, SOA and CAA records, and derive from them the IP addresses, mail servers, nameservers, SPF policy, third-party verification tokens, and which providers the domain actually runs on.

## `includeMailSecurity` (type: `boolean`):

Check the three records that decide whether anyone can spoof this domain's email: SPF, DMARC with its enforcement policy, and DKIM across the eight selectors providers normally use. A domain that sends mail without all three is flagged.

## `includeRegistration` (type: `boolean`):

Look up who registered the domain and when, over RDAP — the structured successor to WHOIS. Returns the registrar, creation and expiry dates, transfer-lock status and the domain's age in days. Some registries, .fr and .de among them, restrict what they publish.

## `includeCertificates` (type: `boolean`):

Read the public Certificate Transparency logs to list every SSL certificate ever issued for the domain — which incidentally reveals its subdomains, including internal-looking ones that were never meant to be advertised. This is the single most revealing part of the record.

## `maxSubdomains` (type: `integer`):

Cap on subdomains returned per domain. A large organisation can have thousands of certificates; a hundred covers the useful picture.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many domains to process at once. The queries go to free public services, so keep this moderate out of courtesy.

## `maxDomains` (type: `integer`):

Hard stop per run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "apify.com",
    "dereso.fr"
  ],
  "includeDns": true,
  "includeMailSecurity": true,
  "includeRegistration": true,
  "includeCertificates": true,
  "maxSubdomains": 100,
  "concurrency": 5,
  "maxDomains": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "domains": [
        "apify.com",
        "dereso.fr"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dalbian/domain-intelligence").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "domains": [
        "apify.com",
        "dereso.fr",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("dalbian/domain-intelligence").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "domains": [
    "apify.com",
    "dereso.fr"
  ]
}' |
apify call dalbian/domain-intelligence --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,dalbian/domain-intelligence"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/PsXn51lsMcmHbqhaP/builds/B6rz26QhKvUem7aiE/openapi.json