Domain WHOIS via RDAP

Look up domain registration data the modern way. RDAP is the official, structured-JSON successor to WHOIS, and IANA publishes which RDAP server is authoritative for each TLD. This actor reads that bootstrap registry, queries the right server per domain, and returns clean, consistent fields instead of the free-text WHOIS blobs the older scrapers mangle. For a TLD with no RDAP service it falls back to legacy WHOIS over port 43.

What you get for each domain

• Registration: registrar, registrar IANA ID, registrar URL, created / updated / expiration dates, status, nameservers, DNSSEC.
• Derived signals: domainAgeYears, expiresInDays (a countdown, negative if past), and transferLocked (is the domain locked).
• Contacts: registrant organization and country, the registrar abuse email, and the registrant / admin / tech contacts the registry publishes.

Contacts and personal data

Most individual registrant data is redacted by registries since 2018, and we pass through only what is published, never un-redacting anything. Personal contact fields (a person's name, email, phone, address) are returned only for United States registrants; for any other or unstated jurisdiction they are withheld and personalDataStatus says why. Organization, country, and the registrar abuse contact are not personal and ship for any domain.

What this collects

• What this collects: public domain registration records from RDAP and legacy WHOIS.
• Source: public query protocols only. No logins, no paywalls, no access bypass.
• Scope: personal contact fields are United States registrants only; non-personal registration data is global.
• Billing: charged only on a resolved record; rejects are free.
• Provenance: every row carries its source URL and retrieval time.

Input

• Domains: registered domains, one per line (example.com, google.co.uk). Pass the registered domain, not www. hosts or full URLs.
• Max delivered domains: cap on resolved, billed rows (0 means no cap).
• Legacy WHOIS fallback: for a TLD with no RDAP service, use port-43 WHOIS. On by default.

How it works

The correct RDAP server is resolved per TLD from the IANA bootstrap registry, so results are authoritative, not guessed. Every field is copied from the response; absent fields are null, never invented. A domain that returns not-found, or a TLD whose WHOIS publishes nothing usable, goes to the free rejected dataset and is not billed. Lookups run concurrently, so a batch stays fast.

Billing

Pay per resolved domain. Unresolvable domains, and TLDs that publish no data, cost nothing.

Coverage

Global for registration data. The one exclusion is jurisdictions under US sanctions (Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, Belarus, Venezuela, Myanmar, matched by country-code TLD), which are written to the free rejected dataset and never billed.

Opt out

A domain owner can ask us to skip their domain at https://ponodata.com/opt-out . Suppressed domains are returned by nothing and never billed.

Sample output

A real run pulling registration data through official IANA RDAP servers:

domain	registrar	status
google.com	MarkMonitor Inc.	client delete prohibited
github.com	MarkMonitor Inc.	client delete prohibited
stripe.com	SafeNames Ltd.	client delete prohibited
apple.com	Nom-iq Ltd. dba COM LAUDE	client delete prohibited

Each row's sourceUrl is the RDAP query that returned it, for example https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/google.com.

Use cases

• Monitor a domain portfolio's expiry and lock status: expiresInDays and transferLocked flag what needs renewal or is at transfer risk.
• Run due diligence before a domain purchase or partnership: registrar, creation date, and status codes from the authoritative registry.
• Handle brand and abuse response: the registrar abuse email per domain, pulled from the registry, for reporting infringement.
• Replace a brittle WHOIS-text parser: RDAP returns consistent JSON across TLDs, so you stop maintaining per-registrar regex.

FAQ

• How is this different from scraping WHOIS? It reads the official IANA-pointed RDAP servers (structured JSON), not a registrar web page, so the fields are consistent and verifiable.
• Will I get registrant names and emails? Only for United States registrants; for any other jurisdiction those personal fields are withheld and personalDataStatus says why.
• What about TLDs with no RDAP service? It falls back to legacy WHOIS over port 43 when that option is left on.
• What do I pay for? Per resolved domain; not-found domains and TLDs that publish nothing usable are free.
• Do you return DNSSEC and the abuse contact? Yes. DNSSEC status and the registrar abuse email are passed through from the registry for any domain, since neither is personal data.

See also

More clean, pay-only-for-results data tools from Pono Data:

• Bulk DNS Lookup - DNS records plus SPF, DMARC, and CAA
• Bulk Email Validator - syntax, MX, disposable, and role flags
• URL Metadata & OpenGraph Extractor - title, OpenGraph, and meta tags per page

Full catalog: https://apify.com/thoob