Instant domain
name search that
checks first
Four steps between a line about the business and a shortlist where every name is still free to register. Here is what happens in each one.
The whole run takes about a minute. There is nothing to install, nothing to configure, and no account needed to watch it work.
Write one line about the business
Plain language, not keywords: what it does, who it serves, how it should sound. The brief is the raw material, so "a subscription coffee roastery for offices" produces a different shortlist than "coffee".
Pick a style and an extension
Brandable invents a word, compound joins two, short clips to something typable, literal says what the thing is. Then choose which extension the search has to satisfy, .com by default.
Every candidate is looked up before you see it
Each generated name goes to the registry that holds the authoritative record. The row shows the answer that came back, and while the answer is in flight it says so.
Keep the ones that came back free
Free names carry a value estimate and can go straight to a shortlist. Taken names are struck through and stay struck through, so nothing on your list needs re-checking later.
Watch a verdict land on a row
This is the real console on real registry answers. Replace the brief with your own and the names come from the model instead of the local generator.
Availability is checked live against the registry. Your naming brief stays yours.
| Brief | Worked example, 95 characters |
| Style | Brandable, checking .com |
| Registry | RDAP, one live lookup per row |
| Progress | Starting the example 0 of 5 checked, free to register |
A worked example, running on the brief in the field opposite. Write your own and the names come from the model instead of the fallback generator.
The example brief is being turned into names. Each one is then looked up against the registry that holds the record, and the verdict lands on the row.
What a check actually asks, and who answers it
Availability is not inferred from a word list or a cached export. It is one question put to the party that keeps the record.
The protocol
RDAP, the Registration Data Access Protocol, which replaced WHOIS as the way registries answer questions about a name. It returns structured data instead of a paragraph of text, which is why the answer can be trusted rather than parsed hopefully.
The source
The registry that operates the extension. For .com and .net that is Verisign, queried directly rather than through a redirector, because a redirector rate limits per address and turns a real name into a failed check.
The question
One question per name: is there a registration record for it. Not whether it once existed, not whether somebody parked it, not whether a registrar would like to sell you something adjacent.
The answer
A record exists, or it does not, or the lookup did not complete. Three outcomes, and the third one is shown as itself instead of being rounded down to available.
The full capability list is on domain name ideas and features, and the plan limits are on pricing.
Four things the verdict does not mean
A check is only worth something if its limits are written down next to it. These are ours.
It is a registry answer, not a legal one
A free .com tells you nobody has registered the name. It does not tell you nobody holds a trademark on the word. Run a trademark search before you commit, and treat the availability check as the first gate, not the last.
The value figure is an estimate
It reads length, extension and pronounceability and returns a range. It is labelled as an estimate everywhere it appears because that is what it is. It is not an appraisal, not an offer, and not a price we will honour.
Availability moves
A name that is free at eleven can be registered by someone else at noon. The check is accurate at the moment it runs, which is why the row carries the time the registry answered rather than a vague "verified" mark.
A failed check is shown as a failed check
Registries throttle, time out and occasionally go quiet. When that happens the row says the lookup could not be completed. Guessing availability would be worse than admitting the gap.
Questions about the search itself
Everything else people ask is on the domain name registration FAQ.
The names come back in a few seconds and each availability answer lands as the registry returns it, usually within a second of the row appearing. Rows resolve one at a time rather than in a burst, because a burst of queries from one browser is what registries throttle, and a throttled query turns a perfectly free name into a failed check.
Because a name you cannot have is not a suggestion. The ordinary flow is to fall for a name, copy it into a registrar, find it gone in 2011, and start again. Filtering on availability first is the whole product, and it is why the generator is constrained by the registry rather than ignoring it.
Yes. Put it in the brief and it is checked alongside everything generated around it. That is usually more useful than checking it alone, because the near neighbours of a taken name are very often free.
Currently .com, .io, .co and .net. We only offer extensions whose registries we can query directly, because a check we cannot actually perform is worse than no check at all.
No. The console on this page runs against the real registry without a login. An account is what saves your briefs and shortlists and raises the number of names you can generate.
Read the rest of it
The same product from three other angles: what it can do, who runs it, and what it costs.
Every capability in the console, including value estimates, bulk checks and saved shortlists.
Founders, ecommerce owners, agencies and investors, and the job each of them is doing.
What a generation costs, what a seat costs, and where the bulk checking sits.
Run one brief and see how much of your shortlist survives.
The console below the fold on the homepage starts checking the moment the page loads. No account, no card, no waiting.
No card to create the account. Your brief stays yours.