Check domain registration: status and expiry

You rent your domain name for a set period through a registrar. If the registration isn't renewed, your website and email go offline all at once, and the domain can eventually become available to someone else. SteadyHost looks up the registration data through RDAP, the successor to WHOIS.

Check your website now

Registry, registrar and RDAP

The registry manages a domain extension, such as Verisign for .com or SIDN for .nl. The registrar is the company you get the domain from, often your hosting provider. You always renew and change the domain through your registrar.

Registration data can be looked up publicly. That used to be done through WHOIS; RDAP is the structured successor that most registries now offer. The holder's personal data is usually hidden.

Expiry date and renewal

Many registries publish an expiry date in the registration data, for example for .com, .net and .org. Some don't: SIDN, for instance, publishes no expiry date for .nl, because a .nl domain stays active for as long as your registrar keeps renewing it.

So turn on automatic renewal at your registrar, keep your payment details up to date and make sure the email address on your account works. Renewal reminders and notices about unpaid invoices go to that address.

What the status means

A domain has one or more statuses. The names come from the protocol registries use.

active or ok: the domain is active. This is how it should be.
client transfer prohibited: a transfer lock that prevents the domain from moving to another registrar without your permission. Normal and recommended.
client hold or server hold: the domain is registered, but not published in DNS, so website and email don't work. Often due to an unpaid invoice or a pending verification.
redemption period: the registration has been canceled. Your registrar can usually still restore the domain, often for an extra fee.
pending delete: the domain will soon become available and usually can no longer be restored.

Deleted domains

What happens after a domain is deleted differs per registry. A deleted .nl domain, for example, first goes into a 40-day quarantine. During that period only the last holder can get it back through a registrar; after that, anyone can register it.

Common problems

The domain is registered in the name of a former employee or a former web agency. Make sure your organization itself is the holder and has access to the registrar account.
Reminders go to an email address that no longer exists.
The domain runs through a registrar you no longer use and where payment has stopped.
Automatic renewal is off, for example after a transfer to another registrar.

Look up the registration yourself

On the command line, whois works for almost every extension. Your registrar shows the same data in your account.

Terminal

whois example.com

How SteadyHost rates domain registration

OK: the domain is registered and expires in more than 30 days.
Warning: the registration expires within 30 days, or the domain is registered but not active (hold or inactive).
Problem: the registration has expired, or the domain is in the redemption period or pending delete.
Not available: the registry doesn't publish an expiry date (as with .nl) or has no public RDAP data. This check doesn't count toward the score.

Check your own website

A free check shows within seconds how your website is doing: availability, HTTPS and TLS, the SSL certificate, security headers, DNS and DNSSEC, domain registration and email security.