🔒 OSH.co.za Domain Deliverability Checker

WHOIS is a long-established internet protocol (dating to the 1980s) used to query databases that store registered users or assignees of an internet resource such as a domain name, an IP address block, or an autonomous system. For domain names, a WHOIS query returns information about the domain's registered owner (where not privacy-protected), the registrar that manages the registration, the registration and expiry dates, and the nameservers the domain is delegated to. WHOIS data is maintained by domain registries (the organisations that manage top-level domains) and is publicly accessible to help identify domain owners, track down abuse, and verify domain authenticity.

Domain status codes describe the current state and policy locks applied to a domain registration. The most common statuses are: active — the domain is registered and functioning normally. clientTransferProhibited — the registrar has locked the domain to prevent transfers to another registrar, a common setting to prevent hijacking. clientDeleteProhibited — the domain cannot be deleted at the registry level. clientUpdateProhibited — the domain's registration details cannot be changed. serverTransferProhibited, serverDeleteProhibited, and serverUpdateProhibited are registry-level equivalents of the client locks, typically applied to high-value or sensitive domains. pendingDelete means the domain is in a deletion queue, usually after a grace period following expiry. redemptionPeriod means the domain has expired and is in a grace period during which the previous owner can reclaim it for an additional fee. Understanding these statuses helps you determine whether a domain is available for transfer, renewal, or at risk of expiry.

RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the modern, standardised replacement for the legacy WHOIS protocol. Defined in RFC 7480–7484, RDAP addresses many limitations of WHOIS: it uses HTTPS and returns data in structured JSON format rather than unstructured plain text, making it far easier to parse programmatically. RDAP supports proper authentication and access control, allowing registries to implement differentiated access — for example, returning full contact data to accredited registrars while providing redacted data to general public queries in compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations. RDAP also uses a bootstrapping mechanism via the IANA RDAP registry to automatically direct queries to the correct registry server for any given TLD, eliminating the need to know in advance which WHOIS server to query. ICANN required all registrars and registries to support RDAP from 2019. This tool uses RDAP to retrieve domain registration data.

Whether your WHOIS/RDAP information is publicly visible depends on several factors. Since GDPR came into force in 2018, ICANN policy has required registrars to redact personal contact data (name, address, phone, email) for natural persons registering domains under generic TLDs (gTLDs such as .com, .net, .org). As a result, most modern WHOIS lookups for gTLDs will show redacted or anonymised contact fields. For organisations registering domains, some contact data may still be visible. Additionally, most registrars offer a WHOIS privacy or domain privacy protection service — sometimes included free, sometimes as a paid add-on — that replaces your personal details in the public WHOIS record with the registrar's proxy contact information. Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) have their own policies: some (.uk, .de) redact contact data, while others may still show registrant details. The technical registration data — such as registration date, expiry date, nameservers, and domain status — is always publicly visible regardless of privacy settings, as this is necessary for the internet to function.