Read these before you spend money on a name
The tools are built to save you time, not to make the decision for you. Here is where each of them stops being reliable.
- “Not in the snapshot” does not mean “available”. A name can be registered without nameservers, or registered after the snapshot. Only the live registry check says a name is free, and you should still confirm with your registrar before you buy.
- Drop dates are estimates. They are worked out from the registry’s last-changed date and can be off by several days. Popular names are caught within seconds of dropping by automated backorder services.
- Scores are heuristics, not valuations. They reflect length, how words are used in registered names, and readability. The domain appraisal reports a name’s strength and deliberately gives no price: a price needs sales data we do not have.
- History and health checks are partial. The Domain audit reads what the Internet Archive happens to hold, and the domain health check reads public registry and DNS data. A clean result means nothing was found, not that nothing happened, and neither is a security audit.
- The offensiveness screener is not complete. Its word lists miss slang, change over time and cover 20 languages written in Latin letters. Ask a native speaker about a name you will spend money on.
- Handles and Web3 domains. We only call a handle free where the platform gives a public answer, and a name that looks free can be taken before you register it. Registering a blockchain name happens in your own wallet on the registry’s site.
- Prices come from public price lists, change often, and exclude tax and offers.
- Pro alerts and name watches run once a day, after the day’s snapshot is processed. A name that is registered and deleted between two snapshots is never seen, and a name can be registered within seconds of becoming available, long before our daily check, so a watch is a head start and not a guarantee.
- The AI notes in Pro are written by a language model from the names and public facts we pass it. They can be wrong or too confident, and they are an opinion, not advice.
- This is not legal advice. A name being available does not mean you may use it. Check trademark rules before registering or buying anything.
Where the data comes from
The list of registered .com names is the registry’s zone file, which ICANN makes available to approved users. It is a snapshot, not a live feed, and each result says which day it is from. We use it to answer questions and do not republish it: Pro sends each subscriber only the few names that match their own keywords, and there is no download or bulk export of the list. Whether a name is registered right now, and when it expires, comes from the public registry lookup (RDAP), which the tools query live for the names that matter. The full list of sources is on the About page.