Naming a product means burning through dozens of candidates. Checking them one at a time in a registrar's search box is slow, and it hands your shortlist to a company that sells domains.
Why bulk, and why RDAP
A registrar search box checks one name, then tries to sell you ten others. A bulk checker takes the whole list and answers one question per name: is it registered?
The right source for that answer is the registry itself. RDAP is the protocol ICANN made mandatory for gTLD registries, replacing WHOIS in January 2025. It returns structured data: status, registrar, creation and expiry dates. No scraping, no guessing from a parked page.
Free toolBulk Domain CheckerCheck whether 25 domains are registered or free in one pass, straight from the registry over RDAP, with no signup and no upsell to a registrar.How to run a check
- Write every candidate with its TLD.
acme.comandacme.ioare separate registrations at separate registries. One per line. - Batch in groups of 25. Registries rate-limit single callers. A tool that respects that is slower per batch and faster overall.
- Sort available to the top. Those are your real shortlist.
- Read the taken ones too. The registrar and expiry tell you whether a name is an active business or a forgotten registration.
Reading the results
Available. No registration at the registry. Usually you can buy it at list price today.
Available but premium. Unregistered, but the registry reserved it for a higher price. Short and dictionary words on new TLDs land here constantly. A bulk check tells you it is free; the registrar tells you it costs $2,000.
Registered. Someone holds it. Check how long:
Free toolDomain Age CheckerFind out exactly how old a domain is, when it was registered, when it was last changed and when it expires.A name registered last month by a parking company is likely for sale. A name registered in 2004 to a real company is not.
Unconfirmed. A few ccTLD registries, .de among them, do not publish RDAP. A good checker says so instead of guessing, because a false "available" is the worst possible answer.
Expiry dates are not buy dates
A taken domain expiring next week is not yours next week. After expiry come roughly a 30-day grace period and a 30-day redemption period, and most owners renew. Use backorder services if you must, but plan your launch around a name you can buy today.
Avoiding front-running
Front-running is a registrar or a party watching search logs registering a name right after you search it. It has historically come from registrar search tools, not registry lookups.
Three habits keep you safe:
- Check availability through RDAP-based tools, not registrar search boxes.
- Register a name you want the same day you check it. A domain costs about $10 a year; losing it costs a rebrand.
- Do not post a shortlist publicly before you own the winner.
Picking from the available list
Once you have ten free names, cut on these:
- Say it once. If someone hears it on a call, can they type it? Drop hyphens and numbers.
- Search it. A name that collides with a big brand fights for every branded search, forever.
- Check the handles. The same name free on X and GitHub saves you a mismatched identity.
- Prefer .com if it is clean. Otherwise pick a TLD that fits the audience. Developers accept
.devand.io; consumers type.comby habit.
Then look up the full record of any taken name you still want:
Free toolWHOIS LookupLook up any domain's registrar, registration date, expiry, status codes and nameservers using live RDAP registry data.