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How to Find Out Who Actually Owns a Domain Name? (3 Ways)

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Recently, one of our users asked us how they can find out who actually owns a domain name.

Looking up who owns a domain can help you find the owner’s contact information so that you can purchase the domain name or reach out for other business opportunities.

In this article, we will show you how you can find out who actually owns a domain name, step-by-step.

How to find out who actually owns a domain name (3 ways)

Why Find Out Who Owns a Domain Name?

Finding out who owns a domain name can tell you valuable information about the domain name and the site using it.

Usually, this information will include an email address and other contact information so that you can get in touch to purchase the domain name from them.

It also shows you useful domain name information, like the last time it was registered, how many owners the domain has had, and more.

If you find that multiple people have owned a specific domain name, then this increases the chances of the domain being used for spam.

When you are creating a WordPress website, one of the biggest decisions you’ll make is choosing the perfect business name and matching domain.

If you’ve found the perfect domain, but it’s already registered, then you’ll want to reach out to the owner to see if they’re willing to sell it to you.

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There are multiple ways you can find out who owns a domain name. We will show you the three easiest ways to quickly find out the owner of a domain name:

Method 1: Search for a Domain With Domain.com WHOIS Lookup Tool

Domain.com is one of the most popular domain name registrars. It lets you register all top-level domain name extensions (TLDs) and dozens of top country code top-level domains (ccTLDs).

They offer nearly every feature you’d expect from a top domain name registrar, including private registration, domain name management, email accounts, easy transfers, and even web hosting.

One very useful tool they offer is the WHOIS lookup tool. This will search the public WHOIS database for any available information about registered domain names.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) regulates the WHOIS database and stores information like the name, mailing address, phone number, and email address of the domain registrant or website owner.

It also contains WHOIS data such as the registration date, name servers, most recent updates, expiration date, and more.

To use this tool, navigate to the Domain.com WHOIS lookup and enter the domain name.

Domain.com WHOIS lookup

Then, the tool will display the available WHOIS directory results.

It will show you information like the domain name registrar, who owns the domain, when it was registered, and any available contact information.

Registrant email contact

If the email address is available, then it will appear in the ‘Registrant Email’ field.

You can also try to get in touch with the domain name owner via the domain name registrar. We discuss that more below.

Domain name registrar contact

Note: If you are going to register a new domain name through Domain.com, then make sure to use our Domain.com coupon code to get 25% off your purchase.

Method 2: Search for a Domain With Network Solutions WHOIS & Domain Lookup

Network Solutions is one of the biggest domain name registration services in the world, with over 7 million domains registered with them. You can register a wide variety of top domain name extensions with this service.

They also offer nearly everything you need to launch your WordPress small business website, including web hosting, security tools, SEO services, and more.

To find out who owns a domain name, you can use the WHOIS lookup and domain lookup tool.

Simply enter the domain you want to look up and click ‘Search.’

Domain lookup tool

After that, the tool will display any available domain registration information.

Network Solutions will only display detailed WHOIS information if that domain is registered with their service.

However, Network Solutions also has a unique addon service that will negotiate the purchase of the domain name anonymously.

If you decide to use this service, then simply click the ‘Backorder’ button, put down a deposit, and their team will get to work.

Network Solutions backorder domain

This can be a great way to purchase a domain name from an owner without doing all the work yourself.

Note: if you’re going to register a new domain name, then make sure to use our Network Solutions coupon code for 25% off your domain purchase.

Method 3: Search for a Domain With GoDaddy WHOIS Domain Lookup

GoDaddy is one of the longest-running and largest domain name registrars in the world, managing over 77 million domain names. They offer competitive pricing and a great selection of domain name extensions to choose from.

To look up who owns a domain name, you’ll use the GoDaddy WHOIS Database tool. It works similarly to the tools above.

Simply enter the domain name into the WHOIS database lookup, and the tool will find the relevant domain name information.

GoDaddy WHOIS lookup

You might notice the results are similar to the previous tools.

However, it can be helpful to try the domain name search with multiple tools. If the domain is hosted at a specific registrar, then you can get more accurate information.

What to Do if the Domain Registration Information is Hidden?

Many domain name registrars today offer domain name privacy, which keeps a domain name owner’s information hidden from WHOIS searches.

This privacy protection service, along with the GDPR laws, can make it difficult to find out who owns a domain.

If you’ve used the tools above to search for a domain and couldn’t find out who owns it, then you can use the following methods to reach out to the owner.

1. Contact The Domain Registrar to Forward Your Request

The domain owner’s information will often be hidden, but the domain name registrar will be visible.

Contact domain name registrar

In this case, simply email the registrar and let them know you are interested in buying the domain or want to notify them about a spam domain.

You may also find a forwarding email address for the ‘Registrant Email.’ The domain privacy service provider often forwards emails received at this address to the domain owner.

Registrant email

2. Look up Company Information

If you know the business name using a particular domain name, then you can try to find out the current owner of the business.

You can use email finder apps like Hunter to find the right employees to contact.

An easier and quicker way to find this is by using public websites and social media platforms such as LinkedIn.com.

Find business information on LinkedIn

Simply enter the business name in the search field and see if you can find people who work in the company.

3. Reach out to The Domain Owner via Their Website

Another option is to simply email the domain name owner through their website contact form if the website is currently online.

There’s a lot of other information you can find about a website’s online presence, too. For example, you can find the WordPress theme a site is using and find out who is hosting a certain website.

4. Hire a Domain Broker

If none of the strategies above work for you, you can always hire a domain broker.

Many popular domain name registrars like Domain.com and GoDaddy offer domain brokerage services. With this service, a dedicated professional will be assigned to you, and they’ll help you negotiate a deal to transfer domain ownership.

We hope this article helped you learn how to find out who actually owns a domain name. You may also want to see our expert picks of the best WordPress hosting and our list of the must-have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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8 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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  2. Moinuddin Waheed says

    Using privacy and domain protection at the time of buying the domain name should hide the information.
    There are always pros and cons for both. If information is easily available one can get in touch with the owner easily and can bargain the price but it is also open to hackers.
    I am not sure if having privacy and domain theft protection on hides the domain owner information?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It would add some protections but normally there would be a way to reach the domain owner through the registrar.

      Admin

  3. Jiří Vaněk says

    It used to be nice that if a person wanted to contact the owner of a domain, he could find a complete contact for the owner in the whois database, if there was no whois provacy. Now, since the time of GDPR, he can no longer find much information about the owner, so in many cases the problem is that the vast majority of data is unfortunately hidden.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      There should still be information for contacting the site owner when you use whois, it is mainly behind a secondary email to prevent spam from those who used whois maliciously.

      Admin

    • Dennis Muthomi says

      That’s a solid point right there!!
      The increased privacy protections like GDPR have definitely made it more challenging to directly reach out to domain owners.

      I was interested in buying a domain name(which I was eyeing for), but the owner had no company or website listed, and their contact details were hidden.

      I haven’t used any of the mentioned registras’ domain brokerage service yet.
      I just gave up on that domain and got another one

      BOTTOMLINE: Act quickly when you get your desired domain name. Buy it ASAP!!

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Your domain registrar would normally have a privacy option to hide your contact information directly but there is no way to have no information in your whois as you are required to confirm your contact information.

      Admin

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