What Is WHOIS

WHOIS is a TCP/IP protocol specifically designed to query contact and DNS information about entities on the Internet. An entity on the Internet can be a domain name, an IP address, or an AS (Autonomous System). For each entity, the WHOIS protocol provides three types of contacts: an administrative contact, a technical contact, and a billing contact. These contacts are the responsibility of the provider, who names them according to the internal policies of their network. When registering a domain, users have the option of choosing a private WHOIS that hides the details of the domain owner. This option is offered for free by some providers and for an annual fee by others.

What Kind of Information Does It Store?

WHOIS records usually show the registration date, the registrar, the contact details of the domain owner, the name servers, the date of the last update and the expiration date.

There are two data models for storing WHOIS information:

Thin model. A thin WHOIS lookup returns only basic data, such as the registrar, name servers and registration dates.
Thick model. This model adds more details, usually the registrant, administrative and technical contacts.

Registrars are required to verify the registrant's email address or phone number, but WHOIS data can still be inaccurate or outdated.

Since GDPR came into force in 2018, most registrars hide the personal data of domain owners. In January 2025, ICANN also replaced WHOIS with RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) for generic top-level domains. RDAP returns the same kind of data in a structured format, and most lookup services already use it.

There are many WHOIS lookup services. Search for "whois" or use one of these:

whois.net
whois.com/whois
lookup.icann.org (ICANN Lookup, uses RDAP)

These services cover all domain zones, but some zones have their own lookup pages. For example, nic.xyz/whois is for domains in the .xyz zone.

Finding the Domain Owner

Now that you have the lookup services, let us search for the owner of a domain. Choose a domain and run a search. We will use abcdtestdomain.xyz as an example. You should get a response like this:

Domain Name: ABCDTESTDOMAIN.XYZ
Registry Domain ID: D265563522-CNIC
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namecheap.com
Registrar URL: https://namecheap.com
Updated Date: 2022-01-13T12:27:43.0Z
Creation Date: 2021-12-22T17:06:35.0Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2022-12-22T23:59:59.0Z
Registrar: Namecheap
Registrar IANA ID: 1068
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registrant Organization: Privacy service provided by Withheld for Privacy ehf
Registrant State/Province: Capital Region
Registrant Country: IS
Registrant Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
Admin Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
Tech Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
Name Server: DNS1.REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM
Name Server: DNS2.REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned
Billing Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@name...
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.9854014545
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2022-01-20T18:16:04.0Z <<<
For more information on Whois status codes, please visit https://icann.org/epp

In this example, the domain owner has hidden the contact information with a privacy service of the Namecheap registrar. This is normal and very common: nobody wants spam and unsolicited calls from strangers.

Usually, you need the Registrant field, which contains the details of the domain owner. If they are hidden, contact the registrar through the Registrar Abuse Contact Email and ask them to forward your request to the owner, for example if you receive spam from this website.

On Linux or macOS, you can run the lookup in the terminal:

whois abcdtestdomain.xyz

You will get the same output.

What Are the Alternatives?

Try common email addresses. You will not know the owner's name, but you may be able to reach them. The most common addresses are:

Conclusion

We hope this guide from the BlueVPS team was useful. If you are looking for a server for your own domain, take a look at our VPS plans.

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