How to check a domain name before you buy it
Sagar Sethi is the founder of Web Hosting People and Xugar, and the author of The Business Knight.
Published 19 October 2026 Last reviewed 19 October 2026 Domains and DNS
Check the registry record, the name itself and the rules of the extension before you pay anything. A domain purchase goes wrong for a short list of reasons, and the checks below find them while the name is still in front of you.
This is the order worth running them in. It goes from the cheapest check to the most consequential, so you stop early if the name was never going to work.
Check the public record first
Start by looking up the domain's registration record at the extension you are buying. It takes seconds, needs no account, and tells you four things: the registrar, the dates the registry publishes, the name servers answering for the name, and the status codes set on it.
What you are reading is the registry's own record for the name, not a copied list. If a record exists, the name is taken, and nothing else on the page changes that. If the registry says in its own words that it holds no such name, you get an available result instead.
Read the status codes before you read anything else. A transfer lock, a hold set by the registrar, a pending deletion, or a blank registrant field each changes the next step, and each is easy to miss if you only look at whether the name resolved in a browser.
Check that it is available, not just unused
An unused name is not an available name. A registered domain does not have to point anywhere. It can hold no website and answer no email and still be taken.
Availability is a statement about the registry, not about the site. The lookup shows that the registry has no registration record for the name, which normally means it is free to register. It is not a hold on the name, and it does not reserve it for you. A domain is only yours once an order is placed and paid for.
That is worth keeping in mind when a good name turns up. Between the moment you find it and the moment you buy it, somebody else can take it, and registries update continuously.
Check what the extension asks of you
Each extension applies its own rules to the buyer, and .com.au asks for more than most. You need an Australian presence and a close and substantial connection to the name you want. In practice that is a registered business name, a company name, a trade mark, or a name closely matching an activity you actually carry on.
An ABN on its own does not qualify you for an arbitrary name. It shows Australian presence, which is only half of the test, and the connection between the name and the business still has to be real and demonstrable. A name with no demonstrable connection to your business fails the close and substantial connection test, and that is how a .com.au application gets rejected or corrected later.
Every extension's rules, including what you are asked for at checkout, are set out in how .com.au registration and eligibility work.
Check the name against the rules for the name itself
Beyond who you are, the name has to be a name the registry can license at all. For .au that means at least two characters, letters, numbers and hyphens only, no leading or trailing hyphen, and no hyphens in the third and fourth position. Some names sit on the reserved list and cannot be licensed by anyone, whatever their eligibility.
Those checks are cheap to run and annoying to discover at checkout, which is why a registration form applies them as you type. Run the name through the search before you get attached to it.
Check for a lock, an expiry or a pending deletion
A name that is registered is not necessarily a name that can move. On generic domains, a transfer is generally blocked for sixty days after registration or after a previous transfer, and that waiting period cannot be waived. On any extension, a client transfer prohibited status, a client hold, an expired registration or an unpaid invoice at the current registrar will each stop a transfer outright.
Expiry is the one people misread. A .com.au that lapses stays with its holder through the registry grace period and then returns to the open market, where anyone eligible can register it. A name in that state can look available one day and be gone the next, and the record gives you no countdown, because the .au registry does not publish registration or expiry dates in its public record.
Check who will be named as the registrant
The registrant name entered at registration becomes the legal holder of the domain. That is the field to slow down on, whether you are registering a new name or moving one you already have.
Register it in the business name or the company name, not in the name of the web designer, the marketing contractor or whoever is setting the site up. A domain held by somebody else is not yours in the sense that matters when you have to prove it, and fixing it later is a transfer of ownership rather than an update to your details. If you are registering on behalf of a client or an employer, the registrant is their entity, not yours.
| Check | Where you see it | What should stop you |
|---|---|---|
| A record exists at the registry | The lookup result | Nothing, the name is taken |
| Status codes | The record | A transfer lock, a hold or a pending deletion |
| Eligibility route for the extension | The extension page and checkout | No Australian presence, or no connection to the name |
| Name composition and reserved list | The search box | The name is not licensable |
| Registrant to be entered | Your own records | It names a contractor, a designer or a hosting company |
| Term and renewal rate | The pricing page and checkout | You do not know what the second year costs |
Buying a name that someone else holds
A private purchase is two steps, not one. You agree a price with the holder, then the registration moves to your registrar through a transfer. The record will tell you who holds the name and which registrar it sits with. It will not tell you whether the holder wants to sell.
Before you pay, read the registrar and the status codes. A transfer lock or a pending deletion changes what you can do with the name afterwards, and neither is something you want to learn about after the money has moved. Then check that the registrant email on the domain is one the seller can still read, because the transfer approval goes to that address and not to their hosting login.
The transfer itself needs an authorisation code from the current registrar, and on generic domains it is approved by email. It usually takes a few days, and it does not move the website or the email, which stay where they are until you deliberately change the nameservers or the DNS records. A transfer also adds or extends a registration term on most extensions, so the price you agree with the seller and the price of the transfer are two different things.
If you are weighing a name that is not registered yet against one you would have to buy from its holder, the mechanics differ in every respect, and registering a new domain versus transferring an existing one sets them side by side.
The checks worth running in the last five minutes
- Read the record again. Registries update continuously, and a result is only held for twelve minutes before it is read again.
- Confirm the extension. Availability in one extension says nothing about another, and a name held on
.com.aucan be free on.au. - Confirm the registrant. The name you type at checkout owns the record for as long as it is held.
- Confirm the term. domain pricing lists the renewal rate beside the first year for every extension, so the second year holds no surprise.
Frequently asked questions
Does a WHOIS lookup prove a name is free to register? It shows that the registry has no registration record for the name, which normally means it is free to register. It is not a hold on the name, and the name is only yours once an order is placed and paid for.
Can I check a .com.au if I do not have a business yet? Eligibility is about Australian presence and a close and substantial connection to the name, not about the age of a business. If your situation is unusual, ask before you buy and you will be told what evidence applies.
How long after registering can I transfer a domain? For generic domains, transfers are generally blocked for sixty days after registration or a previous transfer. There is no way around the waiting period.
What does the record show if the name is held by someone else? On .com.au it usually names the registrant, the organisation, the ABN and the licence eligibility. On a .com the registrant is redacted, so you get the registrar, the dates, the name servers and the status codes, and no name.
Why can I not see an expiry date on a .com.au? The .au registry does not publish registration or expiry dates in its public record. You see the last time the record changed instead.
Who should be the registrant? The entity that will hold the name: the business name or the company name. Not the developer, not the contractor, and not a hosting company on your behalf.
Check it, then buy it
Run the record, the name and the extension's rules in that order and you will have answered the questions that decide the purchase before you have spent anything. The rest is choice.
When those checks are done, check availability and register the name in one pass, with the eligibility details and the term confirmed before checkout. If a name raises a question you would rather not guess at, phone 1300 565 610, 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, or email hello@webhostingpeople.com.au, answered 24/7.