Benefits of our domain WHOIS history products

• Backed by billions of records

  Our WHOIS History product line relies on a comprehensive WHOIS database that contains billions of current and historical domain records. Our domain intelligence is continuously updated with the latest registration occurrences.

• Precise and well-detailed WHOIS records

  Besides the breadth of records contained in our WHOIS database, our data offers depth with all relevant data points you might need to check domain ownership and registrar history with precision.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to see WHOIS history?

To access historical WHOIS information, you can use one of our four products – WHOIS History API, lookup, database, or the respective search tool of the Domain Research Suite (DRS). Upon signup, you get 10 free queries (500 DRS credits), so you can start right away.

Using DRS or the WHOIS history lookup tool, simply type the domain name into the tool’s field to get the historical records. For the API, please refer to the API docs to learn more about API queries and see usage examples.

Please note that the lookup is limited to the last 3 records, so you’ll need to use the API, database, or Domain Research Suite to get complete data.

What are the benefits of reviewing historical WHOIS records?

Reviewing historical WHOIS records offers several advantages:

• Cybersecurity data enrichment: By examining past domain ownership data and correlating patterns such as registration date, name servers, and registrar data, security professionals can identify connections between domains and malicious activities, aiding in threat detection and prevention. Similarly, historical WHOIS data helps with third-party risk assessment and helps information security teams add context to IoCs.
• Legal and law enforcement investigations: Historical WHOIS records help investigators trace domain ownership and support their efforts in fighting cybercrime and uncovering phishing and scams.
• Workaround for data redaction: Due to privacy regulations such as GDPR, WHOIS records after 2018 are mostly redacted for privacy, unless the domain registrant specifically wants to publicly display their information. So, accessing historical records is the only way to reveal previously public records and figure out domain owner history.
• Domain investment due diligence: Before purchasing a domain name, domain buyers should check its historical WHOIS records to avoid potential associations with spam or malicious activities.

What types of historical WHOIS data can I access with the API, lookup, DRS, or the database?

All our products provide you with rich historical WHOIS records, including registrar data, name servers, as well as registrant details such as organization, address, contacts, and more. Everything that has been publicly available in a WHOIS record when it was created or changed ends up in our database.

It’s worth noting that since 2018 ICANN forced the Temporary Specification for Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Registration Data, so, unless the domain owner explicitly contented to sharing the data, some fields in records from 2018 and later would display “redacted for privacy”.

However, historical records from before the implementation of ICANN’s new rules retain complete records with all data, which is very useful for providing context into domain history. Read more in our blog post on retrieving domain data after redaction.

What output formats are supported by WHOIS History API for data integration?

WHOIS records are typically provided in plain text format. However, WhoisXML API offers them in JSON and XML formats to simplify working with the data.

Our Domain Research Suite offers historical WHOIS data as formatted text to make it easier to find important information.

How frequently is the historical WHOIS database updated?

The database is released quarterly. If you need more frequent updates, we recommend combining it with the Newly Registered Domains feed that is updated daily.

You can find more details about the database in its specifications.

How old are the oldest WHOIS records?

Our oldest WHOIS records often date back to 2010. These records include rich WHOIS data without privacy redactions.

Is each WHOIS record unique?

Yes, each record is unique and added to our database as a result of a change in a domain’s recorded WHOIS data.

Why choose WhoisXML API’s historical WHOIS data?

We have possibly the largest WHOIS history database with 21.0B+ WHOIS records across 7,596 TLDs. We have partnerships with most major registrars to keep our data fresh and accurate.

Do you offer WHOIS history solutions for enterprise?

Yes, access to our WHOIS history data is possible via our Enterprise API and Security Intelligence (SI) Suite Packages.

Enterprises choosing to use the API automatically get access to Domain Research Suite as well.