How to Get an Email When a Domain Name Becomes Available

Ways to get an email when a domain becomes available

1. A backorder with a drop-catching service: DropCatch and Dynadot try to register the name in the second the registry deletes it. You pay only if they catch it: $59 at DropCatch, with no subscription; at Dynadot the price depends on the ending. For endings like .io or .ly, Park.io does the same for $99. The catch is that a backorder isn't a watch. If someone else backordered the same name, it goes to an auction between you. And if the registrar auctions the name itself instead of letting it drop, no catching service gets a shot at it.
2. The registrar's expiry auctions: many registrars don't let an expired name drop. GoDaddy lists them on GoDaddy Auctions, where you search for the name and bid. GoDaddy stopped selling backorders on August 8, 2024, because most of them were ending up as auction purchases anyway. So if the name sits at a big registrar, look there first. You'll also see when the current owner has simply put it up for sale.
3. Check the public record yourself: every domain's registration data is free to read at lookup.icann.org, straight from the registry. It shows the expiry date and the status. 'autoRenewPeriod' means the owner missed the date but can still renew. 'redemptionPeriod' means deletion has been requested and the owner has 30 days to get it back. 'pendingDelete' means it's gone in about five days. When the lookup says the name doesn't exist, it's free to register at any registrar. No account, no cost. You just have to remember to look, every few days, for months.

A domain availability alert in one sentence

Write it the way you'd say it: 'email me when oldtownbakery.com becomes available to register, and tell me when its status changes'. The name alone is enough. If you like, say whether you also want to hear about an auction, or only about a real drop. A real person reads it and sets it up. No account, no app, nothing to maintain.

We read the same public record you could read yourself, the domain's RDAP data at the registry. We check it every day, and every hour in the last days before deletion. Nothing arrives while the name is just registered and renewed. You get a letter when the expiry date passes without a renewal, when the status moves to redemption or pending delete, and when the name is finally free, with the status in plain words and a link to register it. If the owner renews, you hear that too, with the new expiry date, and we keep watching.

What we can't do is catch the name for you. When a .com is deleted, the registry releases it around 12:00 UTC and catching services fire many attempts a second at it. A name anyone else wants is gone before an email could reach you. So our letter is for names nobody is fighting over, and for knowing when to place a backorder. A few country endings don't publish an expiry date or a status. Then we can only tell you when the name is free, and the first letter says so. The first 7 days are free with no payment details; after that it's $5/month for that one name, and it stops by itself if you don't subscribe. Reply once to stop.

Good to know about domain availability alerts

Expiry is not the drop. After the expiry date, the registry renews the name automatically and the registrar gets up to 45 days to collect the fee or give up. Then come 30 days of redemption, when the owner can still get it back for a restore fee, and about five days of pending delete. So a .com is usually deleted two to three months after the date in the record. Sometimes it never is, because the registrar auctioned it instead.

Most good names never reach the drop. The registrar has to warn the owner twice before expiry, about a month ahead and about a week ahead. The owners who don't react have really let go, and then the registrar often sells the name itself. If the name has traffic or a plain word in it, expect an auction, and decide your limit before you bid.

If the name isn't expiring at all, the honest route is to ask. The public record usually shows a privacy service instead of the owner's address, so try the website itself, or hire a domain broker. GoDaddy's Domain Broker Service charges a fee per domain plus a 20% commission on the price it negotiates. The owner can still say no.

Try it — hand us this sentence:

Common questions