What is RDAP (and how is it different from WHOIS)?

RDAP, the Registration Data Access Protocol, is the standard way to look up who registered a domain and when it expires. It replaces WHOIS with structured JSON delivered over HTTPS.

How is RDAP different from WHOIS?

WHOIS returns free text that differs between registries and is hard to parse. RDAP returns structured data with defined fields, supports access control and runs over HTTPS. A domain record includes events such as registration and expiration, status codes, the registrar and the name servers.

How do I look up a domain with RDAP?

Ask a bootstrap service, which redirects to the right registry: curl -sL https://rdap.org/domain/example.com. The event with the action expiration holds the expiry date. The domain expiry date checker does this for you.

Why do some domains show no expiry date?

The registry decides what to publish. Several country domains confirm that a name exists but withhold the date, so it is only visible in the registrar account.

Where Datumboard fits

Datumboard puts the signals behind this in one dashboard for your client sites and side projects. It is in early access, and you can join the list below.