Top 5 domain data providers

With this guide written by James Iles, we continue our series of articles written by data industry experts and professionals.

Domain name data is used on a daily basis by a wide array of Internet users. From cybersecurity experts to entrepreneurs looking to buy a single domain name, domain data is vital to so many professions.

Fortunately, services have cropped up to fulfill the demand for domain name data. Here, I’m taking a look at 5 domain name data providers that I use on a daily or weekly basis.

SecurityTrails.com

SecurityTrails is a full domain data provider offering complete access to vital information that anyone interested in domain name data would benefit from.

With paid memberships starting from $50 per month, SecurityTrails provides everything from live and historical DNS data from the last 12 years to live and historical WHOIS data. IP and reverse DNS search capabilities are also a useful addition.

SecurityTrails also offers more in-depth security products that may be useful for anyone requiring unparalleled risk reports, competition data, and more.

DomainTools.com

Founded in Seattle in 2002, DomainTools has been a go-to research tool for anyone looking to investigate one or more domain names. DomainTools’ core product offering revolves around WHOIS data, the searchable database that contains registrant information for domain names.

Comprehensive live WHOIS data is complemented by premium access to DomainTools’ extensive archive of historical WHOIS listings, dating back in some cases to the early 2000s.

With GDPR and CCPA regulations meaning that much of the live WHOIS data is obscured or redacted, many professionals, including attorneys, investors, and domain buyer brokers, turn to WHOIS historical records to determine ownership or track down a hard-to-reach owner.

Brands and individuals alike would also likely benefit from DomainTools’ monitoring tool, which monitors either whole portfolios or individual domain names and alerts the user if any details for the domain name change.

While DomainTools offers some free access, the majority of its tools are premium, with prices for a DomainTools subscription starting at $99 per month for a personal plan.

DomainIQ.com

DomainIQ, on the other hand, offers many of the same features as DomainTools, but for a lower monthly cost. With plans starting at $24.95 per month, DomainIQ offers at least 26 separate tools and access to reports, depending on your membership level.

The tools offered at DomainIQ are comprehensive enough for anyone interested in performing domain name research on a single domain or a portfolio of domain names.

However, the data provided by DomainIQ isn’t as in-depth as DomainTools in the majority of cases. For example, DomainIQ offers 177 historical WHOIS records for the Example.com domain, dating back to 2016. DomainTools, on the other hand, offers 5,949 historical WHOIS records, dating back to 2002.

Depending on what you need to do, DomainIQ might be sufficient. I personally use DomainIQ daily for simple research tasks, but the data offered usually pales into insignificance compared with DomainTools.

NameBio.com

The next domain data provider on my list offers a different kind of domain name data. NameBio is a free-to-use database that provides domain name sales data. Why would you need to know this information?

With over $2 billion worth of domain sales logged across more than 900,000 different sales, NameBio allows you to determine how much a domain name might be worth by offering comprehensive, comparable sales data from tens of varying domain name marketplaces.

If you are interested in acquiring a specific domain name but have no idea how much that domain name might be worth, NameBio’s advanced search features will provide you with the data you need in seconds.

For power users of NameBio, memberships start from $10 per month.

Host.io

While DomainIQ and DomainTools offer in-depth data for individual domains, Host.io offers exemplary current data for domain names.

Using Host.io’s website or via API access, you are provided with a collection of data points including DNS data, co-hosted domain information, backlinks, domain redirection data, TLDs, and more.

I used Host.io during a comprehensive analysis of the digital strategies of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump during the 2020 Presidential Election. The data from Host.io helped me to form the article and uncovered some fascinating domain data, including the fact that the Antifa.com domain forwarded to Joe Biden’s website during the 2020 Election campaign, entirely out of his team’s control.

Aside from journalistic research, Host.io data can help with investigative and security details, thanks to the platform’s ability to offer deep analysis of individual domain names.

Pricing for Host.io starts from $99 per month, although the company’s free plan offers 1,000 requests per month, usually enough for a research project or two.

From journalists to research professionals and from cybersecurity experts to entrepreneurs, accurate domain name data plays a key part in the careers of thousands of people across the globe.

In an age where GDPR and CCPA have limited the amount of publicly-available data related to domain names, it’s reassuring to have the ability to access both live and historic data through leading domain data providers.

IPinfo team says thanks to James Iles, a domain name analyst, consultant, and leading domain industry blogger who writes interesting blog posts about domain name data at JamesNames.com.

IPinfo is a comprehensive IP address data and API provider with flexible pricing plans to meet your business needs. We handle billions of API requests per month, serving data like IP geolocation, VPN detection, Reverse IP, and more.