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Frequently Asked
Questions

Everything you need to know about domain search, WHOIS, DNS, the AI generator, and our hosting deals.

General

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DomainsMesh is a free domain tools platform. You can search domain availability across 500+ extensions, run WHOIS and DNS lookups, generate AI-powered domain name ideas, and browse exclusive hosting deals — all without creating an account.
Yes, completely free. Domain search, WHOIS lookup, DNS lookup, and the AI name generator are all free with no usage limits and no account required. We earn revenue through affiliate partnerships when you purchase hosting or domains through our partner links.
No account is ever required. All tools are available instantly. Your search history is stored locally in your browser — it never leaves your device.
Very accurate. We query live WHOIS/RDAP data in real time for each search, so results reflect the actual current status of a domain. The only exception is domains in the "add grace period" or pending-delete states, which may show as available before they are fully released.
We support 500+ TLD extensions including all major gTLDs (.com, .net, .org, .io, .ai, .app, .dev) and hundreds of country-code TLDs. When you search a keyword without a TLD, we check the top 8 extensions in parallel.

WHOIS Lookup

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WHOIS is a protocol for querying databases that store information about registered domain names. A WHOIS lookup tells you who registered a domain, when it was registered, when it expires, which registrar manages it, what nameservers it uses, and the domain's current status.
Since GDPR came into effect in 2018, most registrars redact personal registrant data by default to protect privacy. You will typically see the registrar name and contact instead of the individual owner's details. Some registrars offer WHOIS privacy as a paid add-on; others include it for free (like Namecheap's WhoisGuard).
RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the modern replacement for the older WHOIS protocol. It returns structured JSON data, supports HTTPS, and handles internationalised domain names better. DomainsMesh uses RDAP first (via Verisign for .com/.net, then the IANA bootstrap for all other TLDs) and falls back to HTML scraping if RDAP is unavailable.
Your last 20 WHOIS lookups are stored locally in your browser. The history is device-specific and never sent to our servers. You can clear it at any time from the history sidebar on the WHOIS page.
EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) status codes describe the current state of a domain. Common ones: clientTransferProhibited means the domain cannot be transferred to another registrar; serverHold means the registry has put the domain on hold; pendingDelete means the domain is about to be deleted and may become available soon. Hover over any status code on the WHOIS page to see a description.

DNS Lookup

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We support A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, SOA, and CAA records. All eight types are queried in parallel using Cloudflare's DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) resolver, so you get results for all types at once.
An A record maps a domain to an IPv4 address (e.g. 93.184.216.34). An AAAA record maps a domain to an IPv6 address (e.g. 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946). Most websites have both to support all clients.
MX (Mail Exchange) records specify which mail servers handle email for a domain. Each MX record has a priority number — lower numbers are tried first. For example, Google Workspace uses aspmx.l.google.com as its primary MX server.
DNS has propagation delays — when records are changed, the new values take up to 48 hours to spread across all resolvers worldwide. DomainsMesh uses Cloudflare's resolver (1.1.1.1), which is fast but may not always reflect changes propagated only to specific regional resolvers.
A CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) record specifies which Certificate Authorities (CAs) are allowed to issue SSL/TLS certificates for a domain. For example, "0 issue letsencrypt.org" means only Let's Encrypt can issue certificates. This helps prevent fraudulent certificate issuance.

Name Generator

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The generator uses the NameStudio API with several modes. Smart Mix combines standard suggestions, prefixes, and suffixes in parallel. AI Creative uses an LLM to generate contextual, creative names based on your description. Add Prefix/Suffix and Spin Word modes semantically transform your keyword. Personal Name mode creates professional domain variants from a first and last name.
  • Smart Mix:Best for most searches — combines 3 parallel API calls for variety
  • AI Creative:LLM-powered — best when you describe your business idea in detail
  • Add Prefix:Adds semantic prefixes (get, use, try, my, go...) to your keyword
  • Add Suffix:Adds semantic suffixes (hub, ly, ify, base, hq...) to your keyword
  • Spin Word:Replaces your keyword with semantically similar alternatives
  • Personal Name:Generates professional domains from a first + last name
Availability data is returned directly from the NameStudio API alongside the suggestions. Results are marked as "Available", "Registered", or "Unknown". You can click any result to run a full availability check using our main search tool.
Be specific in your description. Instead of "food app", try "healthy meal planning app for busy professionals". You can also add context hints in the expandable field — for example: "tone: professional, industry: fintech, avoid: numbers". The more context you give, the more relevant the suggestions.
Yes. The TLD chips at the top of the generator let you select which extensions to include. You can toggle any combination of .com, .net, .io, .co, .ai, .app, .dev, .org, and .xyz. At least one TLD must be selected at all times.

Deals & Coupons

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Yes. Use our referral link on the Deals page to get an exclusive 20% extra discount on top of Hostinger's current 75% off promotion — bringing the price to approximately $2.39/mo. No coupon code is needed; the discount is applied automatically when you sign up through our link.
Click "Claim This Deal" on DigitalOcean's card on our Deals page. The $200 credit (valid for 60 days) is applied automatically to new accounts that sign up through our referral link. No promo code required.
Yes. All deals are verified monthly. We remove expired codes as soon as we discover them. If a code fails at checkout, the affiliate link will still take you to the best available offer on the provider's site.
Yes — we are transparent about this. When you sign up for a hosting or domain service through our affiliate links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. In some cases (like Hostinger and DigitalOcean), our referral link gives you a better deal than going directly to the provider.
Link-only deals (Hostinger, DigitalOcean, SiteGround) apply the discount automatically when you sign up through our referral link — no code to enter. Coupon code deals (Vultr, Cloudways, Namecheap) require you to copy the code from our page and paste it into the promo field at checkout.

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