What is WHOIS?

WHOIS is a public directory where you can look up “who is” responsible for a domain or IP address. Historically, you could use the WHOIS to look up the owner of the domain; including name, address, phone and email.

However, since the GDPR has taken effect in May 2018, most information about who owns the domain has become hidden. This is a temporary decision, while ICANN figures out how best to comply with GDPR in regards to the WHOIS database. This means that ICANN can still decide to make (part) of this information publicly available again in the future.

ICANN only has control over the WHOIS policy when it comes to gTLDs. There are still a number of ccTLDs that show information about the owner, though usually only when the owner is a company or organisation. What information is visible, and when, is decided by the local registry for the ccTLD.

What information can I find in the WHOIS?

If you want to look up information on a domain, you can use our WHOIS Lookup page. Here you can also fill out a form to contact the owner of any domain that is hosted with us. Of course, it’s up to the owner to decide if they want to respond to your inquiry.

If you want to look up information on a domain, you can use our WHOIS Lookup page. Here you can also fill out a form to contact the owner of any domain that is hosted with us. Of course, it’s up to the owner to decide if they want to respond to your inquiry.

Updated on February 28, 2019

Was this article helpful?