Who owns my domain? How to check

To check who owns your domain, look it up at ICANN's free lookup tool, lookup.icann.org. It shows which company the domain is registered with, when it expires and, sometimes, the owner's name. Because most owner details are now hidden for privacy, the lookup usually tells you where to look rather than who the owner is. The real answer is in the registrar account: whoever can sign in there controls the domain, and the registrant named inside it is its legal holder.

Two kinds of "owner"

When owners ask "who owns my domain", they usually mean two different things, and both matter.

• The registrant. The person or organization named on the domain's registration as its holder. If there is ever a dispute, this is who the domain legally belongs to.
• The account holder. Whoever controls the login at the registrar, the company the domain is registered with. This person can renew it, change its settings, point it at a website, or move it to another company.

Ideally, both are you or your business. Trouble starts when the account is a web designer's, or the registrant is a former employee, an old partner, or an agency.

Step 1: run the lookup

1. Go to lookup.icann.org.
2. Type your domain without "www" or "https", for example harborbakery.com.
3. Click Lookup.

The result is a public record, often called WHOIS or, in its newer form, RDAP. Both are names for the same idea: the public directory of domain registrations.

Step 2: read the record

You will see several sections. The ones that matter to you:

Registrar

The company the domain is registered with, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, Network Solutions or Cloudflare. This is where the account is, and where you will need to sign in or call.

Dates

• Created: when the domain was first registered.
• Updated: when something was last changed.
• Expires: the date it must be renewed by. If this is close, act now.

Status

Codes such as "client transfer prohibited" are normal. They are locks that stop the domain being moved without permission. A status like "redemption period" or "pending delete" is not normal: it means the domain has already expired and is at risk.

Registrant contact

This is where the owner's name would be. For most domains today, it shows "Redacted for privacy", "Data protected" or the name of a privacy service instead of a person. Registrars hide it by default for many owners, and many people pay for privacy on purpose. What is WHOIS and why your details might be public explains why.

If a name does appear, check it is yours or your business's. If it shows your web designer's name, your old agency, or an employee who has left, that is the problem to fix.

Step 3: confirm it in the registrar account

The lookup tells you the registrar. Now sign in there.

1. Try the registrar's website with every email address you might have used: your current business email, your personal email, an old work email.
2. If you get in, find the domain in your list and open it.
3. Look for the registrant or owner contact details. Check the name, organization and email.
4. Check auto-renew is on and the payment card is current.

If you cannot find an account, use the registrar's "forgot password" option with each likely email. If none works, the domain is probably in someone else's account.

When the domain is in someone else's account

Very often it is the person who built your website. They registered the domain for you, under their account, to save you the bother. That is usually harmless while you work together, and becomes a problem when you want to change designers.

What to do, in order:

1. Ask them politely, in writing, to move the domain to an account in your name. Most registrars let them "push" a domain to another account at the same registrar, or give you a transfer code so you can move it to a registrar of your choice.
2. Ask them to update the registrant details to your name or business name.
3. If they will not or cannot, contact the registrar's support. If you are the registrant on record, they can help you regain access with ID.

If the domain is registered in the designer's name rather than yours, it is harder, and you may need to show that you paid for it or that it carries your business name. My web designer registered my domain: how to get it back covers the details, including what to do when the designer cannot be reached.

When the registrant is a former employee

If a past employee registered the domain in their own name, ask them to sign in and change the registrant to the business. If they are no longer reachable, the registrar can usually help, but expect to provide documents showing the business's claim, such as your business registration and records of payment. Domain registered in an old employee's name goes into that situation.

What to check while you are in the account

Once you are in, take a few minutes:

• Turn on two-step sign-in. Whoever gets into this account controls your website address and email.
• Note where the domain's DNS is managed. DNS is the set of settings that says where your website and email live. It may be at the registrar or somewhere else.
• Remove old contacts. Former designers or employees listed as admin or technical contacts.
• Write it all down: registrar, account email, expiry date, and where DNS is handled. Store it with your other business records.

What to do this week

• Look your domain up at lookup.icann.org and note the registrar and expiry date.
• Sign in to that registrar, or work out who can.
• Check the registrant name is you or your business.
• Turn on auto-renew and two-step sign-in.
• If someone else holds it, send a short written request to move it to your account.

Knowing you hold your domain makes every later decision yours, including changing your website. When you are ready to look at that, you can see your site rebuilt first without touching the domain until you choose to.