Have you found an interesting domain but can’t find out its owner? Read my article on how to find out who owns a domain!
Have you thought out the name of your domain and are you already imagining your new website, blog or elaborate e-shop under it?
In that case, you should definitely first find out if it is available or who owns the domain you need.
In many cases, it may happen that someone has already overtaken you and you will have to deal with the current owner of your chosen domain first before launching your website.
In this article, we will therefore explain in detail who (or what) is the owner of the domain and how to find him.
Domain owner vs. registrar vs. administrator
First of all, it is important to distinguish between 3 basic terms when owning a domain, or entities that associate with it:
- Domain owner
- Domain administrator
- Domain registrar
đź’ˇ Tip: If you are a complete beginner in the world of domains, be sure to read my article on what exactly a domain is and how it works .
1. Owner of the domain
First of all, it is important to realize that no “domain owner” actually exists.
Each owner of a domain can be considered more or less its “holder”, who has the given domain rented from the registrar (or administrator) for a certain period of time.
This person or company pays a regular (usually) annual fee to be able to use the domain for their own purposes.
The owner, or the holder of the domain can be both a natural person and a legal entity.
2. Domain administrator
Each national TLD domain (such as ” .sk “, ” .cz “, ” .eu “, etc.) is managed by a certain company, institution or organization in that country.
In the case of domains with the ending ” .sk “, it is the company SK-NIC , which manages all national Slovak domains. The same applies to the Czech national domains ” .cz “, which are managed by the administrator CZ-NIC .
For ” .eu ” domains, the administrator of the domain registry is the non-profit organization EURid .
Domain registries also manage generic (or “exotic”) or multinational domains such as ” .com “, ” .edu “, ” .org “, etc.
Although the above-mentioned domain registries could be described as the real “owners” or administrators, to buy a domain you must contact the domain registrars.
3. Domain registrar
A registrar can be a certain company that makes sure that a particular domain is working and set up correctly.
This registrar communicates with administrators of TLD domains, and you can use it to buy a specific domain or rent for a fee for a certain period of time.
There are quite a few registrars from whom you can buy a domain – in general, they may differ in price, or in extra services that are associated with the domain (such as hosting , SEO tools , CMS, etc.).
Popular domain registrars include, for example:
How to find out who owns the domain?
If you just want to find out if the domain is already taken or not, just visit the website of one of the registrars and enter the given domain into their search engine.
In the case of the Websupport registrar, you simply write the name of the entire domain and the registrar will immediately verify its availability:
However, domain registrars will not provide you with any important information about the domain or who owns the domain on their pages – for that you will have to visit the pages of the specific administrator to whom the domain is registered.
If you need to find out the owner of a Slovak domain with the ending ” .sk “, simply visit the SK-NIC website, enter the entire domain together with the ending ” .sk ” and the system will then display its record:
Although such a record may look too complicated, you don’t have to worry about anything. Let’s see how you can find out the owner of the domain from it.
A domain record consists of 2 important parts – the first is general information about the domain:
- Domain – this is the name of the entire domain (in this case websupport.sk)
- Holder, contact and registrar – a code that hides the registrar of the given domain
- Date of creation – the date when the domain was created
- Last change – the date when the owner of the domain or the status of the given domain changed
- Valid until (expiration) – the date until the given domain is occupied
- EPP status (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) – important data that indicates whether the domain is in order, or whether it definitely has no restrictions.
The second, more important part of the record contains information about the registrar as well as the contact details of the domain holder:
- Registrar – code, the same as for the first part of the record
- Name and organization – important information about who is the domain registrar (in this case it is the company Websupport.
- Phone, email, address – contact information about the owner of the given domain.
đź’ˇ Note: In the case of the domain holder, you must be aware that the record will never show you the data of a real natural person.
You can find out the contact details of the “owner” of the domain only if it is a legal entity (company, institution, organization, etc.) due to GDPR compliance.
Similarly, you can search for data on Czech domains on the website of the registrar CZ-NIC . The domain record will look slightly different, but is essentially the same:
If you are looking for the owner of a domain that is not Slovak, you can also use the who.is register. Similar to the previous example, this registry will also show you all the necessary data about the domain (but in English):
What to do if the owner of the domain is unknown?
If you need to contact the owner of the domain (either with a proposal to buy the domain or for legal reasons), but its owner is an unknown natural person, you can try to find out (and contact) this person in several ways:
- Contact the domain registrar – you simply write to the domain registrar (from the domain record), explain your situation and ask them to contact the domain owner.
- Search for a contact at the domain address – if an online store, blog or, in short, a certain website is displayed under the given domain, you can also find the owner’s contact information on it.
- Contact the domain administrator – regarding violations of the law or certain legal standards, you can contact the domain administrator directly (in the case of Slovak domains, this is SK-NIC).
Buying an already occupied domain
In many cases, it may happen that the domain that you originally planned to own (or rent from the registrar) is already occupied by someone else.
Currently, buying and selling domains is a widespread business that many people are engaged in – in principle, it is people who search and buy domains for low amounts and then sell them for significantly more expensive ones.
It can also happen that your domain, word or brand, in short, has already been occupied by another company or company.
In that case, you only have limited options to choose from, and it’s up to you which one you choose:
- Wait for the expiration period – if you found out from the record from the registrar that the domain owner’s domain will expire soon, you can simply wait and hope that he does not decide to pay for the domain again (and thus extend the ownership period).
- “Overcharge” the price of the domain – in some cases, the domain is, so to speak, only “parked” by the owner, or he doesn’t use it and just waits to see if there is an interested party. In that case, you have the option to simply buy it back, but you will have to count on a significantly higher amount compared to the normal rental of the domain from the registrar.
- Choose another domain (or modify it slightly) – sometimes there is simply no other option than to choose an alternative to your dream domain. In that case, you can try to come up with (or search for) another name for your domain, or modify the name of an already occupied domain (for example, divide the words in the domain with a hyphen.
đź’ˇ Tip: If you are still deciding what your domain name should be (or which one to choose), be sure to read my article 63 tips on how to choose the best domain name for a website, in which you will learn various useful tips on choosing ” of the right” domain.
