RDAP.

RDAP does the job WHOIS did, properly. It is a set of IETF standards defining a JSON response served over HTTPS, with a documented schema, real error codes, internationalisation, support for differentiated access, and a bootstrap registry published by IANA that maps every TLD to the RDAP server authoritative for it. Where WHOIS returned a paragraph of free text whose layout was whatever the operator felt like that decade, RDAP returns a structured object you can rely on.

The replacement is not theoretical. ICANN required gTLD registries and registrars to run RDAP from 2019, and the contractual obligation to keep the old port-43 WHOIS service running was retired in January 2025. Operators have been switching it off since. For gTLDs, RDAP is now the source of record rather than a modern alternative to one.

What you get back is the useful part: the registration, expiry and last-changed events as proper timestamps; the EPP status codes verbatim, which is the only trustworthy way to tell grace from redemption from pending delete; the nameservers; whether the domain is DNSSEC-signed; and the sponsoring registrar with its IANA ID, which is how a registrar can be identified reliably even when a reseller's name appears on the account. This is why owndle queries each TLD's registry directly rather than scraping a WHOIS aggregator — the expiry date comes from the party that actually controls it, not from a cache of unknown age.

It is not perfect. Registrant contact details are redacted by default for gTLDs post-GDPR, so RDAP tells you about the domain rather than the person. ccTLD operators are under no ICANN obligation and a fair number still run WHOIS only, or nothing public at all. Servers rate-limit, sometimes aggressively. Those caveats aside, if a tool tells you a domain expires on a date and cannot show you a status code alongside it, be suspicious. The expiry checker and the bulk lookup tool both run RDAP-first for exactly this reason.