How to use NameNotifier

NameNotifier watches registry zone-file changes, scores domains with Domain Quality Score (DQS), verifies lifecycle state with DNS/RDAP evidence, and alerts you when a domain matches your rules. Start with the free tools and graveyard, then upgrade when you want the full ranked drops feed, exact DQS, lifecycle state, watchlist priority, exports, and alerts.

1. Use /appraise or /whois to inspect a domain. 2. Browse /graveyard to see the filtered-out inventory. 3. Sign up if you want to save watchlist items. 4. Upgrade when you want the paid drops feed, exact DQS, lifecycle intelligence, exports, and alert delivery. 5. Create alert rules on /alerts for the shapes you care about.

In redemption means the domain is not safely registerable. The prior owner may still be able to restore it, and zone-file absence alone is not enough to call it available. Treat redemption rows as watchlist/backorder research candidates, not available-now domains.

Pending delete is usually the final release window. If you want the domain, this is the time to decide whether it is worth a backorder or drop-catch attempt. High-quality names are usually contested, so manual registration at the exact release moment is rarely realistic.

Catchable means the lifecycle layer has enough evidence to treat the domain as released or actionable. For valuable names, still assume competition: use registrar search or a drop-catch/backorder service rather than relying on manual registration alone.

NameNotifier keeps rechecking drops after ingest with DNS sweeps, DNS-change-triggered RDAP, watchlist RDAP, and targeted priority RDAP for the strongest candidates. If a domain is restored by the original owner or re-registered by someone else, we hide it from the drops feed so you don't waste time on stale listings. A domain can reappear if it drops again later.

DQS is a 0-100 quality triage signal. It weighs length, TLD fit, dictionary/category strength, commercial phrase quality, pronounceability, brandability, and history. It then applies hard caps for numeric spam, hyphens, trademark-like terms, offensive language, weak token matches, and false-premium patterns. DQS is not a formal appraisal.

Enter a domain and get a directional DQS check, a conservative aftermarket estimate, and supporting signals. Known domains use the pipeline score when available; unknown names use a lighter on-demand scorer. Treat the estimate as a 'worth inspecting' signal, not a formal appraisal or bid recommendation.

The whois tool runs an RDAP lookup where supported and explains registrar, dates, statuses, and lifecycle hints in plain language. Results are cached and rate-limited so public tools do not hammer registry endpoints.

We match the SLD against a curated list of well-known brands (FAANG, Fortune 500 retail, auto OEMs, airlines, banks, luxury — about 250 entries) using exact, Cyrillic-homoglyph, typo (Damerau-Levenshtein ≤ 1), and substring-contains checks. A flagged name invites a UDRP complaint — read the reason line, investigate via USPTO TESS if uncertain. Clean names (95%+ of drops) show no panel.

The verdict combines DQS, lifecycle state, conservative aftermarket estimate, registration cost, and trademark/safety flags. Treat it as triage, not financial advice: it helps you decide whether to skip, watch, investigate, or research a backorder.

Yes. /compare accepts 2 or 3 domains and lays out DQS, aftermarket estimate, lifecycle stage, trademark risk, and a synthesized verdict in one table. Known names use the pipeline DQS when available; unknown names fall back to the live lite scorer.

Click the star on a drop row, or visit /domain/NAME and add it to your watchlist. Watchlisted domains appear at /watchlist with lifecycle state, DQS, and quick actions. Paid users can also track domains that are not in the corpus yet; those rows get a placeholder record and queued DNS/RDAP verification. Watchlisted domains should receive at least one RDAP freshness attempt daily, with DNS changes still forcing RDAP sooner.

Yes. Go to /watchlist/import and paste a newline-separated list. We normalize each name, dedupe it, and add valid known-corpus names to your watchlist. Paid users can choose to spend external tracking slots on names that are not in the corpus yet. Status freshness is then driven by DNS-change checks, queued watchlist RDAP, and targeted dossier-triggered RDAP when a live panel needs fresher evidence.

You describe the domain shape you care about: TLDs, length range, minimum DQS, keyword substring, negative keywords to exclude, and lifecycle stage. When a verified drop matches, NameNotifier sends it to your enabled channels: email on all plans, and Telegram/webhook on paid plans that allow them. You can preview, test, pause, edit, or delete rules from /alerts.

Alert delivery is capped per plan to keep the system responsive and to match the value of each tier:

- Free: 10 alerts/day (email only) - Core: 100 alerts/day - Pro: 200 alerts/day - API: high-volume access with a system safety valve

The cap resets at 00:00 UTC. When you hit your cap, further matches for that day are dropped rather than queued — so you never wake up to 4,000 stale notifications. Want more? Upgrade.

Remaining matches for that UTC day are silently skipped — we log them in the admin audit so we can show you the hit count, but no notification fires. New matches resume at 00:00 UTC. This applies to email, Telegram, and webhook channels equally. If you consistently hit the cap, you're usually a tier off — `/pricing` shows the cap for each plan.

In theory yes, in practice no — webhook alerts are capped per plan (Core 100/day, Pro 200/day, API high-volume), while the dedicated API is designed for pull-based integrations with proper pagination and 10,000 requests/day on the API tier. For automation against our full corpus, the API is faster and more structured. Webhook alerts are ideal for reactive workflows (fire on match) rather than bulk data sync.

Yes. /blog/rss.xml lists product updates. /drops/rss.xml is a limited public preview feed and does not expose the paid high-DQS/catchable inventory. API and webhook access are plan-gated for structured integrations.

Go to /alerts > New rule. Specify TLDs, SLD length range, minimum DQS, optional keyword substring, optional exclusion terms, lifecycle stage, and notification channel. The ingest verifies high-impact alert candidates before delivery so obviously renewed or unsafe rows are suppressed where possible.

Email (default, works on every plan). Telegram and generic webhook require Core plan or above. Each channel has its own setup in /alerts/new. Webhook payloads are JSON with { domain, dqs, explanation, stage, evidenceSource, url, source }. The rule id is included in the URL attribution as from=rule_<id>.

NameNotifier does not catch domains itself — we surface them. The dossier page lists the major drop-catch services (DropCatch, SnapNames, Dynadot, NameJet). Place a backorder on one or more; typical fee $60-$100 per attempt. If your backorder wins the auction, you pay a final amount (usually $100-$2000+ depending on demand). If nobody else backordered, you often get the domain for the base fee. Manual registration at the drop second is not feasible — drop-catchers own dedicated infrastructure.

Yes. Use /portfolio to record domains you caught, registered, lost, or sold. Dossiers can show that a domain was reported caught by a NameNotifier user without exposing private user details.

Pro and API plans can generate API keys from /account under Developer. Send the key as an Authorization: Bearer header. Daily request caps depend on plan: Pro is 100 requests/day and API is 10,000 requests/day. Rate-limit headers are included on API responses.

GET /api/v1/drops — paginated daily drops with filters (tld, min_dqs, max_len, q, stage, limit). GET /api/v1/domain/{name} — full dossier for a single domain. GET /api/v1/portfolio — your caught claims. GET /api/v1/webhook/secret — your HMAC signing secret (Pro / API only). See /api-docs for full schemas.

Pro and API tiers get HMAC-SHA256-signed webhooks. Each delivery includes x-namenotifier-timestamp and x-namenotifier-signature. Verify the signature with your webhook secret and reject timestamps more than 5 minutes old to reduce replay risk. See /api-docs for the exact example.

The main ingest runs daily after registry zone files update. The pipeline diffs zone files, scores new candidates, verifies high-impact alert/watchlist rows first, sends eligible alerts, then continues RDAP and DNS cleanup in the background. Watchlisted domains and DNS-changed rows get priority rechecks.

Coverage follows the TLDs we are approved to access through ICANN CZDS plus any extra feeds we deliberately add. Coverage can change as approvals and data sources change. The product is strongest on major gTLDs where zone, DNS, and RDAP evidence can be reconciled reliably.

No. NameNotifier is the discovery, verification, and alert layer. You still register, backorder, or bid through registrars and drop-catch services. Dossiers may link to third-party services, and registrar/drop-catch links can be affiliate links; DQS and lifecycle rankings are not affected by affiliate relationships.

Go to /account > Billing > Manage subscription. You'll be taken to the Stripe customer portal where you can cancel, switch plans, or update payment details. Access continues until the end of the current period; no penalty or refund drama.

Paid plans can export drops and watchlist data where the plan allows it. Personal-data export is available from /account and downloads a JSON bundle of the account data we hold about you.

Go to /account > Danger zone. Confirmation is required. Deletion removes your account data, watchlist, alerts, feedback, support-linked account records, and portfolio/caught-claim records.