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Glossary · Updated 2026-10-20

What is RDAP (and how is it different from WHOIS)?

RDAP is the modern, structured replacement for WHOIS. It returns domain registration data, like the creation date and registrar, as JSON.

RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the IETF standard that replaced WHOIS for looking up who registered a domain and when. ICANN requires registries and registrars of generic domains (.com, .net, .org and the rest) to run it.

RDAP vs WHOIS

WHOIS RDAP
Format Free text, different per registry Structured JSON
Dates Hard to parse ISO 8601 eventDate fields
Discovery Guess the server Bootstrap files point to the right server

Veqen uses RDAP to find a domain's registration date, so it can flag domains registered in the last week or month. Some country-code registries don't publish registration dates, so the age can be unknown.

Try it with the free domain age checker.