Is that domain really taken? Ask RDAP, not your browser

2026-07-19|tip|dnsclitil|767 B

A domain that doesn’t load is not a domain you can buy. Browsers only tell you whether someone is serving a website; the registry knows whether someone owns the name.

RDAP (the JSON successor to WHOIS) answers in one line, no signup:

curl -sL "https://rdap.org/domain/exit0.dev" | jq '{status, events}'

HTTP 404 → unregistered, actually available.
HTTP 200 → registered, regardless of whether anything resolves. The JSON includes registration/expiry dates and the registrar.

Today’s example: exit0.dev serves nothing, but RDAP shows it was registered in 2019 via Namecheap and is renewed through 2027. Parked, not free. Note that rdap.org is a redirect service — follow redirects (-L) or you’ll read a 302 as “unknown.”