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2026 Pricing Guide

Domain API Pricing Comparison

Transparent pricing comparison of 20+ providers. Compare free tiers, packaging, and tradeoffs for real-world domain intelligence workloads.

Quick Comparison

Provider Free Tier Starting Price Positioning
DomScan Recommended Free: 10,000 credits/month Pay-as-you-go from $10 Modern Domain Intelligence API
WHOISJSON Free plan available From $10/month WHOIS, DNS, SSL, and availability API with a lightweight free plan
Name.com API API: Free to use Pay per registration Domain Registrar REST API
Dynadot API Regular tier: free API access Bulk: $500+/year spend Registrar API for Bulk Investors and Resellers
DomainTools No free tier Custom enterprise contracts Enterprise Domain Intelligence & Threat Research
WhoAPI 10,000 welcome credits From $23/month Established Domain Availability & WHOIS API
Whoxy No recurring free tier Pay-as-you-go from $2 WHOIS history, reverse WHOIS, and bulk lookup API
Domainr RapidAPI: 10,000 requests/month High-volume plans via Fastly Fastly-backed Domain Search API
WhoisXML API Complimentary credits after signup Product-specific subscriptions Enterprise Domain, IP & DNS Intelligence
DNSimple Solo: $0.50/zone/month + query fees Teams: $29/month + $0.50/zone Registrar API with DNS Hosting & Automation
JsonWhois 500 requests/month free From $9/month Simple WHOIS API
WhoisFreaks 100 requests/day free From $19/month WHOIS & DNS Intelligence API
IP2WHOIS 500 requests/month free Paid plans from $39/month WHOIS API with IP2Location Integration
Host.io 1,000 requests/month free Plans from $99/month Domain Intelligence and Technology Detection API
GoDaddy API Requires $20/month min spend Included with domain purchases Domain Registrar API
Namecheap API Sandbox: Free Production: Account qualification Domain Registrar API
Gandi API No free tier Graduated A-E price rates European Registrar API with LiveDNS
Cloudflare Registrar At-cost wholesale pricing Registrar API beta for supported domains At-Cost Registrar with Beta API Workflows
Shodan Limited web access Membership $49 one-time, subscriptions from $69/month Internet Exposure Search for Devices and Services
MXToolbox Limited free lookups From $99/month Email Security & DNS Diagnostic Tools
VirusTotal 500 requests/day free Contact sales Domain & URL Threat Intelligence
ViewDNS Free web UI API plans from $25/month DNS, WHOIS, and Reverse Lookup Toolkit
DNSlytics 2,500 requests/day free Premium pay-as-you-go API Reverse DNS Analytics and Tracking Code Discovery
SecurityTrails 50 queries/month free Usage-based plans via sales DNS & Domain Intelligence for Security Research
HackerTarget 50 requests/day free From $20/month Security Testing & DNS Reconnaissance
Censys Community tier with limited monthly queries Individual plans from $100/month Internet Intelligence and Attack Surface Platform

Detailed Pricing Breakdown

DomScan

Pay-as-you-go from $10
Free: Free: 10,000 credits/month
Free $0 (10,000/month)
Starter $9/month (50,000)
Pro $29/month (200,000)
Business $99/month (1,000,000)
Positioning: DomScan is a developer-first domain intelligence platform offering real-time availability checks, RDAP data, domain valuation, and AI integration via MCP.

WHOISJSON

From $10/month
Free: Free plan available
Free $0 (1,000/month)
Pro $10/month (30,000/month)
Ultra $30/month (150,000/month)
Mega $80-$600/month (Unlimited)

Watch Out For:

  • Less historical depth than larger intelligence platforms
  • Smaller ecosystem and fewer enterprise references
  • Limited threat-intel and monitoring depth
Positioning: WHOISJSON packages WHOIS, DNS, SSL certificate, and availability lookups into a lightweight API for teams that need practical lookup coverage without enterprise overhead.

Name.com API

Pay per registration
Free: API: Free to use
Free $0 (Pay per operation)
Bronze $1,000/year min (Tier discounts)
Gold $10,000/year min (Best rates)

Watch Out For:

  • Fewer TLDs
  • Lower rate limits (20 req/sec)
  • Registrar-focused, not intelligence
Positioning: Name.com provides a RESTful API for domain registration, transfer, and management with volume-based pricing.

Dynadot API

Bulk: $500+/year spend
Free: Regular tier: free API access
Regular $0 (60 req/min)
Bulk $500/year spend (600 req/min)
Super Bulk $5,000/year (6,000 req/min)

Watch Out For:

  • Higher throughput only unlocks after spend thresholds
  • Single concurrent API call limit
  • Docs and operational quirks require extra care
Positioning: Dynadot offers REST and legacy APIs with 120+ actions covering registration, transfers, DNS, aftermarket workflows, and bulk investor tooling.

DomainTools

Custom enterprise contracts
Free: No free tier
Membership $99/month (Individual usage)
Enterprise Packages Contact (Annual subscriptions)

Watch Out For:

  • Enterprise-only pricing
  • Overkill for simple availability checks
  • Limited fit for developer-first or low-volume projects
Positioning: DomainTools focuses on high-end security workflows with passive DNS, reputation scoring, historical data, and enterprise investigation products.

WhoAPI

From $23/month
Free: 10,000 welcome credits
Free $0 (10,000 one-time)
Starter $23/month (10,000)
Startup $49/month (200,000)
Business $99/month (1,000,000)

Watch Out For:

  • Higher pricing for comparable features
  • No AI/MCP integration
  • Welcome credits do not renew monthly
Positioning: WhoAPI provides domain availability checking and WHOIS lookup APIs with a focus on accuracy and bulk operations.

Whoxy

Pay-as-you-go from $2
Free: No recurring free tier
1,000 WHOIS lookups $2 (1,000)
10,000 WHOIS lookups $20 (10,000)
50,000 WHOIS lookups $75 (50,000)
250,000 WHOIS lookups $300 (250,000)

Watch Out For:

  • No domain valuation workflow
  • Limited AI or modern workflow integrations
  • Narrower feature set outside WHOIS and DNS research
Positioning: Whoxy focuses on live WHOIS, historical WHOIS, reverse WHOIS, and batch lookup workflows for researchers, resellers, and brand-protection teams.

Domainr

High-volume plans via Fastly
Free: RapidAPI: 10,000 requests/month
RapidAPI Free $0 (10,000/month)
Fastly Domain Research Contact (High-volume domain research)

Watch Out For:

  • Original API deprecated
  • Access and packaging are split across Fastly and RapidAPI
  • No valuation or OSINT features
Positioning: Domainr is now part of Fastly. The original standalone API is deprecated, while Fastly and RapidAPI packages still cover search, status, and suggestion workflows.

WhoisXML API

Product-specific subscriptions
Free: Complimentary credits after signup
Complimentary $0 (Limited signup credits)
Self-serve Products Product-specific (Product-specific)
Enterprise Packages Contact (Annual subscriptions)

Watch Out For:

  • Pricing and quota structure varies by product
  • Overkill for simple availability checks
  • More platform than most startup teams need
Positioning: WhoisXML API offers product-specific WHOIS, DNS, IP, and threat data packages plus annual enterprise bundles for research, fraud, and security teams.

DNSimple

Teams: $29/month + $0.50/zone
Free: Solo: $0.50/zone/month + query fees
Solo $0.50/zone/month ($0.10 per million queries per zone)
Teams $29/month (1 seat + $0.50/zone)
Enterprise Custom (Volume discounts)

Watch Out For:

  • Higher cost for availability-only needs
  • Usage-based zone pricing can add up quickly
  • Broader registrar stack than availability-only buyers need
Positioning: DNSimple combines registrar operations, DNS hosting, certificates, and automation in a polished REST API aimed at teams managing domains end-to-end.

JsonWhois

From $9/month
Free: 500 requests/month free
Free $0 (500/month)
Basic $9/month (5,000)
Pro $29/month (25,000)
Business $99/month (100,000)

Watch Out For:

  • Limited to WHOIS only
  • No DNS or availability features
  • No bulk operations
Positioning: JsonWhois provides a straightforward API for WHOIS lookups with JSON responses at budget-friendly pricing.

WhoisFreaks

From $19/month
Free: 100 requests/day free
Free $0 (500)
5K Credits ~$10 (5,000)
50K Credits ~$40 (50,000)
1M Credits Contact (1,000,000)

Watch Out For:

  • No domain availability API
  • No AI/MCP integration
  • Credit-based pricing complexity
Positioning: WhoisFreaks offers WHOIS lookup, DNS records, and domain intelligence APIs with a focus on historical data and reverse lookups.

IP2WHOIS

Paid plans from $39/month
Free: 500 requests/month free
Free $0 (500/month)
Starter $49/month (5,000)
Plus $249/month (40,000)
Security $499/month (150,000)

Watch Out For:

  • No DNS lookup features
  • Limited bulk and historical workflows
  • Limited to WHOIS data
Positioning: IP2WHOIS provides parsed WHOIS lookups, hosted-domain context, and ecosystem integrations for teams already using IP2Location services.

Host.io

Plans from $99/month
Free: 1,000 requests/month free
Free $0 (1,000/month)
Basic $99/month (10,000)
Business $499/month (100,000)
Enterprise $999+/month (500,000+)

Watch Out For:

  • No domain availability API
  • Monthly data updates, not true real-time refresh
  • Lighter WHOIS depth than specialist providers
Positioning: Host.io focuses on technology fingerprints, related-domain discovery, DNS data, and web market intelligence rather than registrar workflows.

GoDaddy API

Included with domain purchases
Free: Requires $20/month min spend
Standard $0 (Requires 50+ domains)
DDC Pro $360/year (Full API access)
API Reseller Custom (Volume)

Watch Out For:

  • Requires 50+ domains for API access
  • Not designed for availability-only use
  • Limited to GoDaddy ecosystem
Positioning: GoDaddy provides domain availability and management APIs for customers with existing GoDaddy accounts and domain portfolios.

Namecheap API

Production: Account qualification
Free: Sandbox: Free
Free Sandbox $0 (Test environment)
Production $0 (qualify) ($50 balance or 20 domains)
Reseller Custom (Volume pricing)

Watch Out For:

  • IP whitelisting required
  • XML responses (not JSON)
  • Requires account qualification
Positioning: Namecheap provides domain availability and management APIs for developers integrated with their registrar services.

Gandi API

Graduated A-E price rates
Free: No free tier
Free API $0 (Pay per operation)
Reseller B-D Volume-based (Progressive discounts)
Reseller E High volume (Up to 50% off)

Watch Out For:

  • No free API tier
  • Complex pricing structure
  • Higher base prices than budget registrars
Positioning: Gandi pairs registrar automation with LiveDNS, certificates, and graduated reseller pricing that favors teams with meaningful annual volume.

Cloudflare Registrar

Registrar API beta for supported domains
Free: At-cost wholesale pricing
At-cost Wholesale (No markup)
.com example $10.44/year (Registry price)
.io example $45/year (Registry price)

Watch Out For:

  • Registrar API is still in beta
  • Requires Cloudflare account, token, and registrant setup
  • Narrower automation surface than specialist registrar APIs
Positioning: Cloudflare Registrar keeps domains at wholesale rates and now exposes beta API flows for search, availability, pricing, and registration on supported domains.

Shodan

Membership $49 one-time, subscriptions from $69/month
Free: Limited web access
Membership $49 one-time (Unlocks API and core features)
Freelancer $69/month (Self-serve subscription)
Small Business $359/month (Higher API and alert limits)
Corporate $1,099/month (Largest self-serve plan)

Watch Out For:

  • No domain availability checking
  • WHOIS and domain data are secondary
  • Better for asset exposure than domain operations
Positioning: Shodan indexes internet-facing devices, banners, vulnerabilities, and exposed services, making it a strong complement to domain-focused threat tools.

MXToolbox

From $99/month
Free: Limited free lookups
Free $0 (Basic lookups)
Delivery Center $129/month (Email monitoring)
Pro $399/month (Full monitoring)
Enterprise Custom (Volume)

Watch Out For:

  • Email-focused, not general domain
  • No WHOIS lookup
  • Higher pricing for API access
Positioning: MxToolBox specializes in email deliverability tools including MX lookups, blacklist monitoring, SPF/DKIM/DMARC validation, and DNS diagnostics.

VirusTotal

Contact sales
Free: 500 requests/day free
Free $0 (500 lookups/day)
Premium Contact (Higher limits)
Enterprise Contact (Volume)

Watch Out For:

  • Security-only focus
  • No domain registration features
  • Rate limits on free tier
Positioning: VirusTotal analyzes domains, URLs, and files for malware and malicious activity using 70+ antivirus engines and security tools.

ViewDNS

API plans from $25/month
Free: Free web UI
Free $0 (Web tools only)
Developer $25/month (Entry API tier)
Professional $50/month (Higher limits)
Business $100/month (Largest standard tier)

Watch Out For:

  • Basic API compared to competitors
  • No domain availability checking
  • API is lighter than dedicated intelligence platforms
Positioning: ViewDNS.info offers a broad toolbox of DNS, reverse IP, reverse MX, WHOIS, and IP history lookups for investigators and operators.

DNSlytics

Premium pay-as-you-go API
Free: 2,500 requests/day free
Free $0 (2,500/day)
Premium API Prepaid (20,000/day default)
API v2 Beta Contact (Dataset access)

Watch Out For:

  • API v2 coverage is still narrow in beta
  • No domain availability API
  • WHOIS data is not its core strength
Positioning: DNSlytics emphasizes reverse lookups, tracking-code pivots, and DNS research, with a newer API v2 beta focused on datasets.

SecurityTrails

Usage-based plans via sales
Free: 50 queries/month free
Free $0 (50 queries/month)
Starter $50/month (500 queries)
Pro $250/month (5,000 queries)
Enterprise Custom (Volume)

Watch Out For:

  • Enterprise pricing not transparent
  • Limited free tier
  • Security-focused, not for domain registration
Positioning: SecurityTrails provides comprehensive DNS intelligence, passive DNS data, subdomain enumeration, and WHOIS history for security researchers and threat intelligence teams.

HackerTarget

From $20/month
Free: 50 requests/day free
Free $0 (100 scans/day)
Lite $40/month (Unlimited web tools)
Pro $120/month (Unlimited + API)
Team $250/month (Team + API)

Watch Out For:

  • Limited WHOIS capabilities
  • No domain availability API
  • Basic API documentation
Positioning: HackerTarget provides security-focused DNS tools including subdomain discovery, reverse DNS, vulnerability scanning, and attack surface analysis.

Censys

Individual plans from $100/month
Free: Community tier with limited monthly queries
Community $0 (Limited monthly queries)
Individual $100/month (Paid self-serve plan)
Team Contact (Team workflows)
Enterprise Custom (Full platform)

Watch Out For:

  • Not focused on domain availability
  • WHOIS and registrar context are secondary
  • Primarily for security use cases
Positioning: Censys delivers internet-wide scanning, certificate intelligence, and external attack surface discovery for security teams and researchers.

Key Pricing Insights

Best Free Tier

DomScan offers 10,000 free credits/month that renew monthly - the most generous renewable free tier in the market.

Best Value

DomScan Pro at $29/month gives you 200,000 credits ($0.000145/credit) - best price-to-feature ratio.

Enterprise Choice

DomainTools leads for threat intelligence but starts at $50,000+/year. Consider DomScan for 95% of use cases.

Start with 10,000 Free Credits

No credit card required. Get instant API access with the most generous free tier in the industry.

Get Started Free