Domain age checker. RDAP plus Wayback.
Type a domain. We pull the RDAP registration date and the Wayback first-capture date in parallel, compute age from each, and surface re-registration patterns where the two diverge.
Type a domain. We pull two parallel signals: RDAP registration date from rdap.org and first-capture date from the Wayback Machine. The cross-reference catches re-registered domains where the registry record looks fresh but the brand has been around for years — a soft trust nuance worth knowing before backlink-buying or acquisition.
Sources used by this tool
- rdap.org — public RDAP gateway for registration date
- Wayback Machine API — first-capture lookup via the availability endpoint
- RFC 7483 — RDAP JSON response format
Two queries fire from your browser — one to rdap.org, one to archive.org. Nothing is logged on Digital Heroes servers.
Privacy: queries go to rdap.org + archive.org only; Digital Heroes doesn't log.
Each source has a blind spot.
RDAP shows the current registration. When a domain is registered and renewed continuously by the same owner, the RDAP creation date is the true brand age. When a domain lapses and is re-registered by a new owner, RDAP resets — the new owner sees a "creation date" of last Tuesday, regardless of the brand's prior history. Acquisition buyers who only check RDAP often pay for "ages" that are actually re-registrations.
Wayback shows the first time anyone cared. The Internet Archive has been crawling the public web since 1996. The first Wayback capture for a domain is the first time their crawler found content there worth saving. This survives ownership changes — a domain that was a small business site in 2002, sold in 2014, and is a SaaS today still has the 2002 first-capture date in Wayback. For brand-history due diligence, this is the more honest signal.
Together they tell the full story. Both dates close together: a fresh registration and a fresh site, age is what RDAP says. Wayback older than RDAP by a year or more: the domain has been re-registered, the current owner's tenure is what RDAP shows, but the brand-name has a longer history. RDAP older than Wayback: the domain was registered, sat parked, and only later acquired content — common for defensively-registered names that were never built out, then later sold.
Four practical jobs this tool does.
Job 1: Backlink-source vetting. Before accepting a guest-post placement or paying for a sponsored link, run the source domain. A domain with RDAP from 2009 and continuous Wayback from 2009 is a credible source. A domain with RDAP from January and Wayback from August is a freshly-registered shell that auto-published a blog last summer — the textbook profile of a link-farm site that will get penalized within months.
Job 2: Acquisition due diligence. When buying a brand, the seller will quote the founding-year of the brand. Cross-reference with RDAP and Wayback. If the brand claims 2008 origin and Wayback first-capture is 2008, the story holds. If Wayback first-capture is 2008 but RDAP is 2018, the brand was re-acquired in 2018 — what you're buying is the name and ten years of brand-recall, not ten years of continuous operation. Material to the price.
Job 3: SEO context for ranking analysis. When auditing an underperforming site, age is one factor that explains ranking ceilings. A six-month-old domain competing against ten-year-old incumbents will not out-rank them on age alone; the strategy must work around that gap. Combine with our Lighthouse Score Checker and Domain Health Checker for the rest of the picture.
Job 4: Trademark + brand defense. When a third party launches a domain using your brand name, the age of their domain matters legally. A domain registered last week using your trademark is easier to UDRP than one held continuously since before your trademark was filed. RDAP gives you the registration anchor for the legal record; Wayback gives you the use-history they'll claim in defense.
Six questions users ask.
Why two sources for one number?
Each source has a blind spot. RDAP gives you the current registration's start date — but if the domain was previously registered, then dropped, then re-registered by a new owner, RDAP only shows the most-recent registration. Wayback gives you the first time someone publicly cared enough to put content up — that survives ownership changes, but only catches sites the Wayback crawler indexed. Together they tell you whether you're looking at a fresh registration of a name that's been in use for a decade (Wayback older than RDAP = re-registration) or a brand-new name (both dates close together).
What does it mean if RDAP and Wayback diverge by years?
The most common pattern: Wayback first-capture is in 2009, RDAP creation is 2024. Translation — the domain was registered, used, and either lapsed or was sold. The current owner picked it up in 2024. For SEO, this matters because backlinks pointing to the older version of the site may no longer be relevant context. For acquisition, it tells you the true brand age (which the seller may emphasize) is not the registry-record age (which is the actual transfer point). Always show both.
What's the SEO interpretation?
Domain age is one input among many to ranking — never the only one — but combined with consistent renewal history, a strong Wayback timeline, and earned backlinks, it's a soft trust signal. A domain registered in 2008 with continuous Wayback coverage and natural backlink growth sits in a different trust band than a domain registered last week. For new builds, the lesson is the opposite: don't expect ranking lift from a fresh domain. Earn the trust through content, links, and time.
Why does Wayback first-capture sometimes miss?
Wayback's coverage depends on whether their crawler ever found the domain. Reasons a domain may have no Wayback record despite being registered for years: (1) blocked by robots.txt; (2) parked or redirect-only; (3) low-traffic and never linked from a crawled source; (4) intentionally excluded via the Wayback removal request. Absence of Wayback record is not proof of absence of history — it's just an absence of crawl coverage. RDAP creation date is the authoritative registration anchor.
Can I check ccTLDs and new gTLDs?
RDAP works for all gTLDs (.com, .net, .org, .info) and most ccTLDs (.io, .co, .ai, .uk, .in). A handful of ccTLDs (.de, .ru, several ASEAN ones) restrict RDAP — for those, the RDAP side returns 'inconclusive' but Wayback still works as long as the domain has a public web history. Combined coverage is high across the modern TLD landscape.
Does this tool log my queries?
No. Two queries fire from your browser — one to rdap.org, one to archive.org. Nothing is logged on Digital Heroes servers. Both upstream services follow their own published privacy practices. There is no signup, no email, no analytics beacon that includes your query.