12 Excellent Tools for Picking a Domain Name
Selecting the perfect domain name for your website is the most important, and oftentimes hardest, step in establishing a web presence. There are plenty of tools out there that can help you ease the burden of checking available domains and suggesting similar names that are related to your searches.
In this article, you’ll read about 12 neat web tools that will lend you a hand in finding and choosing domain names. You’ll find a variety of search and suggestion tools that have an assortment of features so that, hopefully, you’ll discover a few favorites.
1. Domainr
Nowadays, it’s difficult to find a domain name that end with the popular .com, .net, and .org TLD‘s. Domainr is an innovative web tool that helps you explore other TLD’s that have made popular websites like last.fm and del.icio.us stand out from the crowd. Of course, searches will also include popular top-level domains that are available.
2. Dot-o-mator
Dot-o-mator is a web tool that suggests site names based on prefixes and suffixes that you’ve entered (keywords). Alternatively, you can use a category of prefixes (like "Tech" or "Games") and suffixes (like "Hardware" or "Web 2.0 words") to generate suggested site names for you. It’s a helpful tool for, at the very least, obtaining inspiration for a site name.
They also have a fun tool called Web 2.0 Domain Name Generator that generates "Web 2.0" site names like "Yakidoo" or "Zoompulse".
3. BustAName
BustAName is a robust and feature-packed domain finder that uses linguistic data to help you search domains. BustAName allows you to save and manage/organize your searches for later use. It has a "List of Words" feature that advise you of similar words to your search – which you can then organize inside folders.
Available domains that are returned can be sorted in a number of ways such as "by quality (readability)" or "by length" for easier viewing. Though the web tool is very intuitive, the creators have a video tutorial on how to utilize BustAName.
4. Domain Tools
Domain Tools is a set of domain name search engines that will help you uncover relevant information about certain domain names. They have a "Whois" search that reveals records about the party who registered the domain, a "Suggestions" search to help you find similar domain names, a "Domain Search" which shows you what TLDs of a domain name are available, and domain names that are "For Sale" or "At Auction".
5. Domize
Domize is a fast, Ajax-based search engine that you can use to rapidly check the availability of domains. Domize has a widget that you can install on your website to provide a domain search engine to your visitors. Domize also has an iPhone app – because domain name inspiration can hit you at anytime (hopefully you have your iPhone with you when it happens).
6. squurl
squurl is another fast Ajax-based domain search engine. It has a "Suggestions" feature to help you discover similar domains to the ones you’ve typed.
7. DomainsBot
DomainsBot is a domain search engine that has an "Advanced" search feature so that you can conduct a more customized and refined search. For example, you can set the maximum domain character length to eliminate lengthy domain names from the results or exclude domain results that have a hyphen (-).
8. dnScoop
dnScoop tries to estimate the value of a particular domain based on several statistics such as site traffic, links pointing to the domain, and other factors. This will help you gain some insight on the value of a particular domain name in case the name you really want is "for sale" and you want to see if the asking price is fair, or to make an offer to a site owner that owns the domain you really want.
9. StuckDomains
StuckDomains is a database of expired domain names that previous owners have not renewed. This can be an opportunity to find a domain name that doesn’t involve odd names like "fujiyakuku.com".
10. Nameboy
Nameboy is a popular domain name generator. This straightforward web tool asks for a "Primary Word" and "Secondary Word" that describe the topic of your website, and based on your input, it suggests possible domain names.
For example, typing in "web" as the Primary Word and "superman" as the Secondary Word returned results such as webhero, supeweb and supermanweb. There’s a "Rhyme" option that tries to suggest domain names that rhyme with the search phrases, but the feature didn’t seem to work on the above example.
11. dyyo.com
It’s common practice to keep domain names as short as possible so that it can be quickly typed and also so that they’re easier to remember. dyyo.com specializes in helping you find 4-letter domain names to keep your URLs terse.
12. Ajax Whois
Ajax Whois is a simple Ajax-based domain search that makes domain-name-hunting effortless and rapid. To make your searches even faster, they have a set of useful keyboard shortcuts to satisfy the power user in you.
Got moar?
If you have a tool that you absolutely love that wasn’t on the list – please share it with us in the comments, we’d love to hear your thoughts!
117 Comments
CrapsDownload
March 13th, 2009
cool list, thanks!
taylan
March 13th, 2009
I usually use domaintools.com. All services are really good.
Unwanted-Domain-Names.co.uk
March 13th, 2009
Great article. Another site that you might want to check which would be of interest to your UK based readers is Unwanted-Domain-Names.co.uk (http://www.unwanted-domain-names.co.uk).
It’s a search engine for expired or dropped UK domains (specifically .co.uk and org.uk domains) which lists the domains first date of hosting, number of inbound links, Alexa rank etc.
Nicolas Hoizey
March 13th, 2009
Just used Domai.nr yesterday to find a new domain, it works really well!
Timo Reitnauer
March 13th, 2009
We offer a little iPhone app at iWantMyName that allows you to search and register domains on the go. It’s free and can be found at http://iwantmyname.com/iphone
Fred
March 13th, 2009
I love eurodns.com – can search alot of TLDs and even shows if the domains are registered but available on Sedo.
insic
March 13th, 2009
domain tools is the one i always use. and I dont know most of whats in the list. nice one.
izzat aziz
March 13th, 2009
very useful list.. with .(two word) available.. more creative domain will out.. :D
Eric Ditmer
March 13th, 2009
http://www.domaintyper.com/ is a good one, too.
Mike
March 13th, 2009
I’m a fan of https://instantdomainsearch.com/.
Timothy
March 13th, 2009
Domainr is awesome. I tend to use that regularly
Lee
March 13th, 2009
Great List!
Might want to add http://domaintyper.com/ – Another great domain tool.
gopal3
March 13th, 2009
Very useful and new tips for name selection!
Jason
March 13th, 2009
Excellent List! But I do have one to add. One tool I’ve used over and over is MakeWords.com – it takes some exploring, but once you get the hang of it, it’s domain crack candy.
Stefan
March 13th, 2009
nice list.
thanks!
Muthu
March 13th, 2009
Great list.
Spoon
March 13th, 2009
Check this one for iPhone
http://milkydomain.com
Free
March 13th, 2009
For some applications, it might be fine to use a free dynamic DNS like no-ip.org. Depends on your ability to serve what you want published. I share pictures on mine and have an FTP with a dedicated box, sure makes it easier for people to connect using a resolved name vs ip address. Then you use your router to forward the ports to whatever machine you need to. Good list, thanks!
Damanti
March 13th, 2009
Domainr is simply the best !!!
Ranjeet Walunj
March 13th, 2009
13: a valid credit card with some available credit
Sean Hurley
March 13th, 2009
These are great tools when you have a popular name or phrase for your company. I always find it hard to figure out a good name so having the ability to get suggestions opens the creativity door. I like this post!
peter slate
March 13th, 2009
What is the best site for selling a domain name???
Ryan
March 13th, 2009
This one is a great tool as well, I use it a lot:
http://instantdomainsearch.com/
authorcafe
March 13th, 2009
I’m a fan of http://kimindir.com/
Kenton Newby
March 13th, 2009
Great article. Finding good domains can be a real pain, but tools like these can help. I’ll have to try some of these when it’s time to start up a new site or client site.
By the way, I’d also suggest http://www.makewords.com
Here’s a quick video I did awhile back that gives an overview of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgVHq8QS_qs
I’m not affiliated in any way, just found it to be a useful site.
~Kenton
Borellus
March 13th, 2009
Nice, I think I may use a few of those.
jane
March 13th, 2009
very useful list.. with .(two word) available.. more creative domain will out.. :D
Steini
March 13th, 2009
Useful list – Thanks.
cagwait
March 13th, 2009
Thanks for posting these. Will be useful
mitchell
March 13th, 2009
i’ve used http://pcnames.com for years.
Tony Anselm
March 13th, 2009
I’m just beginning. If I create a domain name that seems free, 1. how do I register it? 2. Must I find someone else to host it? A link to info on basics like this would be appreciated by
Tony, who says “Thanks” in advance.
echeno
March 13th, 2009
Huge fan of https://instantdomainsearch.com/ also.
Gabriel Ross
March 13th, 2009
You forgot Domain Pigeon:
http://www.domainpigeon.com/
Eric Gruber
March 13th, 2009
I used to use Squurl, until recently. It wouldn’t show results for available domains but searching directly through my domain reseller did.
It made me think that maybe Squurl wasn’t legit anymore. I don’t trust it.
Colin
March 13th, 2009
I also endorse domainr, it’s great. Stuckdomains looks jolly handy too.
Gagan
March 13th, 2009
ultimate list. thakns :)
CD
March 13th, 2009
Awesome list. I’ll need to use these on my next web site!
april
March 13th, 2009
i love domainr as well. it actually makes domain name searching a joy and not a chore, which is refreshing.
Drew
March 13th, 2009
I’m another fan of http://instantdomainsearch.com/
Christopher Heschong
March 13th, 2009
Shameless plug: We built http://choicebits.com/ to approach this problem from a slightly different angle.
Real
March 13th, 2009
dnscoop is a joke! It’s attempt at domain name valuation is just wrong.
Greg Stout
March 13th, 2009
This is great. I used to use a few tools for this: pcnames.com and rhymezone.com. Both of these used with the above sites are great tools for hunting down domains.
Todd
March 13th, 2009
Create available domain names that are short, pronounceable and brandable. Generate random phonetic names, find synonyms, mix keywords, whois query.
Very cool.
AolFreeGames
March 13th, 2009
i use dnScoop.com at work pretty cool for me.
Denny Sugar
March 14th, 2009
Excellent list. Dugg and tweeted. I would also add that using a hyphen strategically can work nicely as well.
@DennySugar
op
March 14th, 2009
Check this one: http://wordoid.com
This tool has been launched recently, and is currently in beta, but give it a try anyway.
Dennis Joanes
March 14th, 2009
Bustaname is my new favorite. Actually comes up with some good results, and I feel like I have control over it.
Axle Davids
March 14th, 2009
Nameloader.com is in private beta, but is approving invites daily.
Munir
March 15th, 2009
Thanks great post, very helpful stuff…
Awais Naseer Keyani
March 15th, 2009
hmmm! wonderful!!
Telkom
March 16th, 2009
Nice list, I use http://www.ajaxdomainsearch.com almost every day, very helpful.
a Huge List
March 16th, 2009
I had not come across some of those tools before – great list!
mani
March 18th, 2009
The tools are good but you should know at-least one term to to select a domain name around that.
ebookey
March 19th, 2009
Thanks for the excellent list, I’ll give it a try. I’ve been using psychicwhois.com so far.
fordy
March 22nd, 2009
You could also mention http://www.domainnamesoup.com
sivas
March 23rd, 2009
very good, thank you
kyio
May 12th, 2009
thats a pretty nice list. i worked with bustaname so far…
iyimserlik
June 2nd, 2009
Finding Out Expired Domain’s Deletion Date
A website that tells the deletion date of an expired domain names
Link: http://domainstandi.com/index.php?page=when
Select your language from the drop-down menu
Or Use this Google Translated Link: http://72.14.203.132/translate_c?hl=en&s…7hIFgywFZg
Module23
June 9th, 2009
This is more than useful! Thanks mate!
Dr. Deepak jain
June 14th, 2009
Before reading this i only know about domainsbot.com. This is very useful information. Thanks for sharing.
peter454
July 16th, 2009
all these algorithm robot sites are guaranteed to give you a lifeless url. i found a much better article, written by a naming expert, on how to approach picking a domain name. http://onthebutton.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/finding-a-url/ well worth a look. cheers!
kaynak
July 29th, 2009
great tools and for hunting down domains.
Robert
July 31st, 2009
Here is a brand new Domain Names Search Tool that your readers might find useful. The website is http://www.SeeTop10.com. It displays the top 10 Google Suggested Searches overall and for every second word beginning with A-Z and cross references the domain name availability database to see if the dot.com domain name is available. Please check out one of the most interesting free domain name search tools available.
Sonsulta
August 21st, 2009
We have looked into using the enom api for trying to purchase dropped domains, but the api they offer is virtually worthless, enom give priority to namejet an auction house, so trying to compete on a level playing filed is a joke
Epos
August 21st, 2009
We have several pos software websites and recently wanted to check the qualty of backlinks. We found a fantastic tool on http://www.seoguru.co.uk which gives not only the number of back linksbutalso the anchor text and the pr of the page, what a great little tool.
Domain Shame
September 15th, 2009
We didn’r honestly put that much thought into our domain name when we fist started out to be honest, and had to pick up out Internet marketing points elsewhere. Hasn’t done us any harm in the long run, but if we could turn back time we’d certainly have done a little more research.
Domain Name
October 7th, 2009
I strongly recommend http://www.domainwhiz.net, a very good domain search/suggestion tool, much better than domainsBot.
Domain Name
October 8th, 2009
Make it 13 – http://www.domainwhiz.net is great too.
antonides
November 25th, 2009
14. bruteforcenaming.com.
Erin
November 28th, 2009
Domain tools are great service also included in SEO Quake plugin for Firefox (I reccomand it)
It’s a shame that our new service – Expiring Words – http://www.expiringwords.com is not on the list.
It shows lists of expiring domain names which are represented by words from national language dictionaries.
Available Domains
November 30th, 2009
This is a nice resource. Thanks for putting it together. I’ve been publishing lists of unregistered domain names for a few years at http://availabledomainnames.com and this will come in handy.
-Bill
lektira
January 8th, 2010
thx man, i will use this post for my project
thx man! keep good work
J Ronco
January 17th, 2010
great resource for using the names – i got a few of them, and now i’m making money off the names by making minisites. i found a service that does it for free and i wanna share it, check out http://www.noomle.com its a great play to start
Expron
January 29th, 2010
DNMeter.com offers a daily list of pending delete domains sorted by the order they will drop. The lists show the domains with a drop time next to each one!
Rachel Shaw
January 29th, 2010
You should also take a look at http://www.squadhelp.com if you want pros across the world to help you find a domain name. It works on a crowd sourcing model so you can start a domain naming contest for as low as $35. Within hours you get 60-80 cool available domain name suggestions from naming professionals.
Dan
February 3rd, 2010
Loved http://www.domize.com for the speed, http://www.bruteforcenaming.com for the concept.
Would recommend domain accelerator for Internet Explorer: http://www.rfrog.com/domaincheck for the usability.
Lily
February 28th, 2010
Thanks for a great list. These websites are great tools when you already know the domain name you want. I think a lot of people have difficulties coming up with the right domain name. I recently came across a site http://www.humandomaingenerator.com/ that offers free domain name search service by a group of SEO professionals.
K.G. Miller
March 9th, 2010
You might want to give http://www.symnym.com a try – Symnym.com uses artificial intelligence to make hundreds of (hopefully good) creative domain names from a couple keywords.
W3Mag
April 8th, 2010
great list
ayahya
May 26th, 2010
thanks for all tools domain name collection
gidbig
June 5th, 2010
thank you (cok tesekkürler)
Mark
June 27th, 2010
You can add domometer to it: http://www.domometer.com. It will tell you if the name is good or not, based on a grading system.
Chinku
June 30th, 2010
Great list.. but i usually use greatstatistics.com for whois lookup, this is also a very useful tool.
ander
September 7th, 2010
Here’s another domain name generator: Blungr.com
Spencer Brown
September 8th, 2010
I found this site very useful http://www.expireddomains.net You can browse throw the pending delete domains and backorder what you like or you can check the deleted domains and just register domains. Oh yea its free, you dont have to register and it’s fast as hell! :D
Marcus
September 12th, 2010
Try http://www.dombuddy.com, it’s a new domain name generator with a free desktop client for Windows and Mac.
Norwich
October 19th, 2010
Great article, thanks for sharing but personally i don’t understand why you would need software to pick a domain name?
I don’t think it is to much hassle to come up with domain name suggestions and check for availability but hey thats me!
Tauno
November 3rd, 2010
@Norwich when you’ve spent days looking for available domain names for your business or products then you might reconsider. Automated tools such as http://www.namestation.com help create thousands of ideas so that time is saved checking the names one-by-one.
Rick
November 22nd, 2010
Self promo :) Try out our tool for domain portfolio management: https://dnsugar.com/. Easy domain names information evidence and domain trading tools.
Rick
December 5th, 2010
There’s also this domain management website to go with the above, basically to keep your domain safe from expiry and manage your domain name portfolio:
http://www.domain-safe.net
Chris
December 20th, 2010
Great post, thanks! These sort of tools take a lot of the guesswork out of selecting a domain name that resonates with would-be customers and also gets the nod of the search engines! I’ll make sure to give them a try when I set up a new site of my own.
neil
January 24th, 2011
great list of tools.
Col
February 4th, 2011
I love Domainr, but you need an idea first.
Can I suggest http://cool-domain-ideas.blogspot.com/ where I summarize the results from hundreds of domains pulled from topical news stories.
Some are excellent, some are very short , some are funny, and some are just stupid.
Anyway, please have a look and feel free to comment.
Col
Vibhor Jain
February 5th, 2011
Hey thanks for the list, but i find most of the single word domains have been already been acquired :(
Jerrick
February 20th, 2011
But wasn’t most of the tool available for registrar as well. But it help you to make some research before purchase a good domain name
Rodesco
March 9th, 2011
A word of warning that I haven’t seen anywhere on the web: be very careful where you search for your domains. From my experience, I’ve noticed that when I search for a domain name, especially on a less reputable site, that domain name gets bought up very soon afterwards and becomes unavailable to me. This has happened too many times to be a coincidence.
One notable company that does this is GoDaddy. I believe they make money by keeping track of which domains people are searching for, buying them, and them selling them for more. Be careful.
I’d love to know if others have had this happen to them because I couldn’t find any information about this practice on the web.
Namechk
March 13th, 2011
http://namechk.com offers domain name lookup as well as username lookup across all the top social network sites. Makes it easier to choose a domain name because you can see if the Twitter account etc. has been taken or available.
Tony
March 14th, 2011
@ Rodesco, you are very correct. Pls people be warned of this. It happens all the time.
altin cilek
March 15th, 2011
But wasn’t most of the tool available for registrar as well. But it help you to make some research before purchase a good domain name
EPoS
March 15th, 2011
There’s a list of domain tools here as well: http://www.webmaster-elements.com/webmaster-tools/domain-tools.htm
rick
April 5th, 2011
Nice list of domain tools. I usually use namestation.com for domain research.
Jan
April 23rd, 2011
I am using http://techjunk.nl/?showpage=domain-tools for checking if a domain is available.
When a domain is in use, it is giving information about registration and ranking.
James
May 11th, 2011
I came upon this new domain name generator with many useful tools for finding the perfect domain. http://www.domainhole.com and use the betacode: DOMAINS
smith
May 22nd, 2011
I use http://www.cheapestdomain.info/ for domain price comparison.
dave
May 28th, 2011
Consider http://www.1search.org The website offers daily drop lists sorted by word content. There is also a built-in link popularity checker that checks things like alexa, index pages, domain age and many more variables.
Ben
June 9th, 2011
NameToolkit.com works well.
Michael
June 10th, 2011
I second the use of domainhole. Finally a good tool for finding domain names
Jasco
June 15th, 2011
Another great site for appraising domain names is valuate.com.
Thomas Ring
June 16th, 2011
I had found a site that allowed you to suggest a domain, I’ll say “Pet.com” It would then come up with 100′s of possible sites and tell you if they were available or not. I lost the note with the site name. Does anybody know the name of that site?
Mats
July 6th, 2011
I also recommend http://namespawner.com – awesome tool that one too!
Mark
July 18th, 2011
+1 for nametoolkit.com
Buyer Beware
July 18th, 2011
Beware! There are some rather shady sites out there now that will take your domain name searches and publish them somewhere. Then squatters come along and purchase the domain name in the hope that you actually wanted it. Network Solutions was in this business for a while and I never went back to search for domains with them again. So, beware of where you do your domain name research.
jounayd
November 11th, 2011
I found a pretty fast and simple domain name suggestor. It generates all possible combination of given keywords and show available domains
find it here http://domaine-name-generator.com/
Dudem Duder
November 13th, 2011
I don’t like the ones that only do abstract words, and I don;t like the ones that do only real words. The Fakeword one mixes up abstract with realistic. Works for me.
http://www.fakeword.com/catchy/
David
November 19th, 2011
Thanks, some really cool tips here.
Pity some of the best names are simply being used by speculators to sell to folks.
ekdant
August 29th, 2012
Thanks good cool information
DomainGroovy
October 5th, 2012
DomainGroovy recently launched at http://domaingroovy.com
It finds available .COM domain names really quickly.
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