To allow your customers to search for and find the domains they want to buy, you must configure a lookup provider. The lookup provider searches to determine whether the domain is available for purchase in the Client Area’s domain checker or shopping cart.

Lookup Providers #

WHMCS supports several lookup providers:

Standard WHOIS #

Standard WHOIS checks domain availability using WHOIS servers directly and is the default domain lookup provider.

When using this method, WHMCS can display the status of the domain name with other TLD extensions in addition to the user’s chosen TLD.

WHMCS Namespinning #

WHMCS Namespinning generates, ranks, and returns relevant domain name suggestions using namespinning.

Namespinning provides intelligent automated suggestions based on the domain or keywords a user enters. It generates, ranks, and returns relevant domain name suggestions across a wide range of TLDs.

If the search’s TLD is not supported, it will return unsupported and WHMCS will instead check the availability of the domain using the Whois servers.

Namespinning supports the following languages:

• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Turkish
• Chinese

Domain Registrar #

Domain Registrar allows you to choose a domain registrar to use as the lookup provider. WHMCS will use the chosen domain registrar to provide suggestions using the registrar’s suggestion engine or API.

You must first configure the registrar at Configuration () > System Settings > Domain Registrars.

Change the Lookup Provider #

To change your lookup provider:

1. Click Change.
2. Click Select for the desired provider.
   
3. Follow the prompts to provide the remaining information. This will include choosing TLDs to check and, depending on your lookup provider selection, may also include settings like geolocation-specific suggestions and adult domain name controls.
4. Click Save.

If your selected lookup provider supports premium domains, you can now enable them. After you enable premium domains, you cannot configure percentage markups and selling premium domains.

Configure a Lookup Provider #

The steps below configure the default WHOIS lookup provider. This lookup provider allows the customer to search for the domain that they want to purchase using the extension (TLD) that they enter and the additional extensions that you select.

To configure your lookup provider in WHMCS:

1. Go to Configuration () > System Settings > Domain Pricing.
2. Under Lookup Provider, click Configure. A new window will appear.
3. Select each extension that you want the system to search for. For example, if you select .com, .net, and .org, the system will search for .com, .net, and .org domains in addition to the extension that the customer enters. The customer will see the availability and pricing for all of these domains.
4. Click Save.

Last modified: June 21, 2024