About Permutica

Every research post is edited and reviewed by the Permutica editor before it is published. A post is written as a draft, read in a preview of the finished page, and goes live only when it is switched to published by hand.

Each post states its method and three dates in its header: when it was published, when it was last updated, and the day its data was true. Domain availability decays, so a number without the date it was measured is not one we print. When a later measurement overturns an earlier one, the post says so where the reader will see it, with the date, rather than quietly replacing the figure. The Product Hunt research publishes its method and its dataset so the numbers can be checked.

The domain ideas pages work differently. Each industry page’s short introduction is generated automatically from the industry and its naming words, and is read and switched to published by hand before the page goes live. The names listed under it are refreshed by a script that runs them through the same availability check as the search tool, and the list shows the day that check ran. Nobody re-reads that list name by name, which is why it carries its date.

Found something wrong? Email contact@permutica.com and it will be corrected, with the date of the correction on the page.

Every name goes through the same stages in the same order. A stage only sees the names the stage before it could not settle, and the first four can only ever say a name is taken.

1. Earlier results. If an earlier search found the name registered and its registration has not yet expired, that answer is reused. A name previously found available is always checked again.
2. DNS. A name with nameservers or an address record is in use, so it is registered.
3. Zone lists. The name is looked up in our copy of the list of registered names for its extension: .com, .net, .app, .dev, .co, .io or .ai. A copy more than 48 hours old is not used at all, so a stale list cannot mark a name taken.
4. The registrar. Whatever is left is sent to Namecheap’s availability check, fifty names at a time. This is the first stage that can say a name is free, and the only one that reports registry-premium pricing.
5. The registry. If the registrar cannot answer, the single-domain check asks the registry directly over RDAP: Verisign for .com and .net, Identity Digital for .io and .ai, and Google Registry for .app and .dev. In a large search a name nothing could answer is shown as unresolved, never guessed.

An answer is true at the moment it is checked. Someone can register a name a minute later, so confirm it at the registrar before you rely on it.

The zone files for .com, .net, .app and .dev come from ICANN’s Centralized Zone Data Service. Country extensions (.co, .io and .ai) publish no zone file, so their lists come from allzonefiles.io, a zone-list provider we subscribe to, and change less often than daily. The extension counts are taken from the same files.

The research on product launches uses the public Product Hunt API, plus each launch’s product page on Product Hunt for the domain the API leaves out.

Two ways. Paid plans raise the search limits and add domain watches and custom word lists. And the registrar links next to available names (Namecheap, GoDaddy and Dynadot) are affiliate links through CJ Affiliate, so a registration made through one can earn us a commission.

The commission never changes what you pay. It plays no part in whether a name is shown as available either: the check above runs before any link is drawn, and a link is shown only for a name it found free.

Questions, corrections and data requests go to contact@permutica.com. The privacy policy and terms cover what we store and what a check promises.