What is Drop Catching?

A domain only drops after it has finished the whole deletion process: expiration, the renewal grace period, the 30-day redemption period, and about 5 days of pending delete. When that last stage ends, the registry releases the name, and the race described below begins. Our deleted domain guide walks through the full timeline.

How does drop catching work?

Drop-catching services maintain fast, direct connections to domain registries and fire thousands of registration attempts the moment a batch of names is released. Whoever’s request lands first wins the name. That’s a race no human can enter by hand, which is why a valuable dropped domain almost never stays available long enough to register normally: a catcher claims it in the first seconds.

How do you use a drop-catching service?

You place a backorder: you tell the service which domain you want, usually before it drops, and it attempts the catch for you. If the service catches the name and you’re the only one who backordered it, it’s yours, typically for a flat fee. If the catch fails, you usually pay nothing.

Is drop catching allowed?

Yes. Once a registry releases a deleted domain, it’s available first-come, first-served, and automated registration is standard practice. Watch for two things, though. Some registrars auction their customers’ expiring names before those names ever drop, so a domain you’re watching may never become catchable. And a trademarked name doesn’t lose its legal protection by dropping, so catching one can still land you in a dispute.