A backorder does not guarantee you the name

Two phases: the holder's, then the registry's

An expired name passes through two phases, and an order means something different in each. In the first phase, the registrarRegistrarThe company you buy and renew a domain through, such as Namecheap or GoDaddy. It does not own the name, it only registers it for you.Read the definition holds the name and sets how long its holder may renew it. ICANNICANNThe body that sets the rules for domain names and approves new endings.Read the definition's 2013 recovery policy lets a registrar delete an expired name at any time. ICANN's deletion policy, in its 2020 text, requires the deletion within 45 days, outside special cases.

Deletion opens the second phase. On generic endings such as .com, the name spends 30 days in a stage called redemptionRedemptionAbout 30 days after the grace period, when the name is deleted but only its last owner can still restore it, for a fee. If nobody does, it moves to pending delete.Read the definition. Under the 2013 policy its site stops working, and only the holder can restore it, through the registrar. The policy gives that right for those 30 days only. Then the registryRegistryThe organisation that runs an ending, like the company behind .com. It sets the rules and the price registrars pay.Read the definition, the company that runs the ending, marks the name pending deletePending deleteThe last stage before an expired name is released. Nobody can renew or restore it any more; once the registry releases it, anyone can register it.Read the definition.

Pending delete lasts five days. Andrew Allemann gave this as one reason for searching for names and backordering them every five days (Domain Name Wire, 22 May 2024). When those five days end, the registry releases the name to anyone, and that release is the drop. Dynadot's help page, archived in December 2024, puts most drops 75 days after expiry.

The drop is a contest between catchers, each trying to register the name first. More registrars give a catcher more connections to the registry, and so a better chance at each drop, which is why catchers hold many. Domain Incite reported on 3 September 2026, from ICANN's records, that DropCatch's owner controls over 1,500 registrars, almost 47% of the 3,323 that ICANN lists. SnapNames' owner holds over 500.

The registrar's auction comes first

Andrew Allemann listed, for each registrar, where it sends its expired names before deleting them (Domain Name Wire, 23 October 2023). Many go to GoDaddy, many to NameJet and SnapNames, while Dynadot, Namecheap and NameSilo sell their own. The article notes that this list is always in flux.

In a direct transferDirect transferAn expired name that goes from its registrar’s auction straight to the winner, without being deleted first. It keeps its original registration date.Read the definition, which Allemann explained on Domain Name Wire on 18 March 2021, the name goes to the auction's winner without passing through the registry's full deletion cycle, and it keeps its original registration date. So a name held at a registrar with such a programme goes to that auction first. The catchers at the drop get what is left.

The venuesVenueA place where names change hands: a marketplace or an auction house.Read the definition differ on who can still take the name back. At GoDaddy in 2017, Allemann wrote, no backorder was needed, anyone could bid, and the holder could still renew after the auction was won. At NameJet, only the people who had ordered by a deadline joined a three-day auction, and the holder could no longer renew once that auction was won.

GoDaddy has since ended backorders. Allemann reported on 8 August 2024 that GoDaddy was ending the product, which had lost its purpose years before. Under the rule the 2024 report describes, a credit left over from the product placed a $25 first bid on a name with no bids; if nobody else bid, you paid $15 more and took the name.

Those credits could be used until 7 October 2025 (Domain Name Wire, 25 June 2025). So, before you order, find the registrar that holds the name. If that registrar's partner auctions the name, bid there, because a catcher's order only waits for what that auction leaves.

One order takes the name, two start an auction

A backorder reserves nothing. If the venue gets the name and nobody else ordered it, you get the name at the order's price. If several people ordered it, the venue holds an auction, and your order gives you the right to bid in it. The bidding, not the order, then sets what you pay.

Who may bid depends on the venue and the year. In 2021, Allemann wrote, only the people who had ordered in advance could bid at NameJet and SnapNames, while DropCatch let anyone bid. There, other bidders benefit from the research behind your order. Dynadot's help page of 2024 gives the opening bid to the first order placed, at the backorder price.

The right to bid is worth having even on a name others ordered. Elliot Silver often backordered such names at NameJet to keep the option to bid after more research (DomainInvesting, 2 May 2012). The same post carries a warning: if the others delete their orders before a delayed auction, yours can end up as the leading bid on a name you no longer want.

A caught name is a new registration, and it lands at the registrar the catcher picks. Names won at NameJet and SnapNames land at various registrars, Allemann noted in 2021. And ICANN's transfer policy of 2016 lets a registrar refuse a move to another registrar in the first 60 days of a registration.

Order at several catchers, before each deadline

For a name you want, order at every catcher that may catch it. Each catcher works with its own registrars, and none wins every drop. On .com and .net, the hour of the drop has changed: from 1 October 2026, Verisign, the company that runs both endings, starts their drop around 12:00 UTC instead of in the evening (Domain Name Wire, 9 September 2026).

For that drop, SnapNames and NameJet encouraged orders no later than 15 minutes before it begins, and DropCatch asked for 30 minutes. On 8 September 2026, Elliot Silver relayed DropCatch's notice of an 11:30 UTC cutoff, and noted on 1 October 2026 that each platform may have its own deadline. So read the deadline at the venue where you place your order.

A NameJet order tipped off other investors, Allemann wrote in 2017, so rivals gathered at the backorder deadline. Ordering close to the deadline leaves those rivals less time to follow you, which is our inference, not a venue's rule. As far as Silver knew in 2026, DropCatch did not reveal how many orders a name had, so the timing of an order there should not matter.

An old order is still a bid

An old order can stay live for years. Elliot Silver described, in a DomainInvesting post of 29 November 2009, being the second to order a name at SnapNames and yet becoming the leading bidder. The first order was two or three years old, the card behind it had expired, and SnapNames had suspended that account.

Konstantinos Zournas described letting a name drop, then winning it back through a NameJet order left in place since the year before (OnlineDomain, 21 August 2014). NameJet refused a refund. Its support replied that a pending delete order could be removed only while the bid stood at the minimum and the name was not in a pending auction.

Dynadot's help page, archived in December 2024, allows deleting an order only while at least 24 hours remain before the drop. By ordering, you agreed to pay, the page adds. An order left in place requires payment, and without payment you risk a ban from Dynadot's auctions. So clear your list of orders before every week of drops.

What WHOIS and a Watch tell you

We track drops, not catches. WHOIS reads one name's registry record and states its stage in plain words. For a name that is expired, in redemption or in pending delete, WHOIS offers to watch the name for the drop, and it names DropCatch, NameJet and SnapNames as backorder venues. We place no order anywhere.

The drop dayDropThe day an expired name leaves the registry and anyone can register it again. We give an exact day only on endings whose pending delete period we have measured, and only when we saw the name move from redemption into that stage.Read the definition follows a rule of ours. WHOIS prints an exact day only on endings where the scanner has measured the five days of pending delete, such as .xyz and .dev. Even there, it prints the day only after seeing the name move from redemption into pending delete. On .com, .net and .io, it shows only the stage, because a day we have not measured would be a guess.

A Watch mails you when the record changes, unless the Within ten minutes mail is off in your settings. On an ending where we give a drop day, the mail comes when the name enters pending delete and gives that day. Otherwise it comes once the name is free to register. Watched names dropping within ten days also gather in the Dropping soon card of WatchlistsWatchlistEvery name you watch, on one page, sorted into lists of your own. When one of them changes price, status or deadline, you are told.Read the definition, with their backorder price.

The order itself is a hand-off: you place it at the venue. In Watchlists and on the Drops tab of Auctions, a dropping name carries Backorder. Its sheet names the venue with the lowest backorder quote we hold, and its price, paid only if the name is caught. Pressing Place the backorder opens that venue in a new tab. After the drop day we ask whether you caught it.

Before you pay for an order, look for the name in Auctions. Auctions reads GoDaddy, Dynadot, Namecheap, NameSilo and SnapNames, among other venues. So a name we track, sold at one of them before its drop, shows in Auctions with its deadline. DropCatch and NameJet are not among the venues it reads.

Before you place an order

• Read the name's stage in WHOIS: it is expired, in redemption or in pending delete.
• Find out where the name's registrar sends its expiring names, and bid there first.
• Look for the name in Auctions before you pay a catcher.
• Order at every catcher that may catch the name, not at a single one.
• Note each venue's deadline for orders on the drop day, in UTC.
• Read who may bid at each venue: only the people who ordered, or every customer.
• Write down the most you will bid before you order.
• Watch the name, so that news of its drop and its release reaches you by mail.
• Delete the orders you no longer want before every week of drops.